Does data-driven decision-making make you boring?

With all the focus on data and AI, it was simply a matter of time before the countermovement started. Reflecting on several discussions around this topic that I’ve had over the last year, the key theme seems to be that data and AI are predicting the future based on the past and as long as the future is like the past, this works fine. However, the world is in constant flux and these technologies cause stagnation as we can’t predict fundamental shifts and disruptive innovations. Even worse, we don’t even look for them as we look at data in a short-sighted fashion.

Although I most certainly believe that there’s a very important place for human creativity and insight, I also think that not exploiting the advantages data and AI offer is simply akin to shooting yourself in the foot or tying one arm behind your back. There are several reasons for this.