Big Data and Artificial Intelligence — How will they work together in 2023?

As a global community, we create huge amounts of online data every second of every day, on everything from inventory statistics to business processes. And these datasets are only predicted to get bigger, with the Big Data industry estimated to grow to $273.4 billion by 2026.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) market is growing even faster, and is forecast to reach $1,590 billion by 2030.

These are huge numbers when looked at separately. However, there's an important symbiotic relationship between the two technologies. Simply storing and managing data is insufficient. To make Big Data valuable, it needs to be effectively analysed. Simultaneously, without robust Big Data datasets to work with, AI becomes redundant.

Big Data and AI are distinct from each other but need one another to fulfil their potential. Let’s look at this in more detail.

What is Big Data?

Big Data is simply a collection of unstructured data or information. To be considered “Big,” Data has to be very large, be derived from various sources, and have a high rate of collection. These are known as the three “Vs”:

• Variety
• Volume
• Velocity
  
  

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

AI is a technology that’s designed to mimic human intelligence. It relies on Big Data and is not a subset of it. AI can extract useful information from datasets. and identify patterns, trends and other valuable insights that can be used in various ways.

Many modern AI systems use natural language processing to understand big amounts of text or spoken words, and this is how virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa are able to perform various tasks.

What is Data-Centric AI?

Historically, AI has been focused on code, with developers spending their time building more and more sophisticated data sets.

However, it became apparent that, for these models to perform well, they need clean and diverse data. If the data input is of poor quality, then the output of that data will also be substandard too.

“The use and implementation of AI is only as good as the data it’s trained on.”

Data-centric AI (DCAI) is a system that focuses on data rather than code. It involves systematically engineering Big Data to build AI systems, and it combines valuable elements of both code and data.

AI relies on clean and consistent Big Data

Big Data needs to be clean and consistent; otherwise, it will confuse the AI learning model.

Data also needs to be diverse. For AI to make predictions, it needs to learn about all the various data points that contain all possible scenarios. If the model hasn’t been exposed to these scenarios, then it won’t be able to classify or identify correctly.

Potential applications of Big Data and AI

Together, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data can give Data Scientists insights they could only dream about a few years ago. These insights can not only improve business productivity, but many aspects of our daily lives too.

There are endless applications for Big Data and AI across a wide range of industries.

For example,

In healthcare,

Big Data and AI can improve diagnostics, reduce errors, and increase efficiencies, as well as improve patient experience. Big Data precision medicine is a growing area that’s allowing us to understand patient needs better.

In the supply chain industry,

Big Data and AI can allow companies to understand their customers’ behaviours and personalise offers, retarget them, and offer them tailored recommendations.

In manufacturing,

Big Data can be collected and analysed at all stages of processes, from Supply Chain to quality control, allowing companies to improve quality whilst cutting costs.

Despite all this, there is a shortage of Big Data and AI professionals.

Big Data and AI are much more accessible to organisations; however, the two technologies haven’t advanced to the point they can operate independently.

They need skilled staff to understand the tools and ensure they’re being used properly. Organisations need to invest in training to ensure their data is used effectively.

Is your business ready?

For the past 12 years in a row, we've been recognised as one of the Top 20 IT Training Companies in the World. Whether you’ve been using Big Data for a while or are just starting out, we've got a course for you, as well as IT Apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps. Perhaps one of them is right for you?