Brad peters, CEO and founder at Scoop Analytics, has developed the first ever platform to make it easy for anyone to blend data, from any application. No need for AI, IT, SQL, six-figure commitments. Known in the data analytics space as the founder of the popular platform, Birst, Brad Peters served as CEO of Birst for over 12 years. He grew the business to become a Gartner Magic Quadrant category leader in Analytics and Business Intelligence Platform leader before making a successful exit in 2017. Brad has over two decades of experience launching and scaling technology companies, having previously served as Senior Director of Analytics at Oracle. He is widely regarded as a product visionary, bringing new concepts to market before they gain broad adoption by customers ranging from startups to the Fortune 100.
Company: Scoop Analytics
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company
Brad Peters: I was well-known in the data analytics space before becoming the founder of the popular platform Birst, serving as CEO for over 12 years where I grew the business to become a Gartner Magic Quadrant category leader in Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms before making a successful exit in 2017. I have over two decades of experience launching and scaling technology companies, having previously served as Senior Director of Analytics at Oracle. I’m widely regarded as a product visionary, bringing new concepts to market before they gain broad adoption by customers ranging from startups to the Fortune 100.
The idea for Scoop came from a longstanding challenge that we faced with both of his prior Business Intelligence roles. Because Business Intelligence products are effectively development tools, they require large amounts of technical skill and effort to initially setup. While many products advertise that they are easy for business users to utilize, that is only true AFTER a data team invests significant development time standing them up. Scoop was built to leverage the tools and infrastructure business users already have – business applications and spreadsheets. Scoop developed advanced technology to directly read the reporting layer of any business application, just like a human does, and therefore bypass the entire technical integration challenge. Scoop then intelligently snapshots that data and allows users to use spreadsheets to prepare that data instead of requiring complicated ETL products.
What specific areas of your business have been most impacted by AI, and how?
Brad Peters: AI has significantly impacted our customer support, especially in assisting non-technical users. It synthesizes large amounts of documentation to provide relevant answers, allowing users to become proficient quickly without extensive training. This reduces the need for human support and makes our product more accessible to a wider audience.
How are you ensuring ethical considerations are taken into account in your use of AI?
Brad Peters: The biggest challenge right now is that tech is exceedingly trendy. And right now there is this sense that only AI products (and generative AI in particular) are interesting. At Birst, I pioneered automated machine learning for large corporate customers years before AI became trendy. In that experience of applying neural networks, support vector machines and other advanced techniques to business data, I became acutely aware of the capabilities of these methodologies but also their limitations (generally due to data challenges).
What advice would you give to other CEOs looking to integrate AI into their business?
Brad Peters: I do see positives with the use of GenAI in the workspace. For example, summarizing large amounts of content and reusing the content for specific purposes can help leverage content and repurpose (make it easier to work with content). As a reference tool, having access to large bodies of info without having to read everything can be an effective time saver for staff.
How do you see AI evolving in your industry over the next 5 years??
Brad Peters: Over the next five years, I see AI evolving to allow non-technical business users to perform sophisticated analyses and tasks that would have previously required a high-end analyst or data scientist. AI will automate and simplify complex processes, enabling regular business users to become proficient quickly, bypassing the steep learning curve. Instead of sifting through extensive documentation, users will get direct answers, like having a virtual assistant that turns them into experts right away. This will make advanced analytics and insights more accessible, reducing our reliance on specialized talent.
