As we’ve entered the new decade, many experts and influencers began to express their predictions for data trends that will shape the nearest future of the industry. The number of devices that collect data for further analysis is expected to rise to 20 billion this year. Big Tech companies like Apple and Amazon have had an insane success, mainly due to the fact that they realized how to leverage the data collected in-house across all business verticals. This has fueled their continuous growth, placing them in the top of biggest companies by market cap valuation. However, data is a quite sensitive domain and many of these tech giants do not include data in the list of tangible corporate assets on the balance sheet. One assumption as to why this is happening could be related to the absence of measuring the value of data and categorizing it accordingly.

The volumes of data collected and processed on a daily basis continue to increase, following the rapid pace of globalization and digitalization. The potential of this data increases accordingly, making it an important issue for those valuating corporate investments. Today, understanding how a company interacts with data is essential for producing an accurate valuation. Therefore, one of the main focuses of the industry will be directed at the attempts to draft a universal methodology for assessing data value.

The market of alternative data keeps developing fast, which means that it is no longer a niche product with specific application. Experts suggest that in 2020 market data providers will include alt data products in their service range, enhancing their value proposition. Alternative data platforms will continue to grow as more and more companies are developing a wish to leverage the opportunities it bears, as well as the technology to do so.

Market insights point to the fact that this year up to 90% of the world’s biggest companies will generate profits from data-as-a-service (DaaS), primarily thanks to the emerging data monetization opportunities. The latter particularly refer to assistance that data insights can provide for improving corporate decision-making. Companies will, therefore, continue to invest in research & development efforts to develop new tools and solutions for this purpose.

Another hot trend in the big data ecosystem is the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). These systems are semi-autonomous (and completely autonomous at times) and are employed to gather and process data, producing valuable output for improving companies’ products, operational processes and relationship with clients. These solutions are mainly used in form of augmented analytics platforms for receiving fast and accurate data insights.

Last but not least, big data will continue to be a priority issue in governance and regulation related projects and initiatives. Regulators are precisely focused on improving privacy and protection legislation, ensuring that data is gathered, stored and analyzed in accordance to existing laws. As more and more companies continue to incorporate data and related tools into their daily operation and confidentiality and proper use concerns keep being voiced, the need for greater data governance mechanisms becomes more urgent.

The true value of data is still to be explored and understood. It is certain, though, that this hyper tangible corporate asset must receive proper attention from all of the industry’s participants.