Are Software Robots the future of Analytics?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is back with the bang in hype cycle and this time the capability seems to match the rhetoric. The growth of AI has been driven by massive volumes of data and technology capabilities which never existed before. Software robots in broad term 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. Firstly even after investing heavily in Data management and Analytics tools, significant amount of employee time is still spent in interpreting and reporting the interpretations. Secondly many of these interpretations do not lead to any actionable insights.

AI programs enabled with Machine learning (ML) and Natural language processing (NLP) capabilities are looking to solve these challenges. 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 and are available 24X7. AI programs can also provide meaningful insights when data is not complete, is not structured and relations between different data sources is not clear. In fact few companies have already made significant progress in this area, although the benefits are not yet widely validated.

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 even for mature AI programs. AI capabilities in untested and unknown areas is still debatable. The best combination would still be that Software Robots perform time consuming tasks, while Analysts channel their efforts for tasks which add long term value to their organizations and customers.