Machine Learning As Prescriptive Analytics (IT Best Kept Secret Is Optimization)

I said, and I wrote, that machine learning and predictive analytics were almost the same. Of course, I also put optimization as the queen of all analytics technologies as it yields best business value. What else would you expect from someone who spent nearly 3 decades in working in optimization? No wonder this view became popular in the optimization community... First, let me reassure readers about my mental health: I still think that optimization is best for computing optimal decisions. I started thinking there was an issue when I met customers willing to use machine learning to solve all the business problems they have.