Business Analytics Draws IT Leaders to Machine Learning

Machine learning is becoming a transformative force in many industries. According to the New York Times, machine learning refers to “systems that learn from data sets to perform and improve upon a specific task.” Machine learning has become integral to the current field of artificial intelligence. It primarily differentiates itself from earlier forms of artificial intelligence where a person had to dictate to a system how to perform or complete certain tasks. The promise and practice of machine learning centers around a system being able to take information, learn, perform, and improve on its own.

The ability to learn and understand large volumes of data is particularly appealing to firms when looking at business analytics. IT leaders surveyed by 451 research found that a third of IT decision makers were most interested in rolling out machine learning for business analytics. A quarter of those respondents are looking to machine learning for security purposes. Only 10 percent of IT leaders looking to adopt machine learning are doing so for customer service purposes.