A year ago, we launched this online magazine to explore Outside Insight, a new software category and decision-making paradigm, which involves the help of AI to mine external data for valuable, forward-looking insights.
We’ve compiled use cases from companies and business leaders who are already putting this strategy into practice, highlighted innovators making advancements in search of new sources of external data and new methods of analysis, and illustrated how Outside Insight can be used in practice across all areas of an enterprise.
In the latest Big Data and AI survey of senior executives across Fortune 1000 companies from NewVantage Partners, we see that 97% of firms are investing in AI and data analytics projects, and 73% have already seen measurable value from them – up from 48.4% in 2017. The AI revolution has arrived, and if your business is not implementing AI-driven external data analysis into your decision-making processes now, it’s beginning to fall behind.
As we forge on toward continued AI transformation, here is how we define this new software category and business strategy, and the forces that have come together, enabling it to take hold.
Business Intelligence vs Outside Insight
Business Intelligence (BI) has long been used to analyze data across an enterprise. However, BI today is very “ERP” and internal-centric. Dashboards and KPIs for BI tools are built using internal data that looks at inputs like sales volumes, operational costs and pricing strategies.
This information, however, is often historical and is outdated as soon as it’s analyzed. It offers lagging indicators, and it assumes that the past can effectively predict the future.
However, this presents a problem. Companies are open systems, meaning they are influenced by external agents and factors. If you want to leverage the past, you need an unbiased, 360 degree view, including what happened or is happening outside your organization, within your competitor set and within the wider industry.
Outside Insight takes into account all of these external factors to look at leading indicators and more accurately benchmark a company’s performance against the backdrop of its wider industry.
What is Outside Insight?
Outside Insight leverages the latest artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to analyze, provide context to, and derive insights from the massive amount of external data found online. These insights can be used to make more informed, forward-looking decisions.
External data is information found outside a company’s firewalls. This comes from the online breadcrumbs companies and individuals leave behind, from sources including news and social media, patent filings, job listings, online advertising, market capitalization and more.
The Artificial Intelligence Revolution
Today we’re seeing a massive boom in the development and proliferation of this sort of artificial intelligence. We attribute this growth to 3 advancements that have come together to enable the perfect environment:
The proliferation of vast amounts of available data
The development of significantly faster processing power which can analyze this data at scale
The development of advanced learning algorithms which can distill valuable insights from this data
This has resulted in the proliferation of AI and machine learning companies.
In addition, investments in AI have seen a massive uptick among the world’s most influential companies, led by giants like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Salesforce and Meltwater.
Who is Outside Insight for?
OI is a new approach to decision-making that can be leveraged across an enterprise – from PR and marketing professionals, to product developers and risk management teams, to investors, salespeople, and up to the executive and c-suite level who drive core strategy for the business.
Looking at external data over time can surface signals from the noise which can predict new opportunities or threats that might impact a business, and can help you benchmark your brand against the competition by providing an unbiased, 360 degree view of where you stand in your industry.
Want to learn more? Read Meltwater Founder & CEO Jorn Lyseggen’s book, Outside Insight, available on Amazon.
