The Future of Data & Analytics in 2025

It’s been just over two years since ChatGPT changed the data, analytics, and AI landscape. Some of this technology has made its way into the analytics tools we use today, but its reach and effect on everyday work are still developing. However, the implications of Generative AI (Gen AI) are enormous. For the first time, even casual users can take advantage of a massive corpus of human understanding that can make their lives easier and less tedious.

In analytics, 2025 will be the year we see a true blending of AI and BI. The following are a few of my predictions for the future of data and analytics and what we might see next year.

Semantic Layers Become an Essential Component for Gen AI

Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on a vast corpus of generally available data, making them useful for various tasks. However, LLMs do not have insight into an enterprise’s proprietary business processes and terminology. For LLMs to empower Gen AI for business, LLMs need business context.

Integrating a semantic layer and its query engine with LLMs offers a significant leap forward in improving the accuracy and viability of Gen AI solutions. Major cloud providers like Snowflake, Databricks, and Google have all written and spoken about the importance of semantic models in improving the use of their AI offerings. This integration provides LLMs with essential business-side metadata, negating the need to create complex metrics from scratch or predict table joins.

In his whitepaper, “Enabling Natural Language Prompting with AtScale’s Semantic Layer and Generative AI,” Jeff Curran examines how a semantic layer and its query engine can elevate the performance of LLMs in generating SQL queries, offering a practical solution for organizations looking to leverage AI for natural language queries (NLQ) and AI tasks. In 2025, I expect to see the major cloud vendors integrate semantic layers into their products to provide business context for Gen AI.

Data Democratization Empowers the Workforce Using Gen AI

In 2025, data democratization—making data accessible to everyone in an organization—will reach new heights. Self-service analytics platforms will empower employees at all levels to leverage data without requiring technical expertise. Tools with intuitive interfaces, augmented with AI and natural language processing, will allow users to ask questions and receive insights in plain language.

This technology will lower the barriers to entry for business workers, allowing non-technical users to access sophisticated analytics tools. Generative AI-powered platforms will make data insights more accessible, empowering teams to quickly make data-driven decisions without needing in-depth technical expertise.

Business Intelligence (BI) Tools Get Smarter with Gen AI

Generative AI, such as ChatGPT and other advanced language models, will continue revolutionizing how data is analyzed and consumed. In 2025, these tools will evolve into essential business assets capable of automating complex data tasks, generating natural language reports, and crafting advanced predictive models.

At first, we’ll see Gen AI impact traditional BI tools through new features, such as agents or co-pilots, to help users automate tasks. However, simply grafting Gen AI into a conventional BI tool’s drag-and-drop interface will do little to move the needle. The real opportunity is to make users smarter, not just more productive. I expect to see Gen AI not just automate analytical tasks but work behind the scenes to surface anomalies and insights that might have been previously invisible to the human eye.

Exciting Times Ahead

The future of data and analytics promises exciting times ahead. As AI infiltrates the data and analytics landscape in 2025, we should expect to see the beginnings of widescale disruption in the data ecosystem. There’s always opportunity in chaos and disruption, and 2025 will present many opportunities for both. Expect to see the data platform and BI vendors competing for your business by leading with their Gen AI capabilities. The vendors best at integrating Gen AI into their products will ultimately win your business.