Every day, as we go about our business, we leave an enormous trail of data behind us. It is not only data about our purchases and payments. This data can disclose our preferences, sensitivities, lifestyles and demographics. It can also reveal our relationships with one another. Software tools now exist that can even detect our emotional state.
One thing never changes. That is the ability to find new innovative ways of using the data and new innovative ways of capturing additional data. While most businesses will build the technological capabilities and copy the innovations of pioneers in the field of customer analytics there will always be a few that will lead the way by discovering new and surprising ways of exploiting the data. This is what will determine competitive advantage in the decades ahead.