Data scientist has topped the list of best jobs in the U.S. for three years in a row, according to Glassdoor. Not only a huge demand exists for these professionals but there’s a significant amount of shortage too in getting qualified data scientists.
If you’re a complete stranger to data science, it’s the field where data is dealt with and extracted mainly to obtain valuable insights on businesses. Today, almost every business uses data-driven decisions in different ways. And those who don’t are likely to do so in the near future.
If reading till now has made you interested in becoming a data scientist, but you’re wondering whether it’ll continue to be one of the hottest future jobs, keep on reading this post. Here, we’re going to discuss why the role of data scientists will continue to be one of the most attractive future jobs and why you should focus on making yourself future-proof now.
1- Why data scientists will be inevitable in the future?
Before we discuss the answer, let’s understand why data scientists these days enjoy such a huge demand in the market. The short and simple answer is that over the last decade, there has been a huge explosion in both the amount of data generated and retained by organizations as well as the common people.
As we’ve already discussed, almost every company or business today relies heavily on data, thus giving rise to a massive demand for qualified and experienced data scientists. And with more and more data being captured across the globe than ever before, the demand for expertise to extract valuable and actionable insights from that data is going to only grow by leaps and bounds.
Now, let’s see how data scientists will be shaping the future.
1.1- Struggle for companies will continue in terms of managing data
Today, a huge amount of data is being generated by businesses, organizations, and people constantly. And this amount will become even bigger with more prominence of IoT devices in the future.
As a result, businesses will require an increasing number of data scientists to analyze that data and obtain crucial insights from it to have a competitive edge. So, data scientists will be one of those future jobs that will help businesses make progress in both the short- and long-term.
1.2- Data privacy regulations will continue to stay
With the emergence of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), companies have become more reliant on data scientists due to the requirement of real-time analytics and responsible storing of the data captured by them. One aspect of GDPR allows consumers to request that businesses delete some types of data, necessitating that businesses understand where and how such information is stored.
These days, people have become understandably more cautious about giving up their information to businesses compared to people from past generations. Today, people know that data breaches happen and can lead to severe consequences.
As a result, businesses can no longer afford to treat that data irresponsibly and the GDPR is likely to be just the beginning. In this scenario, data scientists are and will be playing crucial roles in helping businesses use the data they collect in an advantageous way that aligns with privacy stipulations.
1.3- Data science will be evolving
Careers that don’t come with growth potential stay stagnant and it indicates that jobs within those fields have to change drastically to remain relevant. But when it comes to data science, it appears to have a huge range of opportunities to evolve in the near as well as distant future. The field demonstrates no sign of slowing down and is gaining heavy momentum instead.
So, it can be said that the role of data scientists will be one of those future jobs that are slated to enjoy high demand. However, one small change may happen in the future with job titles becoming more specific. For example, someone working as a data scientist in an organization will not necessarily be doing the same thing at another organization.
1.4- Data science will become even more important to businesses
Let’s consider an example here to better understand why the demand for data scientists will become even bigger in the future. Imagine this – a customer service center is equipped with basic systems that enable employees to check names, physical and email addresses, phone number etc of a customer whenever he or she is calling the center. So, the employees can skip the explanation part in the beginning if the caller is an existing customer.
Now, with the help of the expertise of data scientists, employees can get more information about the callers such as the ratings they gave the business in different surveys, how much they’ve spent on products or services, and their return history, among others. In other words, with the help of data scientists, employees will not only be able to figure out the customers’ problems, but they’ll also understand the mindsets of customers, thereby channeling the interactions accordingly.
1.5- Tailored algorithms will become more important
Based on a company’s unique organizational goals, data scientists are capable of creating an individual data strategy aimed at business success. With the development of algorithms, advanced functions will be created to deliver automated solutions and provide feedback to data scientists as data is collected.
As with all data, feedbacks are of no value without analysis and insights of what has happened and what will happen. To obtain a competitive edge, businesses will have to remain better-informed and shape their strategies accordingly and this demand will keep on making data scientist one of the hottest future jobs.
1.6- Commoditization will continue to increase
It’s evident that data science work is getting commoditized increasingly – almost all machine learning frameworks today come with libraries of models that are pre-structured, pre-tuned, and pre-trained. The net impact is that an expert data scientist now can solve in a much shorter period what an entire team couldn’t solve earlier in months.
As a result, businesses across the globe have started to understand that this is the ideal time for investing in data science for lots of domains for which the technology related to the field was too complex or too expensive earlier. And this scenario is going to only expand and become bigger to embrace newer domains within its fold. Hence, the demand for data scientists will keep on rising.
1.7- Machine learning will keep on evolving
It’s expected that machine learning as one of the fundamental elements of data science will change greatly in the future. As a result, the focus will be shifted from paying more attention to the mechanics of machine learning to unleashing creativity and using different kinds of models. With the changed way of practicing machine learning, data scientists with even more productivity will be needed by the businesses.
1.8- New data sources will keep on emerging
Though the IoT isn’t something new, the interconnection between devices that are supported by this concept will continue to grow in the future, thus resulting in more connections between different types of electronic devices.
Today, businesses are mostly using purchase data, sales data, clickstream data etc, but in the future, businesses will need to include data captured from a more diverse range of sources like manufacturing streams, retail environments, employees, vehicles etc. As a result, the role of data scientists will continue to be one of the most sought after future jobs.
1.9- Present operational aspects will become more important
We know that competition in the business domains is only likely to increase in the future. The expertise of data scientists is likely to become the key differentiator for businesses.
Three major ways these professionals will keep on helping businesses include faster business solutions, cost reduction, and strategic launch of new products and services. With the help of better technologies and tools coupled with knowledge and expertise of data scientists, businesses will be able to gain a crucial competitive advantage.
2- Other areas where data scientists will be heavily required
If you think that data scientists are capable of helping retailers to influence consumers’ purchasing habits, it’s good to know that they can do much more than that by capturing data. For example, with the help of their expertise, public health can be improved through wearable trackers that can motivate people to adopt healthier habits and can alert them of potential health issues.
Some other examples where the expertise of data scientists can be used is for farmers to promote efficient food growth as well as delivery, for food suppliers to reduce food waste, for nonprofit organizations to predict fundraising needs and boost fundraising efforts etc.
In conclusion
The exponential growth in data and its effectiveness in every aspect of the society we’ve witnessed since its beginning isn’t expected to slow down in the near and distant future. In reality, we’ve probably only experienced the tip of the iceberg. The future will most likely bring about a more increasing torrent of data.
The advancements in the field will give rise to better models as well as innovative and newer ones. It can be said that even if only half of the trends in the field continue at their current pace, there’ll still be a huge demand for data scientists. So, it’s the best time to make yourself prepared for the promising future ahead.
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To learn more about data science, click here and read our another article.
