A colleague (and friend) recently sent me this article with the very interesting title that data scientists will be extinct in ten years. Before reading it, I thought this was a joke. However, it gave me some very important takeaways that I would like to highlight.

1. Future Mainstream Data Science Skills
2. No Code Platforms
3. Business Expertise

Future Mainstream Data Science Skills

When I think about what my future children will be learning as they go through school, I know some form of coding will be involved to accompany math/statistics courses that will greatly speed up the baseline data science skills needed for all jobs. I was even talking to one of my cousins a year or two back who let me know she got introduced to coding around middle school to accompany a math exercise. When I went through school, there was no class that taught coding. Sure, we learned how to type, but that was pretty much it. If we wanted to learn more about it, it would be through an elective in high school. To know that even a couple years back coding was being introduced into curriculums beginning in middle school (maybe earlier) proves that the data science realm will be changing rapidly in what is considered essential for any job (much like we think of Microsoft Office now). Even thinking in terms of technology, where were we ten years ago? What coding languages were popular? Having this view makes me think that data science could definitely be in a much different spot.

No Code Platforms

At my current company, no code data science tools like Alteryx are really starting to take off. Oftentimes, the term "Citizen Data Scientist" is thrown around more than an actual data scientist role. Learning to code can be a steep learning curve, and when businesses need to get something done within a short time interval, it is not feasible to tell someone to learn a new coding language and then accomplish the task within a week or two. Instead, they are going to pick up a tool like Alteryx, use the intuitive UI to construct the solution to their business problem, and then easily communicate the solution to others that do not understand code but can understand a UI that Alteryx has. While there is still plenty of customization and background surrounding coding/advanced statistics that can be done with the help of a data scientist at this time, Alteryx continues to improve on both of these. What will tools like this be in ten years? Surely better than they are today, so a data scientist will need something else to show how they can add value. This gets to my last point: business expertise.

Business Expertise

Even though I have only been in the working world a little under three years, I have quickly learned how important business expertise is. When I first began working as a financial analyst, I would go through a lengthy variance analysis on expenses and think I found some breakthrough to save the company money. When I went to present my findings, oftentimes someone would point out that the reason for the variance was (insert business reason here); therefore, that is not something that should be emphasized. Then, others would agree and my "marvelous insights" were trivial.

As I continued gaining the fundamental understanding of the area I supported, I started gaining business expertise. I was able to diagnose variances faster, persuade others to trust me, and look closer at what really mattered. In other words, having business expertise allowed me to go from an average analyst to someone noteworthy. This point does not just apply to finance but also to data science. Someone who understands the data on a more fundamental level is much more likely to draw deeper insights and create more relevant models than someone who approaches it without that knowledge. As the article clearly points out, the baseline data science skills will be growing rapidly and turn everyone into data savvy individuals. To separate the average data savvy individual from a noteworthy employee will be business expertise.

Final Thoughts

While I initially wanted to laugh when I first saw the title of the article, it turned out to be an excellent read. Will I be quitting any further data science learnings and just focus on business expertise? Absolutely not. Rather, I will always keep in mind how I can continue to be different in my roles with business expertise as the world becomes more data savvy by the day.