Predictive Analytics — Overhyped or Underused?

Predictive analytics means one of two things. The common meaning among analytics professionals is that it involves some kind of statistical model. This model could be based on anything from multiple regression to machine learning. The usual example is flight risk. We see which factors are associated with someone quitting, and then we can look at our current employees and predict who is likely to leave. (Some analysts make a distinction between models for prediction and models for forecasting, but that need not concern us here.)