The Weekly Blog is curated content from the Evolytics staff, bringing you the most interesting news in data and analysis from around the web. The Evolytics staff has proven experience and expertise in analytics strategy, tagging implementation, data engineering, and data visualization.

MOBILE DRIVES GROWTH OF ONLINE TRAVEL BOOKINGS

eMARKETER | BLOG

Mobile will drive 40 percent of this year’s $189.62 billion digital travel sales, according to eMarketer. US mobile travel sales for 2017 are up nearly 17% compared to 2016, and desktop travel sales are projected to decline 1.6 percent.

“Consumers are booking more travel on mobile due to larger smartphone screens, easier mobile payment methods and overall time spent habits shifting to mobile,” said eMarketer forecasting analyst Chris Bendtsen. “Airlines, hotels and online travel agencies have made both apps and mobile websites easier to use.”

The takeaway? Although mobile and app bookings may not be equal yet with desktop, they’re rapidly gaining ground. Hotels and resorts that start optimizing mobile experiences now through testing and personalization will increase profits now and reap greater rewards in the future.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: OVERHYPED AND UNDERAPPRECIATED

CMS WIRE | ARTICLE

How is it that AI is both overhyped and underappreciated? The argument is that we have high expectations for AI based upon the science fiction-like potential, so the future impacts of AI are overhyped. However, the simple fact is, many organizations have been using AI for years in smaller, more tested capacities, so the current abilities of AI are underappreciated.

Forrester calls this pragmatic AI (see chart to right).

“It might not have the wow factor of a robot butler, a talking toaster or even deep learning technology, but it nevertheless manages to cut through the AI hype to provide meaningful impacts for businesses in the here and now,” the article states.

There is great potential for AI applications in data analytics, and there are small ways it can be used now. As you consider integrating AI into your analytics practice, partner with a company whose mission is to evolve analytics.

AMAZON TARGETS YOUR FRIDGE WITH WHOLE FOODS PURCHASE

BLOOMBERG | ARTICLE

It’s no secret Amazon is integrating itself into the lives of its consumers and collecting massive amounts of data along the way. Amazon is in your mailbox, your living room, your library and your closet. Now, Amazon is aiming to take over your kitchen with its recent steps to buy Whole Foods Market Inc.

With this acquisition, Amazon will be operating outside of its digital comfort zone and moving into brick-and-mortar territory. “What Amazon brings is engineering prowess,” as the article states. “The company will look for ways to use automation and other technologies to streamline checkout at Whole Foods and sell groceries at lower prices.

To realize the maximum potential out of its new acquisition, Amazon will need to invest time, effort and budget into data aggregation and engineering to blend its new offline Whole Foods customer and store data with its existing online Amazon customer and sales data. At Evolytics, we help our customers combine offline and online data with our Insights Warehouse, which allows enterprise clients to access and mine data for actionable insights and personalization opportunities throughout the customer funnel.