Its time we stopped pretending that were computers and let the machines do their jobs.Anodot, a real-time analytics company, is using advanced machine-learning algorithms to overcome the limitations that humans bring to data analysis.

AI can chew up all your data and spit out more answers than youve got questions for, and the e-commerce businesses that dont integrate machine-learning into data analysis will lose money.

Weve all been there before: youve just launched a brand new product after spending millions on the development cycle and, for no discernible reason, your online marketplace crashes in a major market and you dont find out for several hours. All those sales: lost, like an unsaved file.

Okay, maybe we havent all been there but weve definitely been on the other end. Error messages on checkouts, product listings that lead nowhere, and worst of all shortages. If we dont get what we want when we want it well get it somewhere else. Anomalies in the market, and the ability to respond to them, can be the difference between profits and shutters to any business.

Data analysis isnt a popular water-cooler topic anywhere, presumably even at companies that specialize in it. Rebecca Herson, Vice President of Marketing for Anodot, explains the need for AI in the field:

Theres just so much data being generated, theres no way for a human to go through it all. Sometimes, when we analyze historical data for businesses were introducing Anodot to, they discern things they never knew where happening. Obviously businesses know if servers go down, but if you have a funnel leaking in a few different places it can be difficult to find all the problems.

The concern isnt just lost sales; theres also product-supply disruption and customer satisfaction to worry about. In numerous case studies Anodot found an estimated 80 percent of the anomalies its machine-learning software uncovered were negative factors, as opposed to positive opportunities. These companies were losing money because they werent aware of specific problems.

Weve seen data-analysis software before, but Anodots use of machine-learning is an entirely different application. Anodot is using unsupervised AI, which accesses deep-learning, to autonomously find new ways to categorize and understand data.

With customers like Microsoft, Google Waze, and Comcast, it would appear as though this software is prohibitvely complex and designed for the tech-elite, but Herson explains:

This is something that, while data scientist is the new sexy profession, you wont need one to use this. Its got the data scientist baked-in. If you have one, they can leverage this to provide immediate results. An e-commerce strategist can leverage the data and provide real-time analysis. This isnt something that requires a dedicated staff, your existing analysts can use this.

While we ponder the future of AI, companies like Anodot are applying it in all the right ways (see: non-lethal and money-saving). Automating data-analysis isnt quite as thrilling as an AI that can write speeches for the President, but its far more useful.

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Face it, AI is better at data-analysis than humans - TNW