Why Data Science Projects Fail: The Harsh Realities of Implementing AI and Analytics, Without the Hype

The field of artificial intelligence, data science, and analytics is crippling itself. Exaggerated promises of unrealistic technologies, simplifications of complex projects, and marketing hype are leading to an erosion of trust in one of our most critical approaches to making decisions: data driven.

This book aims to fix this by countering the AI hype with a dose of realism. Written by two experts in the field, the authors firmly believe in the power of mathematics, computing, and analytics, but if false expectations are set and practitioners and leaders don’t fully understand everything that really goes into data science projects, then a stunning 80% (or more) of analytics projects will continue to fail, costing enterprises and society hundreds of billions of dollars, and leading to non-experts abandoning one of the most important data-driven decision-making capabilities altogether.

For the first time, business leaders, practitioners, students, and interested laypeople will learn what really makes a data science project successful. By illustrating with many personal stories, the authors reveal the harsh realities of implementing AI and analytics.

Dr Evan Shellshear is an expert in artificial intelligence with a Ph.D. in Game Theory from the Nobel Prize winning University of Bielefeld in Germany. He has almost two decades of international experience in the development and design of AI tools for a variety of industries having worked with the world’s top companies on all aspects of advanced analytical solutions from optimisation to machine learning in applications from HR to oil and gas, and robotics to supply chain. He is also the author of the Amazon best seller, Innovation Tools.

Douglas A. Gray is a practitioner, leader, and educator with over 30 years of experience leading award-winning teams at industry luminaries in Analytics, including INFORMS Prize-winning American Airlines and Walmart. His teams have delivered advanced game-changing solutions in the airline operations, healthcare, and omnichannel retail supply chain domains which deliver hundreds of millions of dollars in business value and economic impact annually. He teaches Analytics and AI Strategy at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in the Executive MBA, Executive Education, and MS Data Science programs, and has published over a dozen articles on Analytics best practices and applications.