Collecting and analysing data, including but not limited to text, images, and video formats, is a huge part of various industries. It can be an incredibly complex process to sift through massive amounts of data and leverage it to benefit your business by discovering key patterns. Many people who begin learning data science or are considering taking it up are often employed in other industries, to begin with. They may be afraid that pursuing this new area will leave them high and dry with few prospects, and considering how taking up data science requires a good background of Probability and Statistics, they may not think it’s worth the effort. However, many industries benefit from the expertise of data scientists, such as those on the following list below:

1. The Transportation Industry

In India, Analytics India Mag reports that the Delhi government is planning to invest in a new traffic management system using radar-based monitoring with the help of AI. For example, the Allahabad police are using this new technology to direct traffic at the Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s largest religious gatherings. India’s Railway minister Piyush Goyal adds, “AI can transform Indian Railways in terms of safety, passenger amenities, better revenues, growth and efficiency.” Railway Age describes how data science leads to vital insights into the degradation of track and equipment components, identifying areas of potential failure for improvement and repair. Due to recent developments in technology, “railroads are starting to look at the predictive analytics tools within this field of Data Science to help optimise and plan maintenance and improve safety,” while providing new and actionable insights.

2. The Legal Industry

Although Forbes claims that the legal sector is slow to adopt big data, currently lagging behind other industries, they also claim that “in the digital age, legal providers that fail to make this investment will be unable to compete with those that do.” Special Counsel’s data analysis page explains that the right methods can make all the difference for law firms, as these enable them to better manage information, make effective decisions, and mitigate risks. For one, database administration can help optimise database performance through automated monitoring systems that provide streamlined projects from start to finish. Data engineering and warehousing can also centralise data from law enterprises hosted across multiple sites while simultaneously analysing a large quantity of information. Also, if a law firm is struggling with a database containing duplicate amounts of information along with out-dated data, analytics can help organise these documents by theme and eliminate any unnecessary information.

3. The Healthcare Industry

Research published by the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association suggests that the demand for data scientists in the healthcare sector is growing incredibly swiftly. Through the methods of pattern recognition, statistical analysis, and deep learning algorithms, data science is revolutionising the healthcare industry. The invaluable ability to process massive amounts of data related to laboratory results, as well as clinical reports, leads to a quicker and more efficient diagnostic service. AI in healthcare is being urged by India’s Niti Aayog, who states that “by taking advantage of AI, India could grow its gross domestic product by 1.3 percentage points annually to US$957 billion by 2035.” In addition, Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan adds that “the potential of AI in public health is being explored in our country," with “the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare working towards using AI in a safe and effective way in public health in India.”

To sum it all up, data science provides invaluable benefits across a wide range of industries. In this day and age, collecting data is ultimately useless if you can’t utilise it in an efficient manner. Data science organises this data and provides real-world applications that impact customers in meaningful ways.

For anyone who’s interested in beginning a career in data science and is in need of some helpful guides, check out the MLWHiz Archive