The Evolution from Business Intelligence to Personal Intelligence

There are a lot more companies out there offering ‘intelligence’ services not just to other companies, but now even to individuals. I’m using the definition of ‘intelligence’ as in Business Intelligence (BI) somewhat broadly now, but it is an area of interest to me, and an area that seems to be growing in opportunity.

There are new companies out there that will help individuals with all kinds of analysis and intelligence, I’ll call it ‘PI’ (for Personal intelligence). These services range from the more expected, such as better managing cash flow to the more unusual and specific, such as analyzing your personal Netflix account history in order to calculate and improve your actual ROI of the service.

Happiness/life satisfaction research is another area in this PI genre that has always fascinated me, an area which has been the ‘Holy Grail’ for many researchers, and has recently also come a long way because of social media and new analytical tools.

Some of these new PI products have been developed using substantial secondary and primary research in order to help individuals manage and improve their lives in many different ways.

One interesting PI brand/product I recently learned quite a bit is Habit Changer. Full disclosure a this point, Habit Changer is an Anderson Analytics client. And while I definitely do not intend this as a sales pitch of any sort, doing research for them has tremendously raised my interest and respect for these types of tools.

In the case of Habit Changer, the software which is based partly on secondary research, and partly on primary research, is intended to help individuals become aware of, and change their habits in various life areas, over a 42 day period.

There are several modules, from losing weight to managing stress, money and quitting smoking. Refreshingly, the company realizes that some of these programs would be hugely beneficial to certain high impact populations (Feeding your Kids Healthier for instance) and so they have actually made a decision to offer them completely free of charge!

I’m looking forward to more of these new types of ‘PI’ products entering the market in the future. They seem to be taking the benefits of analysis and dashboard management out of the hands of just fortune 500 companies and giving it to individuals.

Just as the growth of Do it Yourself (DIY) market research has increased the number of ‘researchers’, this new genre of products may help to increase our possible customer base for intelligence products as well.