Difference Between Predictive Analytics vs Descriptive Analytics
Predictive Analytics
Predictive Analytics will help an organization to know what might happen next, it predicts future based on present data available. It will analyze the data and provide statements that have not happened yet. It makes all kinds of predictions that you want to know and all predictions are probabilistic in nature.
Descriptive Analytics
Descriptive Analytics will help an organization to know what has happened in the past, it would give you the past analytics using the data that are stored. For a company, it is necessary to know the past events that help them to make decisions based on the statistics using historical data. For example, you might want to know how much money you lost due to fraud and many more.
Head to Head Comparison Between Predictive Analytics and Descriptive Analytics (Infographics)
Below is the top 7 comparison between Predictive Analytics and Descriptive Analytics:
Key Differences Between Predictive Analytics and Descriptive Analytics
Below is the detailed explanation of Predictive Analytics and Descriptive Analytics:
- Descriptive Analytics will give you a vision into the past and tells you: what has happened? Whereas the Predictive Analytics will recognize the future and tells you: What might happen in future?
- Descriptive Analytics uses Data Aggregation and Data Mining techniques to give you knowledge about past but Predictive Analytics uses Statistical analysis and Forecast techniques to know the future.
- Descriptive Analytics is used when you need to analyze and explain different aspects of your organization whereas Predictive Analytics is used when you need to know anything about the future and fill the information that you do not know.
- A descriptive model will exploit the past data that are stored in databases and provide you with the accurate report. In a Predictive model, it identifies patterns found in past and transactional data to find risks and future outcomes.
- Descriptive analytics will help an organization to know where they stand in the market, present facts and figures. Whereas predictive analytics will help an organization to know, how they will stand in the market in future and forecasts the facts and figures about the company.
- Reports generated by Descriptive analysis are accurate but the reports generated by Predictive analysis are not 100% accurate it may or may not happen in future.
Predictive Analytics and Descriptive Analytics Comparison Table
Comparing Predictive Analytics and Descriptive Analytics with an example.
A king hired a data scientist to find animals in the forest for hunting. The data scientist has access to data warehouse, which has information about the forest, its habitat and what is happening in the forest.
On day one, the data scientist offered the king with a report showing where he found the highest number of animals in the forest in past one year. This report helped the king to take a decision on where he can find more animals for hunting. This is an example of Descriptive Analysis.
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The next day the data scientist identifies the possibility of finding the particular animal at specific places and time using innovative tools. This is an example of Predictive Analysis. This helps the king to find the animals easily with minimal efforts.
| Basis for Comparison | Descriptive Analytics | Predictive Analytics |
| Describes | What happened in the past? By using the stored data. | What might happen in the future? By using the past data and analyzing it. |
| Process Involved | Involves Data Aggregation and Data Mining. | Involves Statistics and forecast techniques. |
| Definition | The process of finding useful and important information by analyzing the huge data. | This process involves in forecasting the future of the company, which are very useful. |
| Data Volume | It involves in processing huge data that are stored in data warehouses. Limited to past data. | It involves analyzing large past data and then predicts the future using advance techniques. |
| Examples | Sales report, revenue of a company, performance analysis, etc. | Sentimental analysis, credit score analysis, forecast reports for a company, etc. |
| Accuracy | It provides accurate data in the reports using past data. | Results are not accurate, it will not tell you exactly what will happen but it will tell you what might happen in the future. |
| Approach | It allows the reactive approach | While this a proactive approach |
Conclusion
In this blog, I have specified only a few characteristics difference between Predictive Analytics and Descriptive Analytics, the result shows that there is an important and substantial difference between these two Analytical processes.
There is an increase in the demand for analytics in a market. Every organization is talking about Big Data these days, but it is just a starting point for creating valuable and actionable insights on the organization’s data. Therefore, the analytical processes like Predictive Analytics and Descriptive Analytics will help an organization to identify how the company is performing, where it stands in the market, any flaws, any issues that need to be taken care and many more. By applying these analytical processes in business, you will know both Insight and Foresight of your business.
The important points that need to remember are:
- Descriptive analysis is centered around the presentation of data, visualization to the management sights. While predictive analysis is centered around statistical model which helps to predict the future.
- The predictive analysis has more risk as it involves in analyzing what exactly will happen in the future based on the past events, but the certain condition may not happen exactly in the future for the same reason.
- In the descriptive analysis, the risk is less as it involves in analyzing the past data and providing a report of what actually happened.
- It is very important for any organization to make use of Predictive Analytics and Descriptive Analytics so that they can be a successful in the market.
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