I’m Vaibhav, an accidental analyst. I entered the world of analytics just as “Big Data” was becoming the next big thing in Silicon Valley. Since then, I’ve witnessed the transformation of analytics from a niche for data enthusiasts to a critical function for anyone looking to build a career in tech. Each year, more companies have claimed to be “data-driven”, evolving the role of analytics along the way.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve led analytics teams at Meta, Pinterest, and eBay. The challenges posed by Generative AI aren’t entirely new—natural language query processing has long been a part of analytics. However, the Gen AI advancements raise an important question: where can data scientists and analysts provide the most value?

I envision a future where every function—Software Engineering (SWE), Analytics, and Data Engineering (DE)—will have dedicated prompt designers. Just as analysts today write SQL queries to extract insights, they will become experts in crafting precise AI prompts to generate actionable insights. The expectations for data-driven decision-making will rise, with most product managers and business managers capable of handling basic analyses through simple prompts.

As we transition into this next phase of Data Analytics, I’m here to share my thoughts on the journey ahead.