AI is replacing all kinds of jobs. Artist are being replaced (see Wombo’s dream). Social media authors are no longer needed (see OpenAI’s ChatGPT). Real estate agents are using AI to generate their listings (see ChatGPT again). Even CEOs are using AI to write emails to their employees eliminating the need for assistants (yes, see ChatGPT again). Thank goodness for us there is one role that AI will never replace – the BI consultant.

True, AI will be used to automate the data engineering side of BI. The algorithms will be able to render a solution to extract data from external sources and efficiently place the copied data into your acquisition layer. I’m sure it will be able to optimize keeping that data in sync as well.

AI will also be able to perform complex predictive analysis and then offer prescriptions for change to improve your business. The algorithms used will be so complex that the human mind cannot comprehend the process used to generate the predictions. Business owners will struggle in the choice on whether to trust the results amidst not understanding how they were determined.

But in the middle of all this BI work is the descriptive side of analytics. AI cannot replace this. And, it is the foundation of your BI program. Why do I say this? Because this part of analytics is about YOU and understanding what is truly unique to your business. It comes about through the collaborative effort of your business experts and good BI consultants. It is a relational work of art that cannot be generated because it is unique to you. The AI model cannot be trained – there is nothing to train it with. Your people, your processes, and your data must be studied and used to create a unique robust insight-producing descriptive model. This is part of our BI expertise, and we know what needs to be done to get it right.

So how does BI work with ConradBI? The first part of our process is Discovery. This is where we spend time with you learning about a particular business process. We will meet with your business experts and learn everything there is to know. We will study your data to understand the metrics you have available and identify important measurements that are missing. We will make recommendations on how to gather the additional data needed. We are there to learn your business so that we can accelerate it, not change it. Believe me, there is an art to doing this and it can be challenging. After we have a full understanding of your process, then we will produce an analytics model that can support self-service analysis to improve it. Then we grow the model by connecting additional processes repeatedly leading to a fully optimized business model that will generate maximum profits.

I thought about asking ChatGPT to write this blog, but I was concerned that it might be a little bias.  We are here to help you accomplish your business intelligence goals. Don’t be led astray by claims that AI can instantly solve your BI needs. Give us a try, we’ll do a great job for you. We’ll accomplish a lot together, have a lot of fun, and probably become friends in the process – try to do that AI!