Bill Franks's Blog: Analytics Matters, page 4

Why Google Duplex Did Not Pass the Turing Test

Recently, a lot of press was given to Google’s Duplex Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot. The Duplex bot calls businesses, such as a restaurant, on your behalf and makes a reservation. We’re going to save for another day the potential ethical issues raised by AI bots fooling people into believing they are talking to a person. Instead, let’s focus on whether or not Duplex has successfully passed the Turing test as some have suggested.

Cutting Through the Hype of Artificial Intelligence, Part 1

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the hottest topics in the analytics space today. Within a two to three year span, AI went from relative obscurity to an extreme level of industry attention and media coverage. As a result, organizations that barely knew how to spell Artificial Intelligence a few years ago are now charging full steam ahead in pursuit of AI initiatives. In many ways, this is a good thing. After all, AI is quite powerful and has the ability to drive tremendous value if appl...

Is Data Now More Differentiating Than Analytics?

As a person who has been involved with analytics for a long time, I have historically considered analytics to be a huge differentiator while data was more of a table-stakes enabler. Several trends have come together to make me realize that the equation has been reversed in many cases today.

Why Analytics of Things Standards are Needed

As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to explode, so does the need for the analysis of IoT data. At IIA, we call the analysis of IoT data the Analytics of Things (AoT). There are many success stories from the world of AoT. However, without some attention to standards of both IoT data itself and the analysis of it, organizations will struggle to achieve AoT’s potential. In this post, we’ll dig into several different areas where standardization must be pursued.

Three Reasons Why Now is the Time for Artificial Intelligence

Within a two- to three-year span, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone from relative obscurity to an extreme level of industry attention and media coverage. As a result, organizations that barely knew how to spell “Artificial Intelligence” a few years ago are now charging full steam ahead to pursue AI initiatives. A common question that is raised is, “Why is now the time for AI?” After all, there have been bursts of hype around AI multiple times over the last few decades. Is today different?...

Is Real-Time Analytics A Money Pit?

Certainly, it is important to have analytics available in the timeframe needed for making decisions. For many years, it was too difficult and expensive to execute analytics anywhere near real-time and so everything was done using infrequent batch processes. As processing power has increased exponentially and costs have dropped to unprecedented levels, it is feasible to perform a wide array of enterprise analytics on a near real-time basis. However, many organizations today are vastly over-uti...

Using Artificial Intelligence to Facilitate Fraud

Any new tool or technology has the potential to be put to use for good purposes or, unfortunately, for harmful purposes. Artificial intelligence is no different. As we see the rapid progress occurring in the AI space, lots of attention has been paid to all of the good uses of AI. However, it is inevitable that those with nefarious intent are also studying AI successes with an eye toward how to twist them into tools to pursue their less than honorable goals.

The Post-Algorithmic Era Has Arrived

Last week, IIA hosted our annual Predictions and Priorities webinar, as well as the associated research brief. When we sat down to determine what we should focus on this year, Tom Davenport and I both immediately raised a trend that we’ve recently been discussing with organizations. After reconciling our semantics, we realized that we were both excited about the same base trend. I want to reiterate it here as I think it is a critical trend to understand and adapt to. Namely, “the post-algorit...

2018 Analytics Predictions and Priorities

Each year, the International Institute for Analytics takes time to focus on the latest analytics trends and the most pressing analytics challenges currently facing organizations. We gather the basis for our predictions from our day-to-day work supporting and advising analytics leaders and programs. Our insights arise from the breadth of expertise and cross-industry perspectives we receive every day from our clients, partners, and members of the IIA expert network. This is our 8th annual look...

Why Blockchain And Analytics Don’t Mix Well

The concept of a blockchain is quite a phenomenon in recent times. It has quickly risen from a relatively obscure idea known mostly within some small circles to one that is being discussed as having potential to literally change some of the fundamentals of the world’s economic systems.