The emerging Darwinian approach to analytics and augmented intelligence

Mark Palmer is senior vice president and general manager of engineering at TIBCO. Much has been made about the business implications of recent, rapid advancements in cognitive computing -- that is, the possibility of advanced analytics tools to help human knowledge workers glean actionable insight from vast and deep lakes of historical, transactional and machine-generated information. When utilized well, cognitive tools help humans identify patterns and surface previously undetected cyberattack patterns on your company, customer buying behavior or predictive signals of catastrophic equipment failure based on readings from sensor-enabled devices. But as your business inevitably becomes more algorithmic, you're faced with the next problem: Many algorithms, once discovered, have a remarkably short shelf-life. Algorithmic excellence in analytics requires more than just great math; you must also become as agile at killing off weak or vanquished algorithms as a NASCAR pit crew changing worn tires -- you need to be replacing them with promising new ones.