WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

In this report, TDWI uncovers deeper insights that give users new perspectives on business questions. AI will transform BI and the way people make decisions and act. Rather than start with a hypothesis, data analysts will begin with an AI-driven insight. Instead of querying data to prove or disprove their hypothesis, users will query data to expand or validate a machine-generated insight or recommendation—or they might act on the AI-based insight at face value. But to get to that point, AI-infused BI tools will need to gain people's trust by consistently delivering accurate, relevant, and transparent insights within the context of a business user’s existing workflow.
In the future, AI-infused BI tools will go beyond just surfacing insights; they will recommend ways to address or fix issues, run simulations to optimize processes, create new performance targets based on forecasts, and take action automatically. And yes, machines will make some decisions for us—especially operational decisions in real-time environments. We see this today with fraud detection and online trading systems, but it will become more pervasive.

To succeed in the digital age, mall operators will need to instill a culture of fact-based decision making throughout the organization. In addition to implementing advanced-analytics tools, they should invest in collecting more of the valuable data that will inform their business decisions. For instance, they can deploy new technologies (such as beacons, granular Wi-Fi, and facial-recognition cameras) to capture behavioral data. They can launch mallwide loyalty programs to gather individual transaction data and generate insights into the customer journey across the entire mall ecosystem. They can also pursue partnerships with tenants—for instance, by negotiating preferred rents in exchange for data sharing. Armed with robust data and advanced analytics tools, malls have the potential to revitalize and revolutionize not just their own business performance but that of the rest of the retail industry as well.

Google has gathered so much data, in so many areas, that it’s now crunching it together and creating features that Apple can’t make—surrounding Google Maps with a moat of time.

Now a new breed of software applications is reshaping sales force management. Their common characteristic: Using digital data exhaust, which is the data generated from the regular activities of a sales force or their customers, to change the behaviour of frontline sales representatives in ways that dramatically improve sales productivity and effectiveness.