Beyond Buzzwords: Big Data & Machine Learning

It’s up to debate which field has more buzzwords, business or politics. Some fancy new word crashes into our consciousness and we all get excited about the next big thing. But there’s always a point when business leaders have to take up a buzzword and look at what it really means and how it could affect the bottom line.

These days, the new business buzzwords are all related to big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and similar topics. While we agree that these are all important to know, it’s all too easy for someone to get dazzled by buzzwords. Some basic understanding is necessary.

In this Promotable talk, Jesse Shanahan gives viewers the basics that they must know to start approaching big data and machine learning as a useful concept rather than just a marketing buzzword. He is a data scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton.

The Big Takeaways

The talk goes over four core concepts and unpacks them for a general audience: data, big data, data science, and machine learning. It all starts with understanding the data lifecycle, which explains how businesses gather, process, store, and eventually delete information.

Without a good understanding of this and good data practices, any other tool built on top of that data will fall apart. Toward the end, at 27:37, Jesse talks about the reasons why Machine Language techniques might fail from three standpoints: data, implementation, and ethics. Ethics may be a bit of a surprise, but it is one of the most important issues facing data-driven decision makers today. We believe this section is a must-watch.

Promotable wants to help you close the data skills gap. If buzzwords like big data confuse you and you need to know more, check out our previous videos or sign up to join one of our talks in an area near you.