You are becoming a data analyst or already working as a data analyst, but everybody keeps telling you that your job will be automated in five years. And it makes you wonder if you should change your career path. Forbes recently published an article with this sensational headline, specifically targeting the analyst job family.
When I saw the article and the headline, I was immediately taken aback. I was like, why? Why are analysts being targeted specifically? Why not other job families that are at more risk, in my opinion? It is a scary headline if you don’t read the entire article. So as somebody who has worked in the data science domain for almost 10 years, I wanted to dedicate this article if the advancement in AI and tools such as ChatGPT, BARD, GitHub, Copilot will automate data analyst job family.
And I don’t know where that five-year number is coming from, but five years. Five years it is. Will data analytics be automated with AI? The short answer is yes and no.
Let me explain this with a few examples. So we’re going to take a hypothetical example. We have two people who work as data analysts.
We have Jack and we have Jessica. OK, I came up with those names. So Jack and Jessica.
They sound like brother and sister. Sorry, getting off topic. So Jack and Jessica.
So Jack works as a data analyst. Jessica works as a data analyst. Now, what is different about their roles? Jack’s primary job is to prepare daily sales report and send it to the VP.
He basically pulls the data. He basically pulls the data using SQL query, puts the data in Excel, create some pivot tables on top of it, create some nice plots and tables, and then sends that email to the VP. Jessica also works at the data analyst.
Her primary work includes reporting, but as well as doing some critical thinking to improve the product using data. Her day-to-day work is not as straightforward. She has to do a lot of critical thinking and analytical thinking to come up with new creative ideas to solve the problems or find existing problems in the product that customers are facing.
So we have Jack and we have Jessica. So in these two hypothetical cases, Jack’s role includes a lot of repetitive work. Basically, his work pretty much every day he does the same thing.
But Jessica, her work involves a lot of thinking, a lot of analytical skills. So in this case, whose job is going to be automated in five years, two years or whatever years, that is going to be Jack because Jack’s job is pretty repetitive. There’s a process around it, and it can be easily automated using AI tools.
Whereas Jessica, Jessica uses a lot of critical thinking, a lot of analytical thinking. Her role is also a data analyst, and she does do some repetitive work. And there will be some element of her job that will be automated, but the core of her job will not be automated.
So the takeaway from these two, from Jack and Jessica’s role is that there are going to be certain elements of the job that will be automated, but there are going to be a big chunk of the data analytics role, which involves solving problems for using data, is big chunk of that, that involves analytical skills, involve the critical thinking skills will not be automated. And if you read the Forbes article in its completion, you will actually get to that conclusion. But for somebody who’s not in the data industry, they probably don’t understand what those repetitive tasks mean.
So hopefully having these examples held clarified for you, what exactly, when they say that repetitive tasks will be automated, that’s what they mean. So for anybody who’s currently working in the data analytics domain or trying to enter, here are three things that you can do to future-proof your skills.
Number one is prioritize the work that involves critical thinking and analytical thinking. Prioritize the work that involves the right side of your brain, that involves critical thinking, that involves problem solving, that involves a lot of analytical skills.
The second is, AI is not going anywhere. So in order to keep yourself up with the technology, learn these tools, learn how to use these AI tools, such as ChatGPT, BARD and any other coding tool to make your work more efficient, automate the repetitive work so you can focus your time on more critical and analytical work.
Third is keep upscaling, whether you take advanced data analytics courses, learn new coding language, advanced and existing coding language that you know, learn statistics and much more.
Anyways, I wanted to keep this blog short and sweet. If you like this blog, let me know in the comments, what are your thoughts on this topic? Do you think data analytics job will be automated in five years? If yes, what element of the data analytics job will be automated? And if not, what elements will not be automated? Let me know in the comments and I will see you in the next one.
Have a good day. Bye.