Hey, hope you are doing well! In the last couple months I’ve been thinking a lot about where the analyst role is headed and I wanted to share these thoughts in an issue at some point. These thoughts aren’t in the abstract, “AI will replace us” sense, but in the day-to-day reality of what our work is actually becoming. Because if you’ve been on the job market in the last year or so you’ll see something is clearly changing.

For a long time, the analyst’s job centered around ETL, building dashboards, and reporting. We’d gather business requirements, clean data, build visuals, and deliver a dashboard, deck, or report of some kind (usually in Power BI, Tableau, or PowerPoint).

The value we provided was clear: we helped people see their data so they could make better decisions. “Making better decisions” was basically the foundation of an analysts value for many years. But this version of the analyst role is starting to feel… incomplete now.

Not because dashboards are going away (they still matter, and are NOT dead despite what some influencers might try to hook with) but because the business problems are getting more complex, and the tools we use are maturing. And as a result of that, the expectation of what analysts can and should do is shifting.

This week’s issue isn’t meant to instill fear or anxiety, but rather get those gears turning and thinking about what this shift could mean for the future and most importantly, how to give yourself a competitive edge.

This is a lengthier issue than usual, so if you’ve made it this far enjoy the read and your upcoming week!

Please let me know if you’d like to see any of this expanded on in the next issue, simply reply to this email or comment online. I like hearing from you all. 😄

Here’s what trends and job market patterns are showing us:

In other words, the analyst’s value is moving further up and further down the stack. Not quite “data scientist,” not quite “software engineer,” but something that blends:

Modern analysts (Full-Stack Analyst, Analytics Engineer, or whatever you want to call it) are not replacing engineers or scientists, we’re just covering more of the middle of the problem.

And honestly, that’s kinda where analytics has always been the most impactful anyway.

So what does this mean for an Analyst’s career path?

Analytics isn’t that sexy, easy, remote job it was portrayed to be back when the covid pandemic started (well maybe it is still pretty sexy, but I digress).

This is all speculation of course, but the patterns are showing us that the analysts who thrive over the next few years will be the ones who:

From BI to Predictive AI: Why Analysts Are the Heroes of the Next Data Frontier by Zohar Bronfman
BI Analysts are being looked to as predictive leaders. Modern automation tools empower BI analysts to lead predictive analytics, shifting businesses from reactive dashboards to proactive forecasting that drives actionable decisions. Read more

Future of Data Analyst: Trends & Career Paths by SimpliLearn
Basically reiterating what was mentioned in the intro of this issue. If you want to learn more about the shift this is a lengthier article, but get’s to the point at “Where Is Data Analytics Going?”. Read more

Business Intelligence Analyst Career Path by Linh Khanh
Not everyone here is a practicing data professional (this one’s for you). Check out this article for a pretty good idea of what the BI Analyst role is like, it’s a good starting point to understand what to expect and where the career path is going. Read more

▶️ The Future of Data Analytics | 2026 Trends You NEED To Know by Jess Ramos (14 mins)
Jess breaks down the trends every analyst should focus on in 2026 (all of which I agree on). There has certainly been a shift in analytics for a couple years now and she hits the nail on the head with this one.

Did you know? The first email ever sent was by Ray Tomlinson to himself in 1971 — and he doesn’t remember what it said.