Is Data Science Dying?

Is Data Science just a fad that is already dying away? Are you too late to start data science?

With the development of automated tools and technologies every day, it is natural that such doubts will crop up. Even though data science is called “the sexiest job of the 21st century”, many believe that it is just time that the craze gets over.

Understandably so, these questions could come up because of the sheer number of people venturing into the field.

This is especially the case with students and young professionals who might want to explore data science because they heard that it is “in demand”.

In this article, we attempt to assess these claims and clarify what this might mean for the future of jobs as well.

What do the trends suggest?

To answer if data science is a dying trend, let’s have a look at what data suggests.

The below graph is taken from Google Trends and shows the interest in data science and machine learning over the last 5 years.

Just by looking at the trend, we see that the interest in data science has remained fairly consistent over time. In fact, one may argue that it has shown a slight upward trend.

This suggests that there are no abrupt uptrends or downtrends. There is no fact/ historic data to prove that an entire field can be wiped out all of a sudden.

If the graph above had suggested a gradual ascend or descent, we could have made some solid conclusions about the future of data science. But for now, data science disappearing all of a sudden in the future seems unlikely.

Is Automation the Future of Data?

You might have heard of tech giants launching no-code or low-code tools, and AutoML platforms in the past few years. Could this mean that these tools will replace data scientists?

Let’s have a look at similar instances in other fields.

One such field where huge tech disruption has taken place is finance. New FinTechs are emerging every day, each one on the race to becoming a unicorn.

Even though much automation has taken place for filing taxes, buying insurance, investing, and whatnot, there still is a huge demand for finance professionals.

Although the tools to do this on your own already exist, there is still a need for a skilled expert to help out.

Data Science is no different. The world cannot be predicted by Excel sheets alone – there is a human element that can’t be replicated. The limitations, nuances, and absurdity in real-world data are something that tools haven’t been able to resolve yet.

On the positive side, newer tools could be a helping hand to data scientists. Automation can help solve problems at scale, while data scientists could bring unique customizations to it.

So one can think of these automation tools as an aid to data scientists, not their adversary.

What happens to Data Science Jobs?

According to MicroStrategy[1], 95% of employers believe that data science skills are had to find. Which is good news for job applicants. Your skills are in demand!

But what about the supply side? How many people are looking for data science jobs?

Let’s have a look at this chart from Google Trends.

The number of people trying to find data science jobs has remained fairly consistent over the past few years. That is, the interest of job applicants has remained the same.

This means that the demand is greater than the supply. When there are more people looking to hire than those applying, it is good news indeed. This could possibly imply that data science jobs will become easier to land in the near future if one is skilled.

To conclude, we believe it would be fair to say that data science is here to stay.

The argument for why one might feel that data science is “dying” could be explained by the fact that Data science is an umbrella term. Companies are still reinventing and redefining this job role every day. Data science will evolve and innovate itself over time and so would the world.

You can go through the 5 Data Science Projects to Get Your First Job to showcase your capabilities as a data scientist.