Career Growth Series: Getting Started in Data, Analytics and AI (Part 2)

[Sarah-Clark]

Welcome back!

This week, we continue the conversation with the Women Who Qlik leaders as they share more insights on starting in analytics, data, and AI and what they see coming next in this exciting and evolving field.

Related Content:

Podcast: How to get started in Data Analytics with Deeksha Anand (26 mins)

Linkedin Live: Data Voyagers Podcast: Qlik it like a Woman (50 mins)

Extra Resources:

Podcast: Path to Data Leadership: Skills Challenges and Growth (41 mins)

Linkedin Live: The Data Mix: Women Who Qlik (55 mins)

We would love to hear from you! Please share, in the comments, how the field of data, analytics and AI has changed over the past few years, and how aspiring professionals should prepare for what’s next?  @Aklidas,@papazissispaolinelli, @StephanieR  and @GSTAMP  please share your thoughts as well. 

[papazissispaolinelli]

Over the past few years, the field of data, analytics, and AI has shifted from being primarily descriptive and technical to becoming deeply strategic, product-driven, and business‑embedded. We’ve moved beyond dashboards and reports to real-time decisioning, predictive and prescriptive analytics, and now generative AI, which is redefining how insights are created, consumed, and scaled across organizations.

What has changed the most is the expectation: data professionals are no longer just builders or analysts, but translators, advisors, and change agents. Value now comes not only from technical excellence, but from understanding the business context, designing for users, ensuring trust and governance, and embedding AI responsibly into everyday workflows.

For aspiring professionals, preparing for what’s next means going beyond tools and algorithms. Strong foundations in data thinking, problem framing, and critical reasoning are essential. At the same time, skills in AI literacy, prompt engineering, data ethics, and storytelling are becoming just as important as SQL or Python. Equally critical is the ability to continuously learn, experiment, and collaborate across disciplines, because the pace of change is not slowing down.

Curious to hear other perspectives as well!

[Sarah-Clark]

Hi @papazissispaolinelli, thank you for sharing you thoughts.  I really like how you comment on that the expectation on the role has changed to include translators, advisors and change agents. 

[StephanieR]

“I am watching data and analytics shift in front of me—from manual reporting to AI‑powered, real‑time intelligence—and what inspires me most is the opportunity this creates for women. With strong fundamentals, curiosity, and the courage to lead, we’re not just stepping into the future of analytics… we’re actively shaping it.” 

[Sarah-Clark]

@StephanieR thank you for sharing.  I 100% agree.  The future of analytics is empowering women to lead and shape the future!

[Aklidas]

This is truly a new era, a time of fast and exciting changes. I remember a time when our world was very different. I was one of the first to try digital banking, using an ISDN phone line. It felt like magic, connecting to the bank from home. Now, our world is always connected through the internet, a huge leap from those early days.

In my work, I used to see Business Intelligence as a repeating cycle. A BI consultant could handle everything: understanding what was needed, building the systems, making data easy to see, testing it, and putting it into use. It was a complete job for one person. But things have changed a lot since then.

AI, a term that is very popular now, has been part of my journey for a while. My first project with AI was back in 2015. It was interesting, but not like today. Now, we are learning to use generative AI as a personal helper Gen AI, it makes our work better and faster, helping us to be more effective and efficient. And we see more with machine learning and deeplearning and fantastic projects. 

We also learned that good data is very important. If you put in bad data, you get bad results. This is true for predictions and all the other amazing things AI can do. So, we moved from having messy data to focusing on data governance, making sure our data is clean and useful. This shift also means we need to move from just understanding data (data literacy) to understanding AI (AI literacy).

Everything is connected, and changes happen very quickly. Change is always happening, but with every change, there is also a new chance. This is what makes our field so dynamic and important.

is truly a new time, a time of fast and exciting changes. I remember a time when our world was very different. I was one of the first to try digital banking, using an ISDN phoneline. It felt like magic, connecting to the bank from home. Now, our world is always connected through the internet, a huge leap from those early days.

In my work, I used to teach to my students and the organization that I worked for that Business Intelligence (BI) as a repeating cycle. A BI consultant could handle everything: understanding what was needed, building the systems, making data easy to see, testing it, and putting it into use. It was a complete job for one person. But things have changed a lot since then.

AI, a term that is very popular now, has been part of my journey for a while. My first project with AI was back in 2015. It was interesting, but not like today. Gen AI is mostly used, and I feel the pace is more raid than a year ago we are continuously learning to use generative AI as a personal helper. It makes our work better and faster, helping us to be more effective and efficient.

We also learned that good data is very important. If you put in bad data, you get bad results. This is true for our BI solutions but also predictions and all the other amazing things AI can do. So, we moved from having messy data to focusing on data governance, making sure our data is clean and useful. This shift also means we need to move from just understanding data (data literacy) to understanding AI (AI literacy) end yes, both are connected.

As a matter of fact all is connected, and changes happen very quickly. Change is always happening, but with every change, there is also a new chance. This is what makes our field so dynamic and important, so I will just say please #keeponlearning 

Cheers
Angelika