From wild speculation that flying cars will become the norm to robots that will be able to tend to our every need, there is lots of buzz about how AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning will change our lives. However, at present, it seems like a far-fetched future. As we enter the 2020s, there will be significant progress in the march towards the democratization of data that will fuel some significant changes. Gartner identified democratization as one of its top ten strategic technology trends for the enterprise in 2020 and this shift in ownership of data means that anyone can use the information at any time to make decisions. The democratization of data is frequently referred to as citizen access to data.

Throughout the history of digital technology, data was largely the language of vigorously trained computer scientists and engineers. Only in the past decade, with the influx of highly-targeted social advertising, has data really entered the public consciousness. Privacy legislation like the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), enacted in 2018, and next year's California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), have helped data become part of the common tongue. This legislation means more control for consumers and accountability for enterprises, ultimately laying the groundwork for data's next phase: democratization. When I first heard this idea of data democratization a few years ago, it was said that the democratization of data would create a technological utopia. Of course, utopia is elusive, and societal applications of technologies -- however well-intentioned -- do not always pan out as planned.