Data Scientist

A data scientist is a professional who analyses large volumes of data to draw out patterns, insight and value that help a company make better decisions. The work blends three worlds: statistics and mathematics, programming (mainly in languages like Python or R and SQL queries), and knowledge of the business it is applied to. A good share of the time goes into gathering, cleaning and organising data, which rarely arrives ready to use. They then build models, often using machine learning ✕ Machine learning is the branch of AI in which a system learns from examples instead of following hand-coded rules. The more data, the better it generalizes. More in the glossary → , to predict behaviour, classify information or spot anomalies, and translate the results into clear conclusions for decision-makers. It is one of the most sought-after roles of the past decade, driven by the explosion of data and artificial intelligence ✕ Artificial intelligence is a computer system’s ability to perform tasks we associate with human intelligence, such as understanding language, recognizing images or making decisions. More in the glossary → .