Big Data, Big Deal! 5 Ways It’s Going to Be Revolutionized In 2018

The big data market has been predicted to be worth $46.34 billion by 2018. What can it do for your business?

Big data is a big deal. From reducing their costs and making better decisions, to creating products and services that are in demand by customers, businesses will increasingly benefit by using big-data analytics.

There’s a reason for the prediction that the big-data market will be worth $46.34 billion by 2018: It’s constantly evolving, changing the ways that we find, understand, and use data and data analytics.

Next year will be no exception. Because of incoming innovations in technology and data science, exciting, revolutionary changes in big data can be expected in 2018. Here are my top predictions:

One of the most exciting changes for big data will be the evolution of cognitive technologies. Tasks that were once possible only for humans — from identifying faces to recognizing handwriting — are being automated. Additionally, automation is being applied to cognitive skills such as planning, reasoning with limited or uncertain information and learning.

Previously, computing systems could only capture, move and store unstructured data — without understanding it. Now, the ongoing changes in cognitive technologies mean that systems can, in fact, comprehend what the data means.

Analytics systems are going to work better, too. For analytics to work at all, these systems have to help us make more informed decisions and make our actions more effective. With prescriptive analytics, this will be easier.

Prescriptive analytics involves finding the best course of action for a given situation, and because the field is getting better, in 2018, it will make a big difference for big data. Cognitive computing is extending analytics levels to new kinds of data, using new technologies.

Prescriptive analytics helps deliver what’s right in a given situation — i.e., the right answer at the right time, in the right context. By combining both predictive and descriptive analytics, entrepreneurs will be able to make smarter decisions with the data they have. When analytics are used correctly — with a combination of mathematics, analytics and experimentation — businesses can optimize production and improve customers’ experiences.

Using analytics and being able to analyze data at the same time provides a faster, fuller picture of a business’s data.