As a child I can remember watching the futuristic life of The Jetson’s on Saturday morning cartoons and thinking “wow that must be a long time from now!” But this is not necessarily the case. With the immersion of Big data and its widespread application, we are beginning to see “The Future” much more quickly than we expected.
Now that Big Data Analytics has been around long enough to no longer think of it as a magical, all knowing, wonder tool, companies are now used to Big Data and understand how to manage it. Big Data has become a mainstream, ordinary process in the work place. With Big Data being more manageable and easy to understand, it is now being applied to many different new and exciting projects. Big Data is being utilized in Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning.
Artificial Intelligence is being developed in forms anywhere from robotics to the Internet of Things. Big Data is being heavily utilized in Natural Language Processing to enhance applications such as Apple’s Siri. Natural Language Processing is something we can expect to see a lot of a The Internet of Things continues to make a bigger presence. Machine Learning will make its mark as algorithms continue to be developed to ensure efficiency and minimal human intervention. Between these three sectors we are looking at the world of The Jetson’s being very near.
For as long as I can remember, my mother would be the first one out the door for Black Friday Sales and spend days at malls shopping for the best price on Christmas gifts. For most people this is a pretty typical example of how holiday shopping gets done.
With technology becoming increasingly more popular and almost everyone owning a smartphone, holiday shopping is going mobile. Google shows that over half of this year’s holiday shoppers planned to buy their gifts online. As Big Data continues to aid companies in advertising more accurately, the online shopping experience is easier and more accessible than ever before.
Now that online is becoming the preferred method of shopping, the mad rush in the stores is all but gone. People are saving time by conveniently shopping on their smartphones or from their home computer. But of course with an upside always comes a downside. The more people shop online, the harder mail deliverers have to work to get those gifts to their homes by Christmas.
Postal Service, UPS, and FedEx workers are putting in extra long hours of hard labor to ensure you a merry Christmas morning, so please be kind to your mail man and thank him or her for their sacrifice this holiday season!
With Big Data continuing to make its mark in numerous different industries and the internet Of Things on the rise, what can we expect to see out of them in the future?
This time of year everyone starts to predict what the future will hold, what trends will be all the rage and whose products will be the most successful. It is pretty safe to say that Big Data will continue to be improved and utilized in more ways in the future. The Internet Of Things is definitely on the rise, but what can we expect from it in this upcoming year?
I recently heard on the radio that parents are now using “Elf on the shelf” to make their kids behave better. Elf on the shelf is a fun little game families have begun playing where they place a little elf doll in different places of the house every night- giving kids the illusion that elf is real. Parents are beginning to take this sweet holiday tradition and use it to make their children believe that Elf is always watching.
Parents have always used little tactics to help control their kids, like Santa Clause knowing if you are naughty or nice, we simply need a little white lie every now and then to help us out.
Is this now being taken too far? How do we know when we have crossed the line?
Mattel has just introduced it’s latest Barbie doll and not only is it highly fashionable, but she can actually talk. Yes, that is right, your child can now play with a Barbie doll who can hold full conversations with them as well as remember your child’s key interests. When the new Barbie hears your child speak, she sends the data to a computer that records the message, and then relays the correct response back to Barbie.
In theory this may seem like another Big Data success; woohoo! a toy that can finally act as a play buddy for my child! Not so fast, everything your child says to Barbie gets recorded and stored by Mattel. This means that not only do the people working at Mattel have direct access to speak to your child at any time, in the safety of your home, but they also will use everything your child says for research.
Personally, I think this is one of the creepiest ways to use Big Data. The new talking Barbie is more invasive than any of the tracking companies do on the internet. So if you are thinking about getting your little one a talking Barbie this Christmas, think twice, or you may be putting your child in a potentially manipulative situation.
Even the most successful CEO out there is still human. No one person is perfect, we all display human characteristics and flaws. It is because of this that science uses objective data in their tests, because subjective allows for personal opinions. Objective data is the only information that is 100% unbiased truth. So how do businesses get this type of objective data?
By Using Big Data.
Companies that use Big Data allow themselves to see the hard truths about their company that they themselves would overlook. When we put hard work into something, we don’t want to see anything wrong with it which makes it hard for us to see when there are issues. Big Data is the fresh set of eyes that can examine all of the nook and crannies of your business to inspect the problem areas we would not catch on our own.
The other great think about Big Data is that it is cross cultural. Instead of trying to convince a company in China that you are successful by talking with them, it is much more impressive to simply show them the data. Put your entire operation into data form and it can be read across any language. Measuring success with data is a great way to standardize the definition of what it means to be successful.
Big Data has proven time and time again to be a necessary tool in the business world. So what are you waiting for? Go out and get started with Big Data!
With all of the holiday parties bursting to life this time of your, I thought it would be appropriate to put Big Data in terms that can be related to every day life.
Imagine you are new to a company, competing with the other intern they hired the same time as you for the next opportunity to move up in the company. You attend the company holiday party, dressed to the nines to make the right impression. You are charming and interesting, but you cannot seem to remember half the names of the executives you are chatting up. Your boss asks you about the latest developments in the major project the company is working on and you can’t give him an up to date answer.
Meanwhile, the other intern is connecting with all of the execs because he knows what to talk about and with who to talk. He has done his research and not only knows the names of all of the people he is talking to, but their spouses as well. You over hear him talking about the latest predictions about the company’s big project based on the analytics he has been running, and you think to yourself, “That’s it, I’m done for”.
This is what it feels like between companies who use Big Data and those who don’t. Obviously the intern using Big Data is going to be the top candidate for the open position in the company all because he relied on the objective data to give him accurate information. Companies can put on a pretty face, charm you and try to pretend that they know what they are talking about, but ultimately that will all come back to haunt them. Big Data is information and information is your biggest asset. Having the more current, accurate information is what is going to make companies money and ensure success, not a sharp looking suit.
See how Big Data can change your company into the business people can trust and rely on. Check out Cliintel for more information.
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