Data has become one of the most valuable assets in any organization - it carries with it a promise of a deeper understanding and, if used properly, the ability to change the world. Harnessing the full power of data requires collecting the data, storing it securely, and processing it to generate insights - the field of Data Science. This fast-expanding discipline of machine learning and artificial intelligence generates new algorithms every day to consume the data we generate when we buy stuff, drive our vehicles, and browse the internet. But a much thornier and less-often discussed problem in the Data Science field is what exactly to do with this data.
The ‘show’ component of data (data visualization) has come a long way, but the ‘tell’ side of things (i.e. exactly how to use data to drive action) remains very much an open question. Even with all the tools and technology available today, it’s not uncommon for a data science team to spend months or even years researching and building a model, only to see their hard work end up a screenshot in a Powerpoint deck. The great promise of data science is that we can harness all this data and use it to solve problems; in order to do this, the data and models must somehow connect to people and their behavior.
This has become known as the ‘last mile’ problem in data science: how to deploy data science models and use them to change behavior.
Enter Behavioral Science - this combination of psychology, linguistics, and statistical modeling brings people back into the center of the analytics problem. Behavioral Science provides the link between data and action through concepts such as the ‘nudge’: using small suggestions or signals to influence behavior. Through the use of machine learning models, we connect data to Slice Mind’s ‘nudge engines’ as a way to modify behavior. Slice Mind products and services use data and artificial intelligence to build models that not only predict everything from marketing prospects to degree of honesty in claims submission, but then use Behavioral Science’s ‘nudging’ to put these insights into action. Learn more about Slice Mind here.
