Machine Learning: "Top Gear" for the Algorithmic Business Navigate the Future

You wouldn't think a 9th century Persian mathematician would be relevant to modern business. But the term algorithm stems from his name, Muhammed Al Khwarizmi (along with the Greek word arithmos), and the algorithmic business is sweeping across the business landscape with its autonomous, rules-based, lightning-fast operations--augmenting, and in some cases supplanting, human decision making. An algorithm is a step-by-step process or set of rules for calculating and solving problems. "Algorithmic business is the industrialized use of complex mathematical algorithms pivotal to driving improved business decisions or process automation for competitive differentiation," Gartner explains. The algorithmic business is based upon capturing knowledge in software, which then takes automated actions that speed business processes and perform decision making. Supply chain uses algorithms to forecast demand, optimize inventory, schedule production, and route transportation.