“Artificial intelligence will impact all regions and sectors in the world”
It's estimated that 20 percent of all the data in the world is structured, numeric data. The remaining 80 percent is unstructured data, such as text, image, audio and video.
“We´re producing huge amount of alternative data every day and we have to learn how to take advantage of it, both in business and in research”, says Mai, who was one of the speakers at Hanken Finance Day 2022: Alternative data in finance and business Opens in new window in the beginning of November.
In finance and business alternative data is, simply put, information about a company that is published by sources outside of the company.
Mai explains that alternative data can be utilized in business in a variety of ways.
“You can measure complex concepts like corporate agility and corporate culture or improve the accuracy in measuring concepts, for example.”
In his study, Mai found out that we are only at the beginning stage of using alternative data in research. He has looked at the number of papers using alternative data in top 5 finance journals from 1990-2021.
“Of more than 10 000 articles, less than 1 percent used alternative data.”
Teach students about the business value of alternative data
Alternative data and artificial intelligence (AI) will impact all regions and sectors in the world, says Shahab Anbarjafari, Chief Data Scientist at PwC.
“It's expected by 2030 that the impact of AI will be close to 16 trillion US dollars. The largest and most immediate economic gains will be in China and the US.”
One of many companies taking advantage of AI and alternative data is Apple.
“Since we are sharing a lot of data to Apple, the company has started to introduce health insurance. Basically, Apple knows better than your parents, what is wrong with you”, says Anbarjafari.
According to Anbarjafari a business school plays a very important role in supporting its students and researchers in the area of alternative data.
“Business schools should teach the students about the business value of alternative data and AI. If you can show them the added value of this, then I think you are helping to create a lot of unicorn companies.”
At Hanken School of Economics students have the opportunity to learn about and work with alternative data at Quantum’s data lab Opens in new window and courses.
“Alternative data will have a big impact on the decision-making in corporations. But we must be able to handle the data and have the right tools. At Hanken Quantum lab we are able to offer our students this knowledge. Our mission is to create better business through data-driven value creation”, says Benjamin Maury, director of Quantum.
Text: Jessica Gustafsson