Is Anticipatory Analytics the Path Toward Future Truth?

New Whitepaper Explores the Arrival of Anticipatory Analytics

Most everyone is familiar with the image of the eccentric fortune-teller gazing into her crystal ball to boldly predict the future. In the business world, teams of analytic experts are doing this everyday; they're just using data instead of a crystal ball to get a glimpse into the future.

Thanks to advanced analytics, organizations are able to understand potential outcomes and evaluate how issues can be addressed. By generating predictive models based on all the data being captured, a new level of transparency and foresight has been created that helps shape future business strategy based on historical trends. This is called predicative analytics, and it is "the fastest growing segment of the business intelligence (BI) and analytics software market," according to Information Management.

As technology has evolved, so has our ability to process data at an incredible rate, making it possible to perform what has become known as anticipatory analytics.
 

But for all of the promise around predictive analytics, there is some criticism. For instance, since environments and people are always changing, relying on historical trends is said to be too simplistic and sterile to say something will or will not happen with a great degree of certainty. But a new analytic approach has emerged that may be better at grasping future outcomes.

As technology has evolved, so has our ability to process data at an incredible rate, making it possible to perform what has become known as anticipatory analytics. While still a relatively new concept, anticipatory analytics is gaining prevalence as a methodology. It leapfrogs predictive analytics in that it enables companies to forecast future behaviors quicker than traditional predictive analytics by identifying change, acceleration and deceleration of market dynamics.

In order to make this possible, the right mixture of data, processing tools, technology and expertise plays a central role. The following developments play key roles in being able to address the future, today.

To gain a deeper understanding of the emergence of anticipatory analytics, and how it should be utilized in your organization, check out this detailed guide that outlines the differences between anticipatory and predictive.