Software robots the future of Analytics?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is back with the bang in the technology hype cycle. AI growth is being driven by massive volumes of data and expansion in technology capabilities which never existed before. Software robots mean AI programs which not only do tasks but also learn and evolve in executing those tasks.

Need for AI in analytics has arisen from multiple challenges with current analytics tools and processes. Even after investing heavily in data management and analytics tools, significant amount of employee time is still spent in interpreting and reporting the interpretations. Many of these interpretations do not lead to any actionable insights. 

AI programs enabled with Machine learning capabilities are looking to solve these problems. AI not only reduces time to get results, but results are also predictable, consistent and less prone to human errors. AI programs which are able to create and test the scenarios on the go provide actionable insights with predictable outcomes. These skills can scale just by creating another instances. AI programs can also provide meaningful insights when data is not complete, is not structured and relations between different data sources is not clear.

Does this mean that Software robots will replace Analysts? not really. To start with, it is still difficult to beat human logic and interpretation capabilities for mature AI programs. AI capabilities are untested and un-know areas are still debatable. The best combination would still be that software robots perform time-consuming analytics tasks, while Analysts channel their efforts for tasks which add long-term value to their organizations and customers.