Datanami’s #5 Big Data Trend of 2019: Skills Shift as Technology Evolves

We’ve now reviewed the top 4 data trends projected by Datanami for 2019 – let’s see how stack up for trend #5. Even within the greater technology field, big data stands out for the speed at which new tools and practices appear and change. So what’s on the menu for 2019?

Right now, neural networks and deep learning are among the hottest skillsets for budding data scientists (more on that later). 83 percent of data scientists have used the programming language Python, which is a highly popular choice for data science thanks to libraries such as NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, and scikit-learn. SQL and R round out the top three programming languages; Java is a popular choice thanks to Apache projects like Spark and Kafka, while MATLAB and C/C++ also have their adopters.

Much has been written about the so-called “data science shortage,” in which businesses are struggling just to find qualified candidates for open positions. As of August 2018, there were 151,000 unfilled data scientist positions across the U.S., and 46 percent of CIOs say they suffer from a skills shortage in big data and analytics.

In the absence of data scientists themselves, many companies are looking to fill the gap with “citizen data scientists,” non-technical employees who can use business intelligence and analytics tools to uncover valuable insights for the organization. The increasing availability of accessible big data tools and technology has enabled figures such as business analysts to encroach upon a domain that was once exclusive to technical employees.

Automation, too, helps replace some of the need for human data scientists by taking care of many repetitive manual activities. Gartner projects that by 2020, more than 40 percent of data science tasks will be automated.

With this information, we’d say Datanami nailed this trend for 2019. Data positions are trending towards more management and analysis rather than repetitive busy-work that automation is starting to take over.

It’s important to know what lies ahead, and the creative solutions implemented in the analytics space in order to understand what skill sets may be required in the near future. Our white paper “Polished Casual Restaurant Chain Achieves Multi-Year Return from Advanced Analytics” explains how Datavail created forward-thinking solutions like an algorithmic process to produce P&L statements, a culinary R&D margin calculator, a server scorecard, and more to drive efficiency and innovation at this well-known restaurant chain.

To get more detail on this and the other 9 data trends of 2019, Download “Analysis of the Top 10 Big Data Trends of 2019.”