By Roshni Baillie, Recruitment Consultant – Marketing & Insight, Harnham
One thing I’m hearing again and again lately is the question: “Is AI going to replace analysts?”
At Harnham, I have a front row seat to the AI revolution, and to how companies and candidates are responding. While AI is having a clear impact on everyday life, from ChatGPT recipe recommendations to iPhone message summaries, some companies are still behind the curve when it comes to applying these advancements to their data. Once a buzzword, AI has become the engine driving how businesses think, plan, and grow. From predictive forecasting to real-time decision-making, AI is transforming analytics from dashboards and SQL queries into something far more powerful.
Working day-to-day with Marketing & Insight professionals, I’m seeing an ever-growing trend: quality candidates favouring innovation over benefits. The days of “just reporting numbers” are behind us – top talent want the opportunity to experiment, innovate, and drive change. Time and time again, I hear frustration from those stuck with outdated tools and mindsets, knowing they could deliver far more if given the space and support to do it.
From retrospective reporting to predictive and prescriptive insights
While traditional analytics focused on what happened, utilising AI allows teams to ask what should happen next and what should be done about it. Businesses can now forecast customer churn, demand fluctuations, and supply chain risks with unprecedented accuracy.
More importantly, prescriptive analytics can recommend specific actions and data-led solutions rather than just surfacing problems. I’ve found that building a team of analysts with a strong understanding of algorithms, not just dashboards, is game-changing. Talent with a handle on predictive modelling, time series forecasting, and tools such as Python, R, and AutoML platforms are in high demand – and they’re raring to go.
From static dashboards to real-time decision-making
In today’s landscape, BAU and end-of-week reports aren’t enough. Businesses want insights delivered as they happen, acting as the data lands to keep one step ahead.
In Marketing & Insight, that might look like campaign performance being adjusted mid-flight, or personalisation engines updating in real-time based on customer behaviour. AI is making this possible, whether it’s fraud detection models flagging anomalies in milliseconds, or ops teams rerouting deliveries based on live traffic data.
Static BI tools are no longer enough. Data professionals comfortable with stream processing, APIs, and real-time tools such as Kafka, Snowflake, and Spark Streaming can deliver insights that prevent issues before they even surface.
From gut feel to AI-enhanced strategies
AI is far more than a backend tool, it’s a major player in frontline strategy. Natural language processing and generative AI can surface trends from millions of customer reviews, summarise complex data into digestible insights for technical and non-technical stakeholders, and help marketing teams test thousands of ad variations in minutes.
For me, this is where soft skills matter now more than ever. The ability to translate AI insights into business action to tell the story behind the data is what separates good analysts from great ones.
The hiring takeaway
AI is changing how businesses maximise the value of their data, but it’s also changing what the best data professionals expect from a role.
If you’re looking to build a high-performing analytics function in 2025 and beyond, your hiring strategy needs to reflect that. Innovative, forward-thinking talent will help you get the most out of your data, giving it more value than ever before.
The future of analytics is intelligent and AI-driven and it takes a strong, well-equipped team to get you there. If you’re hiring in Marketing & Insight and want to explore how to bring this talent into your business, I’m always happy to share what I’m seeing in the market.
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