DQLab x Cakap Webinar: The Future of Data Analyst Profession in the Era of AI

(Doc. DQLab)

TANGERANG – The Artificial Intelligence revolution has now brought various opportunities for the younger generation, ranging from having a significant impact on daily life to providing promising career prospects in the future. 

Data Analyst is one of the data professions constantly in demand because this profession is related to the development of digital transformation that requires all companies to make decisions based on data.

Starting a career as a Data Analyst is certainly not easy and requires diligence in exploring competencies to become a professional data practitioner. The DQLab event, in collaboration with Cakap, held a webinar as an effort to help the younger generation explore the great potential in a career as a Data Analyst and how to stay focused in the era of Artificial Intelligence. This webinar was held online on Thursday, April 13, 2023, by inviting Maheswara Parasdya, a Data Analyst at Cakap.

The Data Analyst profession is actually a derivative of Data Science, which is one of the most popular scientific fields. Being a Data Analyst does not only focus on the fields of Data Science, Big Data, and Data Analytics but will also intersect with various other disciplines depending on the field owned by a company.

As a Data Analyst, Maheswara explained that, in general, the potential skills that a Data Analyst must have are divided into 3 skills: (1) Theoretical Skills; (2) Soft Skills; and (3) Hard Skills.

“From the theoretical skills, maybe, friends in high school or college in STEM have often learned statistics and probability. Then there is algebra and calculus, and the last one that is more specific (in the field) is research and analytics. Where our ability to research a topic and problem and make an analysis, produce insights to be given to stakeholders and decision makers is a skill that we must have,” Maheswara said.

Maheswara revealed that when it comes to soft skills, over time, from college even to work, will automatically increase because they can be practiced directly when working on a project. However, there is one skill that is often forgotten by fellow data practitioners, which is storytelling.

“Because Data Analysts, as someone who best understands the data owned by a company, we must be able to explain the data to our decision makers or stakeholders to provide value (insight). So that data containing numbers can be understood and (can) produce value,” Maheswara said.

Maheswara explained that when it comes to hard skills, in the final stage or at a higher level, a Data Analyst needs to master programming languages (Python, SQL, R, to Excel), Data Warehousing, Preparation, & Exploration, and Data Visualization using tools such as Tableau, PowerBI, Looker, etc.

Furthermore, Maheswara explained the potential and direction of a more advanced (specialist) career as a Data Analyst, some of which are Data Scientist, Financial Analyst, Operations Analyst, and Market Researcher. After knowing the trend of Data Analysts, it is important for us to know other great potentials in the future, namely the Artificial Intelligence Era. This is to help the career process become more focused and achieved.

Nowadays, many people are buzzing that AI is a threat to us. Maheswara then explained why AI is a threat to us. 

“First, automations, (of course) from the beginning of the conversation and what many people fear is that it can take jobs (and) indeed it has. Where in the past, jobs that were usually filled by humans are now slowly being automated using AI, be it heavy work (such as manufacturing) to those whose job description is an analyst. Another point is the existence of LLM Chatbots such as GPT, where they can answer various questions even though they have no previous experience,” Maheswara said.

In this webinar, Maheswara helped answer the concern that AI can replace Data Analysts. He revealed that this is not true because AI helps us generate value and discover new methods. These discoveries help Data Analysts be more productive and provide new opportunities to improve the quality of life in the future.

As a continuation of this webinar, DQLab provides opportunities for data talents who want to learn and improve their competencies to be ready for a career as a professional data practitioner in the industry. Through the LiveClass program, DQLab provides a variety of online classes with industry-leading Data Analyst practitioners by registering at https://dqlab.id/live-class. Prepare for a career now to face the Industrial Revolution 4.0!

English translation by Levina Chrestella Theodora

Kuliah di Jakarta untuk jurusan program studi Informatika| Sistem Informasi | Teknik Komputer | Teknik Elektro | Teknik Fisika | Akuntansi | Manajemen| Komunikasi Strategis | Jurnalistik | Desain Komunikasi Visual | Film dan Animasi | Arsitektur | D3 Perhotelan , di Universitas Multimedia Nusantara. www.umn.ac.id