I have been fascinated by predictive analytics for quite some time. Ever since I heard statistics and mathematics can predict the future, I have been thinking. Analyzing humongous volumes of data, creating models and finding trend seems easy enough. Especially if the statisticians part is built into the system itself. Enterprises can definitely benefit from these trends by accurately predicting sales, revenues and margins. But that’s not something I have been thinking about. Can these predictive analytics predict my future? Can they predict how I will react to certain stimuli? Can a model be built to predict how I will spend during the holidays and how much? Can these analytics help me budget, invest and even save my money over the days I spend the most? Many questions, so little answers. Why? Because I am neither a mathematician nor a statistician. I am just a visualizer. I can show the data delectably but I can definitely not predict or built models.
I have been searching on research on how predictive models can improve everyday life but have not found anything of value so far. There has been sporadic research on using statistical models for trading in stocks but can the same methodology be used to predict the prices of groceries? Can models be built to predict the criminal behavior of a person based on data from past convictions? Can a crime be prevented even before it occurs? There are plentiful thoughts but so little answers. Big data is definitely the key and predictive analytics the future of BI.
I personally think, the fiction that we have seen in movies can come true. Predictive analytics can help the common man if it can be made less complicated and more independent. BI was initially considered to be an expert’s job but now it is just a few drags and drops. And advanced analytics seems to be going the same way. As I progress more in my research, I will post more about this interesting thought I developed..
