Predictions for 2022: What the future holds for analytics

“Making predictions is hard, especially about the future.”

How many times have you heard some version of that wisecrack, usually credited to the late, great New York Yankees Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra, in which case it wasn’t so much a wisecrack but Yogi being Yogi. Fact is, predictions aren’t hard. Anyone can make a prediction. The hard part is making predictions that turn out to be accurate, especially about the future of a dynamic field such as analytics.

Remember not so long ago when “just-in-time” supply chains and “lean manufacturing” were all the rage? The thinking at the time was who needs the expense of inventory and physical warehouses? Instead, let’s take all the slack out the supply chain and make the system as efficient as possible. And then the pandemic happened, and the U.S. auto industry couldn’t make enough vehicles to meet the demand for want of tiny microchips manufactured somewhere overseas, and grocery stores and retail outlets everywhere couldn’t keep their shelves stocked for lack of truck drivers to deliver goods. Almost overnight, supply chain resilience and reliability trumped efficiency.

And wasn’t it just yesterday that “Big Data” (with caps) was the Big Daddy of analytics? Today, big data (no caps) is out and small data (no caps needed) is in as “savvy practitioners weigh the benefits and risks with surgical precision prior to use,” according to Scott Zoldi, chief analytics officer at FICO.

Predictions and Trends

Yes, things change fast in the analytics field, and those who make predictions about its future do so at their own peril. Nevertheless, for this January/February issue of Analytics magazine, we gathered predictions and trends for 2022 and beyond from a half-dozen analytics professionals (check out “‘Tis the season for 2022 analytics predictions”).

Hey, it’s mid-December, the new year is near, predictions are what we do, and who better to make predictions about the future of analytics than professionals whose job revolves around predictive analytics? Along with Zoldi, the list of intrepid contributors includes Ryan Welsh, founder and CEO of Kyndi, and four executives from Alteryx led by Libby Duane Adams, chief advocacy officer and co-founder.

Several contributors to this issue also have set their sights on 2022. Along with his predictions, Kyndi CEO Welsh contributes an article on “The Emergence of the Natural Language Enabled Enterprise”; Dan Shimmerman, president and chief executive officer at Blueprint Software Systems, discusses “Expect robotic process automation to continue exponential growth in 2022 and beyond”; and in our cover story, Al Baker, vice president of Enterprise Solutions at Stardog, tells us “How data fabrics are disrupting the analytics world.”

Innovation is Hard

OK, Yogi was right, predicting the future is hard, but you know what’s really hard? Innovation. We’re not talking about tweaking an algorithm here or moving the dial there. We’re talking about game-changing, paradigm-shifting innovation that, in today’s parlance, “disrupts” the analytics field in a big way. That’s a tall order considering there have only been a handful of truly breakthrough inventions according to author, scientist and thinker Vaclav Smil: the wheel, the generator, the transformer and the internal combustion engine.

The Smil reference is just the beginning of Joseph Byrum’s observations and insights for his latest blog series, “Techniques for Accelerating Innovation, Part I: Why innovation is so hard,” which starts with the January/February 2022 issue of Analytics magazine.

Writes Joe: “Not so long ago, the introduction of a new cellphone meant the availability of great new features and speedier operation. When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone in 2007, it changed the way people thought about communicating. Subsequent releases of the device were so eagerly anticipated that shortages proved common. Fast forward to the present and an increasing number of users see little reason to upgrade. They’re holding onto their phones longer because the iPhone has followed a well-established pattern – a pattern that illustrates the limits of innovation.”

The chief data scientist at Principal and a prolific writer, Byrum also authors a feature article for the issue, “A quantum future for medical breakthroughs,” in which he makes the point that, “If done right, technology could sort through large genetic datasets and find combinations that supercharge the immune system to prevent disease.”

Given the current global situation, the future of analytics looks great and can’t come soon enough.