Published on the 05/12/2016 | Written by Anthony Caruana

Increased access to more data faster than ever before is driving a revolution that is completely changing the nature of business…

“When we think about how data is going to be used, there’s going to be a huge shift. White collar workers are going to be decimated in the next 20 years because so much of what they do is going to be automated. It’s the equivalent of the gutting of manufacturing where robots take over.”

That bold and perhaps (for white collar workers) dystopian statement comes from Yellowfin BI founder and CEO Glen Rabie.

His company has ridden the wave of data analytics over recent years; I last interviewed Rabie about five years ago when the company employed a handful of people. Today, it has offices in the UK, the US and Japan, as well as Australia, and employs over 100 people.

As we’ve moved away from the era of ‘big data’’ to accepting that it’s all just ‘data’, the ability to make data-driven decisions is increasing. Consequently, there’s an opportunity to automate easy decisions and move away from experience and gut feel.

There will always be a place for people who can think and make decisions that go beyond what the data puts in front of us. But Rabie said the ability to quickly put high quality data in front of those people will result in some significant changes.

Simple decisions, said Rabie, can be automated through better BI, allowing people to focus their skills on more complex tasks.

“I have a fairly pragmatic view on this,” said Rabie. “For complex decisions, particularly around strategy and decision making, the data is just one part of the process.”

Rabie said one of the reasons people did not use data in the past and relied on gut feel was the time taken to get the data was too long and the quality of the data questionable.

In such circumstances, “There’s just as much risk on my making a decision on gut feel as me using that data – so I may as well go with the gut feel,” he noted.

Rabie said a large company in Australia takes about six months waiting on data and analysis in a report to support some decisions. By the time the report is delivered, the opportunity is long gone.

“It’s this immediacy that’s changed. If you give any rational person great data at their fingertips that’s consumable and trusted, and relevant to the questions they have today, will they use it? Of course they will. But if it takes too long to get it or they don’t trust it, gut feel will rule.”

The human brain is still a far more sophisticated and powerful analysis tool than any existing computer or AI, said Rabie. Great decision making, while it can be supported by AI, stills requires human insight. That means making leaps that defy the sorts of rules that can be programmed into a system.

Rabie believes the innate ability for people to analyse lots of data from different sources is increasing. With people receiving input from more places such as banking applications, personal fitness devices and other sources, they are also getting better at bringing that together and using it.

“Technology is providing very good ways to synthesise a lot of information and making it simpler for people to absorb. The result is people are taking it and using it to drive their businesses forward.”

But the power of human creativity, empathy and interpretation will remain valuable assets. For example, knowing how many individuals are needed to complete a project and optimising resources can be supported with good systems, deciding who is right for the job so that they work well together remains a task for insightful people.