Dr.

Vipin Gopal, is a passionate Data Analytics professional with extensive experience in the
health care industry. He spoke about data being the new oil, to which I strongly agree. Data is
power which makes whoever has it, powerful. Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon etc are
major players in the data analytics domain and they have clearly demonstrated what a useful
and interesting tool it can be for the future.

As someone interested in Data Analytics, his examples on early data analytics models were
very interesting. The ability to solve real life problems by analyzing available data sets and
models, instead of beliefs and biases will find application in all fields of business. The first
data collected, analyzed and modelled was to solve the question of sun revolving around the
earth!

The example of the UPS company deciding to make their trucks turn only right to improve
operational efficiency, reduce time and cost of delivery (based on data analytics and
modeling) was extraordinary. This revealed that the applications of data analytics are vast and
diverse, and not limited any specific industry.

He also spoke about Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and how this is the future
we are looking at. Using technology, however, has its own concerns - tradeoff between
explain-ability and accuracy being one such. This is the cost, we as business leaders, should
be willing to acknowledge and take decisions based on what works in each individual
situation.