What does predictive analytics do?

Predictive analytics focuses on identifying the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical and current data. It utilizes statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques to analyze patterns and trends within the data, enabling organizations to anticipate future events or behaviors. By leveraging these insights, businesses can make informed decisions, optimize operations, or enhance customer engagement. This approach allows for proactive planning rather than reactive measures, contributing to better strategic initiatives and resource allocation.

In contrast, analyzing past data to make real-time decisions is more aligned with descriptive analytics or real-time analytics. Summarizing historical data pertains to descriptive analytics, which focuses on what has happened rather than predicting what will occur. Providing visual representations of data generally relates to data visualization, which helps in understanding data better but does not implicitly involve future predictions. Each of these functions supports decision-making but serves different primary purposes within the analytics framework.