Actionable Insights Just Became More Valuable

The ability to develop insights has always been valuable, but that value has multiplied by several times in the last few weeks. The noise is getting worse, and scandals like George Santos's cv are just the beginning. The fewer people searching for insights, repeating content unverified, the more issues we will have in getting to the truth.

We all know that content and data availability has grown exponentially over the past few decades. Using technology to generate or compute data has been the whole point from the beginning. However, with the proliferation of OpenAI and ChatGPT, it is clear that creating a novel, interesting, actionable insight from the noise will be 10x or more valuable over the next year.

As the noise has increased, so has the value in being able to find a signal.

It is simply too easy for people to generate more data and excruciatingly thin content through these tools. Anyone who has used OpenAI recently can see some understandable gaps in the system, including humour, subjectivity and connecting dots to create an entirely new thought process.

Even the system itself knows its limitations. Here is an answer from OpenAI:

A.I. cannot replace human creativity, emotions, and intuition. A.I. needs more capacity for reasoning. A.I. cannot replace human judgment, as it cannot make decisions based on experience or context. A.I. cannot provide accurate predictions about the future, as it cannot consider all relevant factors. Finally, A.I. cannot replace human labour or decision-making, as it needs to understand and adequately assess the impact of its actions.

Although the system can help us describe why an insight is valuable:

To quantify the value of insight, we must look at the value it provides. This can include cost savings, increased efficiency, or improved customer experience that the insight delivers. Ultimately, the value of an insight is determined by the impact it has on the decision-making process.

Five days after ChatGPT was established, a surprising 1 million users have subscribed. This is another answer the system could not give me because it's training is a year or so old now.

More noise, less signal.

An insight becomes more valuable when it is actionable, timely, accurate, relevant, and provides an opportunity to make organizational changes that can result in tangible outcomes. Actionable insights are those that are specific and can be acted upon quickly. Timely insights are those that are relevant to current trends and events. Accurate insights are based on reliable data and verified sources. Relevant insights are those that are applicable to the organization’s goals and objectives. Finally, an insight should provide an opportunity to make changes that can result in tangible outcomes such as increased efficiency, cost savings, or improved customer satisfaction.

Forrester reports 74% of firms say they want to be “data-driven,” but?only 29% are actually successful at connecting analytics to action.

The amount of data created on the internet has doubled since 2019 and 40% of that is now machine generated.

Increasing the amount of data available without increasing the number of people trained and empowered to investigate real insights, will reduce the ability to develop real insight.

This means thinner content in news, reporting and commentary.

If you need more proof that this is a real issue, see the George Santos scandal where all the information presented was taken at face value, and it took a small local paper to connect the dots. "We trusted him" they said, when even a rudimentary dig through his past would have created an insight. The housing crash in 2009 was largely because we trusted bond ratings agencies and they were complicit in covering up for banks, however a few sharp people discerned a signal.

It has always been an issue, and I think the issue will get worse. What we all need to do is reject thin, vacuous content. Stop fanning the flames of insight-less spam, and highlight original creative commentary.