The Top 5 Data Science And Analytics Trends In 2023

THE TOP 5 DATA SCIENCE AND
ANALYTICS TRENDS IN 2023

© 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
THE TOP 5 DATA SCIENCE AND ANALYTICS
TRENDS IN 2023
Data has become one of today's most important business assets, and data
science enables us to turn this data into value. In the field, we see fast
evolutions and new advances, especially in artificial intelligence and machine
learning. Here, we look at the five biggest data science trends for 2023.

Data is increasingly the differentiator between winners and also-rans in business. Today, information
can be captured from many different sources, and technology to extract insights is becoming
increasingly accessible.
Moving to a data-driven business model – where decisions are made based on what we know to be
true rather than “gut feeling” – is core to the wave of digital transformation sweeping through every
industry in 2023 and beyond. It helps us to react with certainty in the face of uncertainty – especially
when wars and pandemics upset the established order of things.
But the world of data and analytics never stands still. New technologies are constantly emerging that
offer faster and more accurate access to insights. And new trends emerge, bringing us new thinking
on the best ways to put it to work across business and society at large. So, here’s my rundown of
what I believe are the most important trends that will affect the way we use data and analytics to
drive business growth in 2023.

DATA DEMOCRATIZATION
One of the most important trends will be the continued empowerment of entire workforces –
rather than data engineers and data scientists – to put analytics to work. This is giving rise to
new forms of augmented working, where tools, applications, and devices push intelligent
insights into the hands of everybody in order to allow them to do their jobs more effectively and
efficiently.
In 2023, businesses will understand that data is the key to understanding customers, developing
better products and services, and streamlining their internal operations to reduce costs and
waste. However, it’s becoming increasingly clear that this won’t fully happen until the power to
act on data-driven insights is available to frontline, shop floor, and non-technical staff, as well as
functions such as marketing and finance.

Some great examples of data democracy in practice include lawyers using
natural language processing (NLP) tools to scan pages of documents of case
law, or retail sales assistants using hand terminals that can access customer
purchase history in real time and recommend products to up-sell and cross-
sell. Research by McKinsey has found that companies that make data
accessible to their entire workforce are 40 times more likely to say analytics
has a positive impact on revenue.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Artificial intelligence (AI) is perhaps the one technology trend that will have the biggest impact on how we
live, work and do business in the future. Its effect on business analytics will be to enable more accurate
predictions, reduce the amount of time we spend on mundane and repetitive work like data gathering and
data cleansing, and to empower workforces to act on data-driven insights, whatever their role and level of
technical expertise (see Data Democratization, above).
Put simply; AI allows businesses to analyze data and draw out insights far more quickly than would ever be
possible manually, using software algorithms that get better and better at their job as they are fed more
data. This is the basic principle of machine learning (ML), which is the form of AI used in business today. AI
and ML technologies include NLP, which enables computers to understand and communicate with us in
human languages, computer vision which enables computers to understand and process visual
information using cameras, just as we do with our eyes; and generative AI, which can create text, images,
sounds and video from scratch.

CLOUD AND DATA-AS-A-SERVICE
I’ve put these two together because cloud is the platform that enables data-as-a-service
technology to work. Basically, it means that companies can access data sources that have been
collected and curated by third parties via cloud services on a pay-as-you-go or subscription-
based billing model. This reduces the need for companies to build their own expensive,
proprietary data collection and storage systems for many types of applications.
As well as raw data, DaaS companies offer analytics tools as-a-service. Data accessed through
DaaS is typically used to augment a company’s proprietary data that it collects and processes
itself in order to create richer and more valuable insights. It plays a big part in the
democratization of data mentioned previously, as it allows businesses to work with data without
needing to set up and maintain expensive and specialized data science operations. In 2023, it’s
estimated that the value of the market for these services will grow to $10.7 billion.

REAL-TIME DATA
When digging into data in search of insights, it's better to know what's going on right now – rather than yesterday,
last week, or last month. This is why real-time data is increasingly becoming the most valuable source of
information for businesses.
Working with real-time data often requires more sophisticated data and analytics infrastructure, which means
more expense, but the benefit is that we’re able to act on information as it happens. This could involve analyzing
clickstream data from visitors to our website to work out what offers and promotions to put in front of them, or in
financial services, it could mean monitoring transactions as they take place around the world to watch out for
warning signs of fraud. Social media sites like Facebook analyze hundreds of gigabytes of data per second for
various use cases, including serving up advertising and preventing the spread of fake news. And in South Africa’s
Kruger National Park, a joint initiative between the WWF and ZSL analyzes video footage in real-time to alert law
enforcement to the presence of poachers.
As more organizations look to data to provide them with a competitive edge, those with the most advanced data
strategies will increasingly look towards the most valuable and up-to-date data. This is why real-time data and
analytics will be the most valuable big data tools for businesses in 2023.

DATA GOVERNANCE AND REGULATION
Data governance will also be big news in 2023 as more governments introduce laws designed to
regulate the use of personal and other types of data. In the wake of the likes of European GDPR,
Canadian PIPEDA, and Chinese PIPL, other countries are likely to follow suit and introduce legislation
protecting the data of their citizens. In fact, analysts at Gartner have predicted that by 2023, 65% of
the world’s population will be covered by regulations similar to GDPR.
This means that governance will be an important task for businesses over the next 12 months,
wherever they are located in the world, as they move to ensure that their internal data processing and
handling procedures are adequately documented and understood. For many businesses, this will mean
auditing exactly what information they have, how it is collected, where it is stored, and what is done
with it. While this may sound like extra work, in the long term, the idea is that everyone will benefit as
consumers will be more willing to trust organizations with their data if they are sure it will be well
looked after. Those organizations will then be able to use this data to develop products and services
that align more closely with what we need at prices we can afford.

To stay on top of the latest on the latest trends, make sure to subscribe to my
newsletter, follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and check out my
books ‘Data Strategy: How To Profit From A World Of Big Data, Analytics And
Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘Business Trends in Practice’.

© 2021 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker,
futurist, and a strategic business & technology advisor to governments and
companies. He helps organisations improve their business performance, use data
more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as
artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is
a frequent contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for
Forbes. Every day Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers
and shares content that reaches millions of readers.

hello@bernardmarr.com
www.bernardmarr.com

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