Unless you’ve been living in a cave these last few months (a cave that somehow carries sufficient WiFi coverage to reach our blog), you’ll doubtless have heard about machine learning. If you’re a developer, chances are you’re intrigued. The machine learning algorithm, which solves problems without requiring detailed instructions, is one of the most exciting technologies on the planet.

In the last three parts of this four-part series, we have looked at: research on the state of analytics today and the lack of BI adoption; the history of BI and how we have arrived at the augmented era; and the four main blockers to BI adoption that is stunting the growth your business data culture. Today, let's take a look at how AI and machine learning (ML) can close that adoption gap.

In the first blog post of the series, we saw the dire state of analytics adoption. This problem feeds into the low usage and governance of data across organizations. Then, in the second post, we saw how the evolution of analytics has brought us to a prime position for augmented analytics. But will this new wave of augmented analytics break through the barriers to BI adoption?

If, as we saw in part one of this series, 77% of businesses are 'definitely not' or 'probably not' using analytics to its full extent and the adoption rate of analytics platforms is an abysmal 32%, something drastic needs to happen. Can the era of augmented analytics with its machine learning and AI fix this adoption issue?

Can we fix the plague in analytics with AI? Every Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics vendor is integrating a form of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning algorithm (ML), and natural language generation (NLG) into their products. 'Augmented analytics', is the hot new topic and full of hype right now, but can it fix the fundamental flaw that has plagued BI tools for decades - adoption?

The seed for this article was planted when Anant was struck by a headline on his Twitter feed: “You don’t need ML/AI.

A common perspective that I see amongst software designers and developers is that Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are technologies which are only meant for an elite group. However, if a particular technology is to truly succeed and scale, it should be friendly with the common man (in this case a normal software developer).

As the popularity of home automation and the cost of electricity grow around the world, energy conservation has become a higher priority for many consumers. With a number of smart meter devices available for your home, you can now measure and record overall household power draw, and then with the output of a machine learning model, accurately predict individual appliance behavior simply by analyzing meter data.