Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics

Historic analysis is just reporting. To be actionable, insight needs to alert you to what is likely to happen. That is the core of predictive analytics: identifying future trends, whether these be threats or opportunities. Even that is often not going to be enough: you know that something is likely to happen, but what do you do about it? Prescriptive analytics provides the actions – both the things you must do, and the things you should not do.