I run a BI team in an era where AI can do in seconds what used to take days. And the thing I've learned most clearly from that: the advantage was never in processing speed. It was always in knowing which question to ask, and why the answer matters to a real person making a real decision. That part hasn't changed. It's just more valuable now.
When I stepped into the BI Manager role in 2024, one thing became clear fast: being good at data wasn't going to be enough. AI was doing things that used to define a BI analyst's day. Organisations weren't looking for more reports — they were looking for answers to questions they hadn't fully formed yet. So I made a decision: we were going to change how we worked before the market forced us to.
