Nov 27, 2016 10:40 AM EST By Chris Brandt, UniversityHerald Reporter

Big data is getting bigger and bigger and more businesses are adopting it. Why not when it makes business faster and more efficient. Through big data, they can easily access information to help them create well-informed decisions. It surely has done a lot of benefits to companies but how about next year? How will big data affect businesses and industries in the coming years?

More analytic tools will emerge

As data volume grows, analytical methods will improve. SQL will still be the standard; however, there are emerging ways how big data is analyzed. One of them is Spark which is a good complementary tool for analysis. These tools will also be easier to use where users will be able to use them without any coding knowledge. Microsoft and Salesforce have already introduced these tools recently allowing non-coders to create apps to view data.

Real-time streaming insights will be the big winners

Tech experts predict that in 2017, business and organizations will want to use data to make real-time decisions using advanced analytic tools.

Privacy will be the greatest challenge

Gartner predicted that by 2018, almost 50 percent of businesses will face violations in business ethics in relation to big data. In fact, that is already anticipated when the European Union put into effect the new privacy regulation.

Autonomous agents will continue to thrive

As artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated, companies will rely more on these things, which include virtual assistants, robots, smart advisers, and autonomous vehicles.

Cognitive technology will emerge

With the emergence of AI, cognitive computing will become a necessity. It will even become synonymous with analytics as businesses perceive the relationship and similarity between big data and analytics.

Big data will be gone

What it means here is that big data will be divided into chunks to make it more efficient and actionable. As some experts say, volume is not necessarily better where data is concerned. More so, a lot of companies don't really use up all those data they have access to. Therefore, instead of accumulating volume, companies should know how to efficiently use the data they have in their hands no matter what the size is by asking the right questions.

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