Three-quarters of data analysts are still reliant on spreadsheets and manual preparation – but AI tools are now transforming the profession, boosting productivity, and supercharging efficiency

Data analysts around the world remain dependent on spreadsheets for preparation tasks that take up a significant portion of their day, according to new research.

A survey commissioned by Alteryx, spoke to global data, IT, and operations analysts across five industries to determine how the role is changing in the face of new technologies and rising automation.

Three-quarters (76%) of respondents said they still used spreadsheets to clean and prepare data for analysis, with just over half (56%) stating they used dedicated data preparation tools.

The largest proportion of analysts (42%) said they typically spend between one-to-five hours per week preparing and cleaning data, whereas with 40% this takes roughly up to 10 hours a week.

One-in-twenty analysts revealed they spend more than 10 hours every week on data preparation and cleaning, however.

When combined with data collection, the global average time spent on preparation was 10.57 hours, this was the second most time-consuming activity in the analysts’ day just behind the actual analysis of the data, which came in at 11.23 hours.

Half of the respondents said the complexity of data was the greatest challenge bogging them down, whereas data quality, security, and privacy were also cited as hurdles they frequently face when preparing it for analysis.

AI and automation will drastically change the data analyst role

AI tools have seen widespread uptake in the analyst profession, with 97% of respondents stating that they have integrated AI tools into some aspects of their workflow.

Tools for analytics automation are not far behind, with 87% of analysts adding they have also integrated these solutions into their daily activities.

More than half (59%) said AI tools increased their efficiency and productivity while 46% said it had reduced their workload and stress, citing an improved job satisfaction as a result.

On a weekly basis, the analysts said that utilizing AI tools saved them 8.6 hours on average.

The time saved using these tools looks to be shaping the analyst in new ways, with strategy becoming more heavily emphasized as AI removes some of the more repetitive tasks from the analysts’ daily workflow.

The vast majority (94%) of analysts agreed that their role impacts strategic decision-making, with 87% stating that their influence on business decisions has increased in the last year.

When asked how their role has changed in the last year, 85% of respondents agreed that their ability to respond to changes in the scope or direction of a project has improved.

Nearly four-fifths (79%) also said their ability to combine multiple sources of data compared to a year ago had improved since the previous year.

Overall, 86% agreed that AI had changed their role at least to some degree, with half of these going further to say it has reshaped their role “to a great extent” over the last 12 months.

This has improved slightly over recent years, with just 34% of respondents saying the same about the last 3 – 5 years, and 16% adding that they didn’t think AI had changed their role and had been affected by AI at all during this period.

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