The Commercialization of Big Data*

Vasant Dhar

Professor and Co-Director, Center for Business AnalyticsStern School of Business

Editor-in-Chief, Big Data JournalFaculty, Center for Data Science, NYU

@vasantdhar

*From “Data Science and Prediction,” Communications of the ACM, Vol. 56 No. 12, December 2013http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2013/12/169933-data-science-and-prediction/fulltext

Agenda

• What’s the size of the market?• What’s unique about big data?• What gives big data real value?• Where’s the opportunity?

What’s Unique about Big Data?*

• It’s a whole new way of observing and learning things (minimal pre-programming)– Diverse sources, types, and structuredness– Granular– Analytics: the ability to ask the “right questions”

of the data as quickly as possible• The right questions are one whose answers

have predictive power, not just explaining the past

Asking the Wrong Question

Examples of the Right Questions• Healthcare

– Who is likely to get sick?• Prevention• Planning

– What is the best treatment?• Sports

– What types of players to hire?– Strategy for next opponent?– How much risk to take during a game?

• Targeting/advertising/enhancing– Who to target products or services?– How much should I bid to advertise?– How can I improve the customer experience?

7

Healthcare: What is the Right Question Here?

Clean Period Diagnosis Outcome period

T I M E

Are complications associated with the yellow meds?Or with the gray meds? Or the yellows in the absence of the blues? Or is it more than three yellows or three blues?

Or does it have to do with “lifestyle choices?!”

The Opportunity

Source: Leadership Excellence in Analytical Practice study, 2014

PurposeMy job function of in-terest uses the tool.

General interest

My industry of in-terest in uses the tool.

Company I am inter-ested in uses the tool

Want to differentiate myself

Top Industries of Interest

TechnologyConsultingEntertainmentFinanceEntrepreneurshipRetail/LuxurySocial EnterpriseSports

Desired Skill Sets

Data manipulation/analysisData managementData visualizationConceptual under-standing of tool useProgramming/CodingTool selection

Top 5 Analytical Tools MBAs Want

PythonSQLRTableauHadoop

Source: Center for Business Analytics, NYU Stern

• Prediction in financial markets– Numerical data– Unstructured and tagged data

My Research

Realized Performance

• Prediction in financial markets– Numerical data– Unstructured and tagged data

• Prediction in networks, media, social, health• Data governance and “Analytics-Savvy” firms– What data to keep and why– Risk and return from data– What capabilities to develop in-house versus

outsource to the market

My Research

• Big data is a fertile area for research and practice– Stern’s Center for Business Analytics brings together

researchers, students, and industry– Several research projects are around unstructured and tagged

data interpretation, crowds, the intersection of physical and digitals worlds, and more

• Acquisitions like that of DeepMind by Google are – a harbinger for impending disruptions – An indicator of future determinants of competitive advantage

• We are (finally) entering the age of smart machines driven by big data and machine learning

Closing Remarks