Driven by the “digital or die” mentality and rapid digital transitions, especially in reaction to the COVID-19 epidemic, businesses are investigating AI to gain a competitive advantage. Issues with natural language, machine vision, and common sense thinking still exist after seventy years of human work. All the same, not only improved learning algorithms but also an abundance of data have brought us this close to attaining AI.
What is Datafication?
The transformation of human behaviours into digital data allows companies to better understand their consumers, improve operations, and develop customized experiences. However, privacy, security, and ethical use factors arise, demanding some sort of equilibrium.
Impact of Datafication on Industries
1. Healthcare: Hospitals and health organizations use datafication to improve medical imaging, health and mental monitoring, medication discovery, predictive diagnosis, personalized treatment plans, and patient care.
2. Education: We’ve already seen advancements like automated administrative work, predictive analytics to boost student performance, and customized teaching.
3. Financial Services: Banks and insurance firms utilize datafication to figure out personal risk, expenses, reliability, customer segmentation, personalized marketing, fraud detection, credibility, the possibility of loan repayment, etc.
4. Energy: This is yet another industry that is benefiting from advances such as failure probability modelling, outage detection and prediction, smart grids projecting peak energy consumption and equipment breakdowns, digital twins testing system upgrades and displaying alternative outcomes, and so on.
5. Telecommunications: Datafication in telecoms helps understand product demand, improve customer experience by measuring QoE, and offer personalized plans, among other things. AT&T and Verizon collect data on calls, locations, and usage to improve services and provide personalized plans, among other things.
6. Agriculture: Smart farming (focused on growing and managing farms, plantations, and all associated agricultural operations utilizing technology including IoT, drones, automation, and AI to determine a predictable farm output) is rapidly changing. Smart farming is centered on making use of data obtained from multiple sources, including historical, geographical, and instrumental data. Data-driven agriculture, which uses big data to enhance on-farm precision agriculture by using the correct farm data, at the right time and in the right formats to make effective decisions, is also being implemented in some market-oriented agri-food chains.
7. Manufacturing: More manufacturers than ever before are leveraging data to significantly improve not only their production line but also demand forecasting (e.g., what type of products are to be manufactured in a given period, calculating demand, etc.), inventory management, order management, maintenance optimization (data collected from various manufacturing machines, tools, and devices can be analyzed to predict when a machine will need maintenance), product progress measurement, and so on.
8. Transportation: In this sector, datafication is driving key trends such as Real-time Operations (the ability to adapt to changes in operations in real time is proving to be a game changer), Data dexterity (which includes anything from route planning, demand analysis, and integration with wider transport & logistics ecosystem, and so on), Electrification & automation, and MaaS (Mobility as a Service).
9. Government & Public Administration: There is a huge adoption among agencies throughout the world for Data-Driven Tools to improve their work and enhance concerns such as security, data sharing, and data-centric governance.
10. Distribution and Retailing: Datafication has transformed retail by reducing prices, customized marketing, controlling inventory, establishing store/warehouse locations, analyzing customer sentiment, recommending product promotions and discounts, etc. Retail giants like Walmart employ datafication to better analyze customer behaviour, optimize inventory, personalize marketing, and so on.
Future of Datafication
The industry is being transformed by datafication, which improves decision-making, consumer experiences, and operational efficiency. But ethical issues should be taken care of. Advanced algorithms, faster data collection methods, and deeper integration are predicted as technology improves. Organizations that use datafication get a competitive advantage.
Final Thoughts
Datafication is more than a buzzword; it is an essential change in how we generate, acquire, and use data. We can embrace datafication ethically and harness its potential to promote innovation and enhance lives by grasping the concept and analyzing real-life instances.
