Where Analytics, Data Mining, Data Science were applied in 2016

CRM/Consumer Analytics, Finance, and Banking are still the leading applications, but Anti-spam, Mobile apps, Travel/hospitality grew the most in 2016. Share of Health care, Consumer analytics, and Direct Marketing/ Fundraising data science applications declined for 2 years in a row.



Latest KDnuggets Poll asked readers to select

Industries / Fields where you applied Analytics, Data Mining, Data Science in 2016?

mobile-consumer-analytics-300 The most popular areas were
  • CRM/Consumer analytics, still n. 1 at 16.3% but down from 18.6% share in 2015.
  • Finance, 15.0% (almost the same as in 2015)
  • Banking, 13.4% (slightly down)
  • Advertising, 12.0% (up 35% from 2015) )
  • Science, 12.0% (almost the same)
  • Health care, 12.0% (11% down)
New area added in 2016 poll was Supply Chain, which received a respectable 6.5% share, (rank 20).

In 2016, 552 people voted, compared to 350 in 2015, and 221 in 2014.

Comparing to Where did you apply Analytics/Data Mining in 2015? poll, we note that the biggest increases, computed as (pct2016 - pct2015) / pct2015, were for
  • Junk email / Anti-spam, 280% up to 1.1% share
  • Mobile apps, 128% up to 3.3% share
  • Travel / Hospitality, 55% up, to 4.0% share
  • Investment / Stocks, 44% up, to 6.2% share
  • Advertising, 35% up, to 12.0% share
The industries with the biggest decline in share of applications were
  • HR/workforce analytics, 42% down to 3.6% share
  • Education, 29% down, to 7.1% share
  • Games, 28% down, to 2.9%
  • Other, 28% down, to 6.3%
Average number of industries selected per voter was 2.7, almost the same as 2.65 in 2015.

Here are full results. The three-year comparison shows relative stability in share of applications for most of areas and also an increasing diversity of applications.

Only Entertainment industry showed increase of 10% or more for 2 years in a row, while 4 areas declined in share by 10% or more 2 years in a row: Health care, CRM/Consumer analytics, Direct Marketing/ Fundraising, and Manufacturing.

Industries/Fields where you applied Analytics, Data Mining, Data Science in 2016? 2016 % of voters 2015 % of voters 2014 % of voters
CRM/Consumer analytics (90)
Finance (83)
Banking (74)
Advertising (66)
Science (66)
Health care (66)
Fraud Detection (61)
Retail (57)
Insurance (51)
E-commerce (49)
Telecom / Cable (46)
Social Media / Social Networks (46)
Software (40)
IT / Network Infrastructure (40)
Oil / Gas / Energy (39)
Education (39)
Credit Scoring (38)
Supply Chain (36)
Medical/ Pharma (36)
Other (35)
Investment / Stocks (34)
Biotech/Genomics (32)
Manufacturing (31)
Government/Military (31)
Search / Web content mining (30)
Automotive/Self-Driving Cars (25)
Direct Marketing/ Fundraising (24)
Mining (23)
Travel / Hospitality (22)
Entertainment/ Music/ TV/Movies (22)
HR/workforce analytics (20)
Mobile apps (18)
Agriculture (18)
Games (16)
Security / Anti-terrorism (15)
Social Good/Non-profit (11)
Social Policy/Survey analysis (10)
Junk email / Anti-spam (6)


Almost 60% more readers voted in 2016 poll than in 2015, so the absolute numbers were higher for all regions. The regional distribution was similar to 2015, but with slightly higher share from Europe and Australia/NZ, and slightly lower share from US and Latin America.
  • US/Canada, 38%
  • Europe, 35%
  • Asia, 14%
  • Africa/Middle East, 4.5%
  • Latin America, 4.2%
  • Australia/NZ, 3.8%
Here are the results of past polls: