Trends expected for 2022 include the growing adoption of automated information delivery and enhanced analytics capabilities, including natural language processing and AutoML.
Automation is expected to be one of the biggest business intelligence trends of 2022.
But not just process automation, which is becoming common in data management to reduce certain tasks that need to be performed several times. Instead, industry experts predict that 2022 will be the year when data analytics vendors add more automated information delivery capabilities to their platforms, allowing users to take action in real time.
1. Automation trend continues
In late 2021, Tibco’s parent company acquired Blue Prism, a robotic process automation (RPA) provider, with plans to bring Blue Prism to Tibco after the acquisition was completed. In addition, Alteryx and Qlik have partnered with UiPath, another RPA provider.
These steps extend existing automation capabilities, and experts expect that vendors will make automation an even more important focus over the next 12 months.
Together, artificial intelligence and automation will revolutionize the way companies use their analytics platforms, said Mike Leone, analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group.
Likewise, automation related to prescriptive insight is an emerging trend that vendors like Sisense are seeing.
Automation around prescriptive analytics is the [BI trend] that I’m really excited about,” said Ashley Kramer, director of product and marketing at Sisense. I think it’s the one that really makes people more efficient and really makes people use data wisely to improve their jobs.
Analytics has always been descriptive and shows what has already happened; their next stage was to look ahead and demonstrate what is likely to happen next; And now analytics is becoming more mandated and recommending what companies should do next.
However, instead of letting users search for these recommendations in an analytics platform environment, there is a growing trend in business intelligence to automatically provide these recommendations within user workflows.
For example, healthcare workers spend a significant amount of their time on their company’s health management system, while sales reps spend most of their time on customer relationship management systems.
Come on right there without them asking, said Kramer. KPIs can be programmed on any platform, but if you have problems with an account or an attractive customer, you can report this without asking.
Likewise, Elif Tutuk, Vice President of Innovation and Design at Qlik, expects further advances in automation functions in 2022, but hopes that analytics platforms will not only provide valuable insights, but also automate actions.
Traditionally, Tutuk said, BI was able to provide information to users, but then it was up to those users to figure out how to take further action.
Automation platforms are [vendors] realizing the BI goal that persuasive measures are, he said. It is possible to link the generation of information in order to activate automations based on the analysis results. This can be done fully automatically or with a person in an observation post while a user looks at a board and notices something, but you cannot initiate an action directly from the control panel.
2. Natural language processing
While automation enables action, so too does natural language processing (NLP).
As NLP’s capabilities grow, providers attempt to make their platforms accessible to a greater number of users. According to sources, it is estimated that only a quarter or a third of employees use the data to inform their decisions.
Since most people do not have a background in computer science and statistics, there are barriers to working with data. Most employees do not know how to program and are not trained to interpret data and ask follow-up questions lead to knowledge.
Augmented Analytics tools aim to lower these barriers by guiding business users with no-code capabilities, including NLP capabilities that enable natural language data retrieval using written or spoken words. The capabilities of NLP tools are slowly reaching their promise.
However, adoption of AI capabilities is expected to increase over the next year.
Many organizations are behind in the use of features such as augmented analysis, natural language queries, and natural language processing, Leone said. Organizations will increasingly rely on AI to help improve data quality and discovery as they seek to ensure greater confidence in data and the information derived from data analysis.
However, adoption of AI capabilities is expected to increase over the next year.
Many organizations are behind in the use of features such as augmented analysis, natural language queries, and natural language processing, Leone said. Organizations will increasingly rely on AI to help improve data quality and discovery as they seek to ensure greater confidence in data and the information derived from data analysis.
David Menninger, an analyst at Ventana Research, is also hoping for greater adoption of NLP, but as NLP tools are still struggling with some nuances of language synonyms, words that sound similar, words that have one meaning to an organization, and another meaning for them a different one, and because their implementation can be tedious, it is unlikely to explode in 2022.
I think the use of NLP will continue to increase, said Menninger. I think it will keep improving and helping, but I don’t think it’s going to be a very successful year, so to speak. I think there is more to be done, both on technology and on the willingness of organizations to get involved in using technology.
3. AutoML
David Menninger, an analyst at Ventana Research, is also hoping for greater adoption of NLP, but as NLP tools are still struggling with some nuances of language synonyms, words that sound similar, words that have one meaning to an organization, and another meaning for them a different one, and because their implementation can be tedious, it is unlikely to explode in 2022.
I think the use of NLP will continue to increase, said Menninger. I think it will keep improving and helping, but I don’t think it’s going to be a very successful year, so to speak. I think there is more to be done, both on technology and on the willingness of organizations to get involved in using technology.
For example, Tableau has prioritized the concept of business science. First introduced in March, business science is essentially self-service data science made possible by augmented intelligence and machine learning.
In the meantime, Qlik bought Big Squid specifically for its AutoML features, and Alteryx made AutoML a centerpiece of their May 2021 platform update.
And industry insiders say there will be more in 2022.
Predictive analytics will be more accessible, said Nelson Petracek, Tibco’s chief technology officer. “The technology is being made available to a wider audience, not just data scientists, through the use of continuous improvement tools and model-based development approaches.
Additionally, Menninger expects vendors to continue adding and improving AutoML functionality over the next 12 months.
I think we’ll see significant advances in AutoML, he said. We’re getting to the point where AutoML output is useful. It won’t be as robust as a trained data scientist, but it has certainly reached a point where it is useful, so I think we’ll be using more AutoML by people who are not necessarily trained data scientists.
However, AutoML’s new capabilities are not without dismay, Menninger added
Just as self-service BI requires a strict data governance framework to protect companies from the disclosure of sensitive data and to allow end users to work with data more securely data science should include self-service protections
Increased use of AutoML will bring some challenges, governance issues, and people who may be too confident about something they don’t understand, said Menninger: Before you put anything into production, since this is a day-to-day business process, you need a team of data scientists to review, monitor, and make sure it is governed.
4. New areas of emphasis
While many BI vendors already have automation, NLP, and AutoML capabilities in place, there are capabilities few analytics vendors have that analysts expect to be ubiquitous by 2022.
This includes instruments to support environmental, social and governance initiatives (ESG) as well as scenario planning.
Many companies conduct ESG projects for reasons such as regulatory compliance and altruism. For example, the oil and gas industry, as well as other carbon-intensive industries, have taken measures to increase sustainability, and organizations need to reduce their carbon footprint and measure their progress
One of the business intelligence trends expected in 2022 is more tools to enable ESG reporting as application vendors and system integrators develop more ESG software and services, said Doug Henschen, analyst at Constellation Research.
Companies need more consistency and practicality in the mosaic of standards and regulations around the world, he said. “Technology can help organizations be transparent and achieve goals, but it’s harder when there are confusing and competing goal lines.
He added that most companies’ ESG commitments focus on the environment.
The ‘E’ ‘in ESG is groundbreaking as the oil and gas and other carbon-intensive industries long ago introduced reporting standards and methodologies for measuring progress toward sustainability goals, said Henschen. But environmental, social and governance expectations are increasing across industries, with asset managers, investors, activist groups and future-oriented companies at the forefront.
Menninger meanwhile expects more providers to add planning functions.
In the past, planning tools that examine different business scenarios were offered by different vendors than those offering BI and analytics platforms. Envisio, Adaptive Planning and Cube focus on scenario planning.
Now, however, some analytics vendors are adding tools for scenario planning, and that will accelerate in 2022, according to Menninger.
I’m seeing a trend towards planning what-if analysis, he said. I see more vendors investing and bringing planning capabilities to market and what if, combined with other types of analysis. It may not be an exceptional year, but it may be a year in which interest is clearly increasing.
For example, Tableau plans to add a tool called scenario planning in 2022, while Oracle, IBM, and SAP are among those who have already added scenario planning capabilities.
When I look at the big platform providers, the leaders in the display space, they add more planning features that tell me they’re about to jump in, said Menninger.
5. Money moves
Starting with Qlik’s acquisition of Podium Data in July 2018 and ending with Salesforce’s acquisition of Tableau in June 2019, consolidation has been a significant BI trend in recent years.
During that 12 month period, Sisense bought Periscope Data, Alteryx bought ClearStory Data, Logi Analytics bought Zoomdata, and Google bought Looker.
Consolidation then slowed and, aside from Tibco’s acquisition of IBI (formerly Information Builders) in October 2020, acquisitions were focused on large, established suppliers acquiring new businesses
Meanwhile, there has been an inflow of capital into analytics providers.
ThoughtSpot has raised $348 million in two funding rounds since early 2019 and is now valued at $4.2 billion; Databricks raised $1.6 billion in funding in August 2021; Snowflake broke a record for tech companies in September 2020 by raising $3.4 billion through its IPO; and Informatica returned to public markets in October 2021, raising $841 million after being privatized in 2015.
Meanwhile, MicroStrategy and Domo share prices hit record highs in 2021
Some of that money could be used to fuel major acquisitions, said Donald Farmer, founder and director of TreeHive Strategy.
In terms of the big stories, where does that money go when Snowflake buys someone, and what will ThoughtSpot do with their funding? They don’t just give their developers a raise, so they do something with it, Farmer said. They hinted that there were acquisitions to come.
Even the smallest vendors like Mixpanel and Sigma Computing have raised significant capital, with Mixpanel raising $200 million on Nov. 18 and Sigma raising $300 million on Dec. 16.
We’re seeing huge sums of money being raised, so where is it? What is Mixpanel doing with $200 million? Said Farmer. “There’s a lot of money going into analytics and data companies, and that’s going to be interesting to see where it spends some of it.
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