The technology and the practices around predictive analytics are also evolving. Here are four ways predictive analytics is changing.

Predictive analytics — a statistical or data mining solution consisting of algorithms and techniques that can be used on both structured and unstructured data to determine outcomes — is not a new technology. In fact, it has been used on structured data for decades. However, several factors — including cheap compute power, ever-increasing amounts of disparate data with various frequencies (aka, big data), ease of use, and the need to more effectively compete — have helped to fuel the more recent adoption of the technology. The technology is becoming red-hot.