Can You Tell the Difference Between Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence?

The world is abuzz with terms like artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced AI chatbots. Thanks, Chat GPT! Unfortunately, with buzz comes third parties that like to throw around these words in relation to their product to garner attention. But honestly, these parties don’t even need to be sneaky because the definitions for these terms are perplexing and pull in readers regardless of snappy titles and content.

One of the major challenges with these terms is the understood definitions. If you were to poll the average businessperson, they may not all agree on what data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence really mean. The other difficulty is that so many of these terms link together or have very similar meanings. Many people would argue that some of these terms are subtypes of each other, while others may say they can be used interchangeably. Although that may be something that others can live with, it’s always been confusing to me. I like to think about these terms as building blocks but will admit there is some overlap.

Data Analytics vs. Machine Learning vs. Artificial Intelligence

Here are the clear lines that I like to use to define each term:

• Data Analytics: Analyze information to draw conclusions about historical or current trends to inform current or future decisions
  • Machine Learning: Utilizes historical and current data identified in data analysis to continuously update current analysis/approach to produce better results
    • Artificial Intelligence (AI): Takes an action or actions based on machine learning

To clarify how we’re dividing machine learning and AI, as I think these are the two most interchangeable terms, let’s agree that:

• If the only action it takes is to refine assumptions that produce decision-making information for humans, that’s machine learning.
• If it takes an action, like blocking network activity, that’s AI.

To further cement this concept, let’s walk through some examples…

Hopefully, this provides you with some ammunition the next time a third party loosely throws around the word AI with nothing to back it up. If you’re in need of assistance with your data analytics model and management process, reach out to Wolf today.