Predicting the future

In 1689, the Llyod company used predictive analytics to underwrite insurance for sea voyages. The company used data sets of past trips in order to evaluate the risk of voyages and predict patterns of liability. Today, powered by AI, ML, IoT and Big Data, predictive analytics is being used to understand consumer behaviour, offer farming solutions, aid predictive maintenance of big machines, and boost preventive healthcare.

While the use of analytics – using past data to predict future outcomes – has been around for years, the past decade, in particular, has witnessed a surge in the number of Indian startups offering predictive analytics solutions for better decision-making. A report by industry body Nasscom suggests that Data and AI – the basis of predictive analytics -- can add $450-500 billion to India's GDP by 2025. In fact, according to Valuates Reports, the Global Predictive Analytics Market size -- valued at USD 7.32 billion in 2019 -- is projected to reach USD 35.45 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 21.9 per cent from 2020 to 2027.
“We help our brick and mortar retail clients ensure that the right product is in the right store at the right price. Our AI-driven SaaS products can predict how a customer will shop each season, when she will come back for a refill and what additional item she may buy,” said Prashant Agrawal, CEO and Founder, Impact Analytics. The company uses AI to power its forecasting engine which in turn allows accurate planning and pricing decisions for the future. So, how has predictive analytics evolved over the years? “This space has witnessed many advancements with organisations and data scientists using “deeper” techniques. These are better than the linear white box models as they can uncover complex patterns, non-linearity, variable interactions, etc. and provide higher accuracy to forecasts and predictions,” said Siddharth Roy, Practice Lead – Digital, Thoucentric. The startup is a niche management consulting firm.

The segment has also started evolving to address integrated solutions rather than addressing bespoke point solutions. Some of the recent advances have been around using IOT data to predict preventive maintenance of manufacturing equipment, using social media data to predict customer buying behaviour, using

video analytics to predict fraudulent behaviour or using public videos of traffic patterns to predict crowd build-ups. “In terms of application, predictive analytics has moved from a risk and marketing domain and become mainstream to all line and support functions across all industries,” said Hari Kumar, Partner – Technology Consulting, EY. Adds American venture capitalist and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Tim Draper, “Broadly speaking, predictive analytics may effect (even take) many of our jobs in the future. We are using predictive analytics to better anticipate what might be a good venture investment. I expect explosive growth in this industry going forward.”

RecoSense, an AI transformation partner for customers focusing on content intelligence and customer data platform, developed AI frameworks to enable personalised engagement of a human-machine interaction. “In this process, our indigenously developed Knowledge Graph builds three types of associations – content to content, user to content and user to user,” said Amith srinivas, Founder & CEO, RecoSense Info Solutions. “The driving force in predictive analytics is to leverage AI and go beyond data manifestation to prediction, forecasting and cognitive intelligence.”

Another startup, US-based Predictiv, is taking preventive healthcare to a new level. It is the first DNA-based digital twin for health, to predict and prevent over 16,000 diseases, and simulate one’s own reaction to hundreds of drugs and treatments. “We analyse the 20,000 genes of your genome, which is made possible by Next Generation Sequencing, and compare your gene variants to the ones known to increase a disease risk or impact the action of a drug,” said Sajung Yun, CEO, Predictiv Care, one of the semi-finalists of the show, Meet The Drapers. The firm helped a girl (who lost both her parents to cancer) get her digital twin. “The digital twin helped her know the possible diseases she was at risk of acquiring.”

The segment has some challenges too. The biggest gaps – on the supply side – being easy access of good data and – on the execution side -- difficulty in seamless integration to execution systems and feedback mechanisms. “Getting a seamless pipe of quality data is still a challenge and most modellers end up spending 50-70 per cent of their time getting the data right,” said EY’s Kumar. But, some like Krishna Kumar, Founder & CEO, CropIn believe the real challenge is analyzing the vast umbrella of data available. The platform helps growers adopt sustainable farming practices to build long term economic viability and resiliency for local farming communities. “With predictive analytics and big data, it is possible to mold the future of the agricultural industry with greater precision. Looking at the bigger picture, it would provide food to billions of people worldwide and more significantly contribute to eliminating global hunger,” he said.

The success of the startups doing well in the segment has also attracted investor attention. “Increased awareness around the potential of predictive analytics coupled with the agility and economics of consuming offerings over the cloud has pushed demand growth and market size,” said Roy of Thoucentric.

Meet the Drapers is a groundbreaking Silicon Valley entrepreneurial show where the Draper Family hunts for the next billion-dollar idea and the viewers get to invest in their favorite companies! To learn more about Meet the Drapers, go to www.MeetTheDrapers