Augmenting the Already Brilliant Human Brain with more Intelligence and Building the Habit of Incessant Curiosity Around Data ........

Preparing for Human-AI collaboration as it becomes the future of work for Asia

Suganthi Shivkumar, Managing Director, ASEAN, Qlik

We are now living in a truly hyper-connected environment where vast amounts of data are being transferred, gathered and consumed daily. Think about the last time you used your mobile phone to book a cab via an app. Perhaps while waiting, you checked your emails, checked your analytics dashboard, scrolled through Facebook and Instagram, or responded to a couple of WhatsApp messages – in just a few short minutes, you probably generated and consumed large quantities of data.

At the workplace, it is not uncommon for teams to utilise a variety of platforms to communicate and collaborate. While these platforms promise to increase efficiency and collaboration, the amount of information and data available across these platforms can be overwhelming to say the least.

The digital era has undoubtedly made our lives easier but has also exposed us to vast amounts of data and information which can sometimes be inundating. To ensure that employees remain relevant for the future, it is crucial that they are equipped with the knowledge and know-how to effectively handle data. Unfortunately, teams are still working with their own set of data in silos and analytics is still perceived as being useful only for reporting, dimming the true potential it can have over business decision making. It is key to correct the common misperception that analytics is not just for reports, but that it has a crucial role to play in influencing decisions for the future.

Last year, a first of its kind Data Literacy Index uncovered that data literate enterprises are valued up to $500 million more than their counterparts. There is a clear case for business leaders to defend their market share and commit resources to ensuring that employees are well equipped to operate in the new environment. Yet, the reality remains that many still lack clear directive and strategy to effectively leverage all that data on their fingertips.

The key question we must ask is how can we make data work in our favour?

 1.     Democratising data

Governments and organisations can foster a data literate culture by providing all employees with access to relevant data as well as the tools and encouragement to turn it into insights. Democratising data, which is simply to make data accessible to every employee regardless of the position they are in, will greatly benefit a company’s use of data and by definition, their approach to newer technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Empowering individuals with data – democratising data – leads them to take ownership, familiarise themselves with the data, empowers them with the right understanding to ask the right questions to extract the right insights.

2.     Asking the right questions

Businesses and employees have typically been focused on reporting on historical data instead of uncovering insights. Today, that approach is no longer sufficient when it comes to data analytics. There needs to be a shift from the how and what of reporting to the why. Asking questions that dig beyond a KPI or metric will empower and enable businesses to scratch beyond the surface of data.

On an individual level, people can take simple steps such as asking more questions, and interrogating facts and information given. Take it upon yourself to understand the company’s corporate vision and strategy; the context of the situation that you are trying to analyse; and familiarise yourself with the data that you will be using.

3.     Never stop questioning

The new analytics economy and world of data promises a lot of answers and insight. In-order-to utilize this new world insights correctly, on time and be truly be data driven, we need to ensure our organizations are prepared to ask the right questions and that they continue to formulate more questions to challenge the answers derived. Incessantly curious we could say!

The next time you’re given a set of data, take a step back to understand the business context around what you are asking; and be conscious not to only report on the data but that you’re also getting to the why. Doing so will help formulate your second set of questions to uncover truly valuable insights. Akin to peeling back the layers of the onion, this constant quest for data driven insights will ultimately become a habit that leads to data driven decisions.