How Artificial Intelligence Will Change the Game for BI Developers

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing every aspect of our day-to-day lives, from powering smart assistants to wearable technology, self-driving cars, and countless business applications. It’s also changing the way we handle and process data.

AI has the ability to support and enhance Business Intelligence (BI) development by quickly and accurately producing valuable insights based on large datasets. While AI cannot replace human intelligence or act as a substitute for BI, it can provide the tools needed to take Business Intelligence to the next level.

Research shows that nine out of ten leading businesses have investments in AI technologies, but less than 15% deploy AI capabilities in their work. By taking advantage of machine learning and AI tools, data analysts and BI developers stand to obtain more detailed insights and improve business processes.

Astrato is a data visualization and analytics solution delivering a no-code framework to build powerful Data Apps. As such, we enable businesses to enhance data insights and make more informed decisions. While Astrato does not utilize AI, we are passionate about helping BI developers stay abreast of technological advancements and empowering them to continually improve their current setup and maximize their capabilities.

In this article, we’ll discuss the key benefits of BI developers utilizing AI technology and provide examples of how machine learning can be applied to BI tasks and projects.

How can AI be used to support BI developers?

While AI and BI share the term ‘intelligence,’ the way they work is quite different from one another. Artificial Intelligence is capable of thinking and solving problems like the human brain, including learning from algorithms and natural language processing to provide insights and foresight into the future. On the other hand, Business Intelligence helps convert raw data into meaningful information for better decision-making. When partnered together, each can elevate the other and be extremely powerful.

Utilizing AI solutions within Business Intelligence operations allows developers to discover and present data-driven insights, trends, and predictions easily and backed by reason.

Machine learning also handles the more time-consuming tasks such as preparing data for analysis and freeing up developers and business users to focus on more critical work and increase their productivity.

Benefits of BI developers using Artificial Intelligence

There are a number of benefits for BI developers when it comes to using AI technology. A few of the main ones include: 

• Predictive analytics – Advanced statistical algorithms analyze data and provide predictions and a plan of action in real-time (great for setting KPIs or building roadmaps)
  
• Making more informed decisions – 54% of company executives believe that AI improves decision-making. AI systems take the data made available by BI, obtain further information from a broader data set, and more accurately enable data-backed decisions
  
• Process automation  – Users can update records and critical information automatically, enabling error-free and standardized report
  
• Turn insights into action – Business Intelligence solutions are extremely effective at helping leaders make sense of a problem and provide the context for a particular issue. AI can help BI developers take problem-solving to the next level by using predictive analysis to provide recommendations to resolve problems or prevent them from occurring in the future
  
• Helps BI developers explore their data – Artificial Intelligence can help BI teams to more easily discover hidden patterns and trends in their data and present those findings in compelling, visually-attractive visualizations just minutes after uploading data sets
  
• Saves time – Machine learning algorithms do the heavy lifting for BI developers by automatically classifying/tagging columns and identifying/joining matching data across data sets
  

Use cases and day-to-day examples of AI in BI

For some real-life examples of how AI can be used to enhance BI capabilities, here are a couple of use cases.

For example, let’s say a Business Intelligence team within a retail company is trying to use data to understand why the business is experiencing poor sales. Insights provided by BI tools will be able to identify that the problem is linked to delays in delivery times. To resolve the issue, AI tools can provide real-time recommendations driven by knowledge of customer behavior, buying patterns, and more. 

Here’s another example. A BI Developer wants to create a clear and attractive visualization of data insights they’ve uncovered to present to stakeholders and customers. While visualizations are a key feature of all modern BI solutions, AI-enabled BI solutions take it a step further. AI technology in Business Intelligence can recommend questions to ask based on specific data, and users then receive automated visualizations that best fit the answers to their questions.

What are the risks of not embracing machine learning in BI?

To keep up with ever-increasing consumer demands, businesses need to stay ahead of the curve and be future-thinking. That’s why using Artificial Intelligence alongside BI solutions for both predictive and preventative measures is crucial.

While AI is no replacement for traditional BI methods, it can be adopted as a useful addition to a BI developer’s toolkit. Here are a few key risks for those who are hesitant or unwilling to embrace the power of machine learning within Business Intelligence efforts.

• There could be a lack of data or out-of-date data: This is especially true of small business owners who don’t have the time or the means to update their spreadsheets. An AI system can help do this hard work for them and automate data management
  
• Harder-to-read dashboards – When data is collected from multiple various sources, it can be hard for dashboards to present it in a clear and visually attractive way. AI can enhance and simplify data visualization
  
• Stuck in the past, not in the future – While BI can analyze vast quantities of data and provide real-time insights, AI can foresee future trends and keep you one step ahead
  
• Out of touch with customer expectations – AI can help businesses to understand customer behavior and personalize messaging to targeted consumers. Without machine learning, they’ll lack an advantage when it comes to customer attraction, engagement, and personalization.

Looking ahead – the future of AI in BI

With advancements happening every day,  the future of using AI technology to boost BI capabilities looks bright.

We’re already seeing big movements in social analytics. For example, AI-powered chatbots mimic human intelligence to speak with customers and track online conversations. The power of AI is enabling businesses to understand opinions on products and services and provide real-time updates and recommendations.

There’s also scope for AI to continue improving its data archiving capabilities. Storing data safely and securely is becoming more and more important with the tightening of data privacy laws. Through the power of machine learning, vast amounts of data can be stored with very little risk and discovered with minimal querying.

We’ve already talked about data visualization, but the future of BI is also likely to  feature augmented and automated analytics as well. Augmented and automated analytics will include visualizations, with reporting playing a much more important role in business operations.

Business owners should embrace the future of BI now, or risk being left behind.

Enhance your data visualization capabilities with Astrato

With Astrato, you can ensure your data is credible, easy to understand, and drives meaningful action. 

With access to the correct data, leadership teams can receive the critical insights needed to make impactful decisions for your business, customers, and the broader society.

Interested in what Astrato can offer your business? Book a demo and try Astrato for yourself today.