Hi ,
For data scientists, the uncomfortable truth in the age of AI is intelligence alone is no longer enough to save your job.
What does intelligence even mean, anyway?
The most common IQ tests evaluate nothing more than pattern recognition.
Pick the next symbol in the sequence again and again. Get it right enough times and Mensa will welcome you with open arms.
Historically, intelligence and pattern recognition have been considered one and the same. And high intelligence was considered a rare and valuable skill - which is why "experts" are typically paid so much.
Yet, here's the challenge we now face - pattern recognition is what generative AI does best. When ChatGPT was launched,
virtually overnight, "intelligence" was rendered a commodity.
(The same thing happened with knowledge following the invention of the printing press).
To create value as a data scientist, it used to be enough to be able to identify patterns. With AI being able to do
so far better than you ever can, though, for data scientists to maintain their value, it's now become essential that they make the move one step up the value chain.
The question remains, what exactly does that levelling up actually entail?
In Effective Data
Storytelling, Brent Dykes describes the "Analytics Path to Value". This begins with data and information (i.e. knowledge), which are turned into "insights" through pattern recognition (i.e. intelligence), and ultimately "inform decisions and drive actions that create value."
Based on this, the implication is clear. Informing decisions and driving actions is what is necessary
to set you apart.
To put this into practice, here's what you can do.
- Start with the decisions your stakeholders are trying to make.
- Use your data science skills to identify patterns (or insights) that can inform those decisions.
- Communicate those insights back to your
stakeholders in a way that facilitates action.
GenAI has now effectively rendered Mensa membership obsolete, but true data science value lies in something that is beyond measurement by IQ tests - the ability to translate insights into actions with real-world impact.
This ability is what true genius looks like in the age of AI.
Are you ready to take the next step?
Talk again soon,
Dr Genevieve Hayes.
