The supply of Data Scientists is a constraint toward building Advanced Analytics practices including broadly-defined AI. Therefore, we expect this supply constraint to be a catalyst for M&A activity.
We covered this “supply” topic last week in our article “AI: Today’s Mysterious Miracle Technology Is Tomorrow’s Electricity” The supply of data scientists is being stretched thin by technology companies that are working to build advanced analytics offerings as well as by companies in other industries that are working to build their own proprietary advanced analytics efforts. Whether it’s predictive analytics powered by machine learning, or data visualization, or neural networks that power conversational AI, all of the above (and more) require the expertise of professionals that have degrees and experience in advanced mathematics and/or statistics. We often refer to this talent pool as “Data Scientists.”
Microsoft is spearheading an effort within Azure called machine teaching. Machine teaching incorporates business users into the Machine Learning model building process which reduces the requirement for data labels. Even if Microsoft’s efforts are a wild success, the demand for Data Scientists will continue to grow. M&A could help alleviate some of the supply constraint. Prospective target companies include the following (not meant to be a comprehensive list):
- Alteryx (tkr: AYX): https://www.alteryx.com/
- DataRobot (private): https://www.datarobot.com/
- Domo (tkr: DOMO): https://www.domo.com/
- Fractal Analytics (private): https://fractal.ai/
- GoodData (private): https://www.gooddata.com/
- LatentView (private): https://www.latentview.com/
- MicroStrategy (tkr: MSTR): https://www.microstrategy.com/us
- Mu Sigma (private): https://www.mu-sigma.com/
- Opera Solutions (Accel KKR): https://www.operasolutions.com/
- Qlik (Thoma Bravo): https://www.qlik.com/us
- SAS (private): https://www.sas.com/en_us/home.html
- Sisense (private): https://www.sisense.com/
- Spotfire/Tibco (Vista Equity Partners): https://www.tibco.com/