Businesses seem to know more about you than you know about yourself. Sign up for or log into any social media platform and you will encounter suggested buying options based on your personal interests or previous buying history.

In an article by InformationWeek back in 2018, Sr. Data Scientist Sophie Searcy stated, “Given the critical role data scientists play in how data is used (or misused), it’s imperative that we fairly represent everyone impacted by our work, which is to say, all of us. In order to ensure that this happens, the data science industry must be absolutely committed to hiring and developing diverse talent.” She went on to state, “when blacks make up 13% of the US population but represent just 1% of hires at our leading tech companies (look no further than Google and Amazon for examples), something’s wrong.”

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Post-pandemic Growth Opportunity Analysis of the Big Data Analytics Market, predicts that the global Big Data Analytics (BDA) market is estimated to witness double-digit growth in the post-pandemic COVID-19 era. Under an aspirational forecast scenario, which assumes that the COVID-19 virus is contained by August 2020 and that global markets will be able to recover by the end of the year, the market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.9%, reaching $68.09 billion by 2025 from $14.85 billion in 2019. Under the conservative forecast scenario, the market is likely to reach $41.84 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 18.8%. Depending on the development and availability of a vaccine, the conservative forecast includes a market slowdown and recovery period of 18 to 24 months.

In the modern world characterized by connectivity and different devices, making intelligent use of big data is turning out to be a breakthrough for many industries. With the increasing damage meted on humanity and economy by COVID-19, the need to have access to big data and technology in general due to social distancing and lockdown has changed many things in different industries. With the changes, some of which may appear temporary but will be permanent going into the future, a company that manages to utilize data will rule.