Emerging Roles and Opportunities in the Age of Decision Intelligence
Organizations today are increasingly seeking ways to streamline internal processes, enhance decision-making, and sharpen their competitive edge. As highlighted in our blog post, Decision Intelligence is Going Mainstream: Seize the Competitive Edge as an Early Adopter, decision intelligence (DI) can empower organizations with a unique advantage by digitizing and automating decisions, transforming operations, facilitating collaboration, and ultimately improving financial outcomes. This technological shift has led to the emergence of specialized roles that ensure the successful adoption and integration of DI into ongoing business operations.
Applying Decision Intelligence: Key Skills and Expertise
Professionals in this field use analytics, data science, and engineering skills to implement decision intelligence platforms, optimizing decision-making processes for organizations. By integrating AI and advanced analytics, they design, monitor, and refine decision models, serving as a crucial liaison between business and technical teams to enhance collaboration and automation. As more companies adopt DI platforms, the demand will grow for talent capable of managing these systems and driving strategic and tactical decisions. Experience with data science, optimization, software engineering, and communication will be essential, creating opportunities for those interested in working in this rapidly expanding and promising field. Following is an overview of the skills a decision intelligence leader should master to be successful in decision intelligence.
Designing Strategic Decision-Making Frameworks
Strategists in decision intelligence play a critical role in understanding the interplay between business processes, data, and decision-making. These experts ensure that decision frameworks align with organizational goals, identifying internal and external data required to refine recommendations and deliver measurable results. This becomes especially crucial when scaling DI, as it involves not only modeling decisions but also optimizing the entire decision-making process across the organization.
The skills needed to excel in this role are still evolving, but the foundational requirements have been highlighted in our webinar, How Decision Architects and AI Platforms are Transforming Work and Value, co-hosted with EY. In this webinar, experts discuss how to create these frameworks and bridge the gap between business and technology for large-scale DI implementation.
Bridging the Gap Between Business and Technology
Success in decision intelligence (DI) relies on professionals who can align business needs with technical solutions, creating a strong partnership between these two areas. Individuals in this field must understand both business strategy and technical capabilities, capturing complex problems and turning them into data-driven solutions. They design decision models that are technically sound and aligned with business goals, with the goal of increasing efficiency, reducing costs, addressing critical but unmade decisions, and improving customer satisfaction. A solid foundation in data science, AI, and advanced analytics is crucial, along with knowledge of statistical analysis, machine learning, and predictive modeling. Equally important is the ability to communicate technical insights to non-technical stakeholders, turning analytical findings into understandable and actionable business strategies through strong storytelling and data visualization. Professionals must also lead cross-functional teams, ensuring alignment of AI models with strategic priorities and driving change management. This blend of technical expertise, strategic thinking, and communication ensures that the decision intelligence platforms these professionals deploy continue to deliver value as the business evolves.
Taking a Holistic View of Decision-Making
A clear differentiator of decision intelligence from existing legacy systems — such as business intelligence (BI), supply chain planning (SCP), and other solutions — is the ability to take a comprehensive view of all available data to ensure alignment and consistency of decision execution across all business functions. This requires analyzing how decisions in one area, such as supply chain, affect others like procurement, finance, and logistics, ultimately upholding the broader business strategy. DI professionals create frameworks that identify and address conflicting decisions with the aim to reduce organizational friction, break down silos, and foster cross-functional communication and collaboration. They also account for interdependencies among various functions, allowing them to pinpoint potential bottlenecks or conflicts early, preventing conflict and ensuring smooth operations. By incorporating data insights and predictive analytics, decision intelligence professionals ensure that the decisions ultimately made are both timely and aligned with long-term goals. This holistic approach empowers organizations with a newfound ability to adapt quickly to market changes while maintaining strategic focus— even in the face of disruptions.
Scaling and Optimizing
Scaling decision intelligence can be a challenge, especially in large organizations with diverse business units or global operations. DI professionals ensure that decision models are both adaptable and composable, designing them to accommodate varying data sets, market conditions, and operational needs. This requires building flexible frameworks that evolve with the organization, ensuring consistent decision-making outcomes as it scales. Optimization is crucial to maintain speed and accuracy, and requires fine-tuning algorithms to leverage real-time insights and integrate data sources seamlessly. Automation and augmentation are also key to reducing manual tasks, allowing teams to focus on strategic activities while preserving decision quality. Effective scaling also requires aligning DI models with strategic priorities, ensuring that automation supports both immediate needs and long-term goals. By balancing adaptability and precision, DI professionals create resilient solutions that drive continuous growth and efficiency throughout the organization
Managing Change and Adoption
Integrating AI into decision-making processes requires careful change management to ensure a smooth transition and successful adoption. Professionals in this field play a crucial role in not only aligning technology with existing human roles but making teams comfortable with the transition to decision intelligence. This is accomplished by ensuring that AI augments rather than replaces the contributions of team members. Decision intelligence leaders focus on training and guiding employees to use new tools effectively, helping them to understand how AI can augment their decision-making capabilities. By fostering a culture that embraces innovation and continuous learning, these experts reduce resistance to change and promote confidence in AI-driven processes. Their efforts not only accelerate user adoption but also improve the speed and quality of decisions by enabling teams to make data-driven choices more efficiently. This thoughtful approach to managing change ensures that AI integration delivers sustainable improvements, optimizing both individual performance and overall organizational outcomes.
Why These Skills are Essential
In the evolving landscape of decision intelligence, specific expertise is crucial for organizations seeking to scale decision-making, optimize processes, and align operational execution with strategic goals. By investing in skilled professionals, companies can achieve better outcomes, accelerate automation, and cultivate a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring long-term success in a data-driven world.
While these capabilities are still emerging, there is significant opportunity for those who wish to become pioneers in decision intelligence. By pursuing an educational path to gain expertise in this area, individuals can position themselves as leaders in this growing field. We encourage our readers to explore the training available through Aera Technology and invite them to participate in live sessions during AeraHub 2024.
Together, we aim to empower the next generation of leaders in decision intelligence, helping them build the foundation of effective, scalable, and integrated decision-making systems.
