Data has become a staple of doing business in the UK and beyond. A recent adage has declared it the new oil, and it’s not hard to see why.
Data intelligence has been informing business decisions for years now, but as advancements in AI technology go further and further, the way companies can analyse and use this data has become far more powerful.
In the retail sector, AI is used to analyse customer behaviour and predict purchasing campaigns or personalise marketing. In finance, AI can support fraud detection and risk assessment.
From analysing supply chain logistics to reduce delivery costs to scanning customer complaints to inform strategic shifts, companies that put AI data analytics to good use are pulling ahead.
A renewed emphasis on the importance of data has therefore also made a certain degree of data literacy, as well as more advanced data engineering expertise, essential for growing businesses.
Research from Forrester found that companies that prioritise data-driven decision-making grow around 10 times the rate of their counterparts.
And the use of data intelligence has been massively transformed through the rise of the data lakehouse, pioneered by Databricks.
The data lakehouse essentially combines the benefits of data lakes – vast, flexible stores of unstructured data – and data warehouses – more organised, searchable and rigid stores of data.
Built on data lakes, the data lakehouse adds a degree of structure and governance that allows for more effective management of data without unnecessary siloing.
The Skills Challenge: Are Teams Equipped to Unlock Data’s Full Potential?
To get the most out of its data, a business will need a highly skilled data intelligence team.
Companies with highly skilled data teams innovate faster, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.
Unfortunately, high quality data intelligence teams can be hard to come by. A 2021 report from the British government found that almost half of all businesses were recruiting for data roles with more than 200,000 unfilled data roles.
Training schemes can, however, combat a lack of data skills. For example, QA, the first EMEA authorised training partner of Databricks.
Insights gleaned from the company’s services have found almost three-quarters of participating team leaders said Databricks training boosted performance in critical areas, such as driving down costs and increasing their organisation’s ability to solve new business problems.
AI models present an exciting opportunity to rapidly grow businesses by turning data into insights, but human expertise remains essential to understand and implement them.
And to truly get ahead, companies will need to think beyond generating and implementing data-backed insights.
The best data intelligence teams engineer strategies that reveal opportunities that go beyond the limits of automation and machine learning.
This requires the right training, but it is essential to give a competitive edge to companies that will be able to extract valuable patterns, integrate multiple data sources and ultimate develop solutions that AI alone cannot think of.
The Future of Data-Driven Business: What Comes Next?
To put it simply, companies that combine data-platforms with a workforce able to use them effectively will be those that thrive.
Having access to the best data technology is essential, even more essential is having the right skills at a company’s disposal to translate that tech into meaningful benefits.
For businesses that don’t know where to start, QA’s Databricks-certified training can help businesses develop talent, drive efficiency and stay ahead in the AI economy.
Services like it democratise access to the advantages of data skills, allowing companies of all sizes to take advantage.
Enquire now and speak with QA’s about equipping your team with the skills to unlock your data’s true value.
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