#142 Is Data Science Still the Sexiest Job of the 21st Century (with Tom Davenport)

About 10 years ago, Thomas Davenport & DJ patil published the article “Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st century“ in the Harvard Business Review. In this piece, they described the bourgeoning role of the data scientist and what it will mean for organizations and individuals in the coming decade. As time has passed, data science has become increasingly institutionalized. Once seen as a luxury, it is now deemed a necessity in every modern boardroom. Moreover as technologies like AI and systems like ChatGPT keep astonishing us with their capabilities in handling data science tasks, it raises a pertinent question: Is Data Science Still the Sexiest Job of the 21st Century? In this episode, we invited Thomas Davenport on the show to share his perspective on where data science & AI are at today, and where they are headed. Thomas Davenport is the President’s Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College, the co-founder of the International Institute for Analytics, a Fellow of the MIT Initiative for the Digital Economy, and a Senior Advisor to Deloitte Analytics. He has written or edited twenty books and over 250 print or digital articles for Harvard Business Review (HBR), Sloan Management Review, the Financial Times, and many other publications. One of HBR’s most frequently published authors, Thomas has been at the forefront of the Process Innovation, Knowledge Management, and Analytics and Big Data movements. He pioneered the concept of “competing on analytics” with his 2006 Harvard Business Review article and his 2007 book by the same name. Since then, he has continued to provide cutting-edge insights on how companies can use analytics and big data to their advantage, and then on artificial intelligence. Throughout the episode, we discuss how data science has changed since he first published his article, how it has become more institutionalized, how data leaders can drive value with data science, the importance of data culture, his views on AI and where he thinks its going, and a lot more.