Read on to explore what predictive analytics entails, examples of its many uses across sectors, and the skills you need to succeed in this ever-changing field.ĭownload Our Free Guide to Breaking Into AnalyticsĪ guide to what you need to know, from the industry’s most popular positions to today’s sought-after data skills. Known as predictive analytics, this new application of data analysis has successfully served an array of vital industry needs. As a result, because of analytics, we can make informed business decisions today that simply were not possible ten years ago.” “Through the use of mathematical modeling and data analytics, data can now tell me something I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to learn.
“Data analytics today is allowing us for the first time to take the massive amount of data we’ve been assembling for years and use it for predictive purposes rather than in just descriptive ways,” says Thomas Goulding, professor for the Master of Professional Studies in Analytics program within Northeastern’s College of Professional Studies. Data analysts can now achieve a level of insight that extends beyond a description of past behavior and instead use data strategically to look ahead at future possibilities. Īs the technology used to collect and analyze data has continued to advance, these organizations have evolved their data-related practices with it. Over the last decade, organizations across industries have come to rely on the 2.5 quintillion bytes of data humans generate daily to understand their consumers better, identify patterns in behavior, and make more effective and strategic decisions.