with technology advancing at a breakneck speed datadriven decision making has become central to almost every aspect of our lives big data has now become a buzzword which is revolutionising the way we collect process and analyse information to gain insights the abundance of data and the subsequent development of advanced analytical tools for its interpretation has also paved the way for business analytics at the organisational level in fact business analysts are now required more than ever across all sectors to facilitate their companies in adapting quickly to new market trends opportunities and threats as individuals who are skilled in data analysis data modelling and communication business analysts are ideal candidates to help organisations make sense of their data and use it to drive business decisionsa survey by the bureau of labor statistics us department of labor states that in between 2016 to 2026 the need for business analysts will grow by 14 this isnt surprising considering every business requires wellskilled analytics professionals to optimise operations and stay ahead of the competition another report by india brand equity foundation ibef states how indias data analytics industry is expected to touch us 1187 bn by 2026 this highlights the need for business analysts who are aware of the latest business analytic trends so that they can help businesses leverage their data assets optimise their operations and make informed decisions based on data insights the last few years have been specifically instrumental in shaping some pivotal trends in business and data analytics which aspiring business analysts looking to advance their career in this field should be aware of we take a look at the top five1 machine learning and aicongratulationsyou have successfully cast your votelogin to view resultwe have been witness to how artificial intelligence ai and machine learning ml together have been pivotal in transforming the field of business analytics by providing new capabilities for analysing a substantial amount of data and making predictions based on it businesses that are adopting these technologies are gaining a competitive advantage by making datadriven decisions and automating tasks that were once manual and timeconsuming hopping onto the ml and ai bandwagon is crucial for companies at a time when large amounts of data need to be processed to make informed decisions and gain a competitive advantage2 predictive analyticsby using statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques predictive analytics has been able to identify data patterns and predict future outcomes across industries in industries such as finance healthcare and marketing this is a crucial analysis tool in order to make swift decisions and anticipate future trends and outcomes based on historical data and statistical models 3 data visualisationever felt that data looked way too complex to be understood for organisational success with data visualization this is now a thing of the past as it facilitates the representation of data in a visual format such as graphs charts and maps data visualisation tools are helping organisations understand intricate data sets and communicate insights more effectively4 data