Predictive Analytics
by: Eric Siegel
Central Theme:
Predictive analytics can help lower the risk and make better decisions. Data is always predictive, but accuracy requires a balanced amount of data.
Recommendation:
“Predictive Analytics” by Eric Siegel provides an introductory-level view of where predictive analytics impacts the world. It provides a generalist’s view and details the potential power of predictive analytics, but sometimes overlooks the limited capability of predicting the future.
Summary:
There is an abundance of data in the world. It will eventually lead to more and more sophisticated analyses, but it is essential to create balanced data sets to avoid potential mistakes and biases. Bringing together multiple sources and models increases accuracy and performance. Research has shown that moving from a single model to an ensemble model will increase performance between 5 and 30 percent. Ensemble modeling is often cited as the most important advance in predictive analytics to occur in this century. No company wants to annoy its target audience into avoiding its product or service, so companies that best utilize predictive analytics can master the art of subtle persuasion.
