Understanding prescriptive analytics is complicated, let alone implementation. Would turning to Google help? Seeing how it works for Google raises questions, but may also lead to some answers.

Descriptive analytics — looking into what has happened in the past — is commoditized. Traditional BI, reports, and dashboards are well understood and used in one way or another across a wide spectrum of organizations to keep an eye on their operations.

Predictive analytics — trying to predict what will happen in the future — is in the limelight. Today many organizations are scrambling to utilize predictive models leveraging data and Machine Learning (ML) in the hope that this will empower them to anticipate future developments.

Prescriptive analytics is different. Neither what it is nor how it’s supposed to work are entirely clear. So when faced with questions, would turning to Google help answer them? Let’s have a look at YouTube, the most massive and widely used media channel on the planet, as a case study to examine prescriptive analytics.

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