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Karl Crowther, the VP of MEA at Alteryx, says 2025 will mark a new era in business intelligence, defined by AI-driven insights and minimal hands-on intervention
How did the industry and your company fare in 2024, and what were the key highlights?
During 2024, the data analytics industry experienced significant growth, driven by increased adoption of AI-driven solutions and automation. According to a report by Grand View Research, the data analytics market in the Middle East and Africa is projected to grow from USD 4,869.8 million in 2023 to USD 15,714.4 million by 2030, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.2% during this period.
For Alteryx, it was a transformative year as we introduced key updates to our platform, such as enhanced workflow efficiency and expanded data connectors, to support hybrid architectures. This release marked a significant step in enabling organisations to unlock insights faster and more easily. The industry as a whole is undergoing a shift, and traditional web architectures are evolving into AI architectures. Organisations increasingly recognise the need for tools and capabilities to reorganise their information effectively.
When large language models are employed to understand a business, it becomes crucial to structure data in ways that ensure accuracy and specificity. Many companies are investing in infrastructure and capabilities to make this pivot, and roles such as AI business analysts or AI operations specialists are emerging to bridge the gap between business knowledge and AI capabilities. Alteryx has played a critical role in supporting these efforts, empowering business professionals like analysts and operations teams to align their data and processes with this AI-forward approach.
What opportunities do you foresee for 2025, and how do you plan to leverage them?
2025 will mark a new era in business intelligence, defined by AI-driven insights and minimal hands-on intervention. Users are changing the way they interact with AI systems. While many current interactions are text-based, the future will involve multimodal interfaces incorporating voice, video, and other forms of interaction. Businesses are recognising the critical need for AI systems that provide not only great interfaces but also accurate, traceable, and reliable answers.
Companies increasingly focus on ensuring their AI solutions are “smart enough” to handle customer inquiries—whether about returns, reservations, or other services—with precision and context-aware responses. This shift is shaping how organisations prioritise both user experience and data integrity in their AI implementations.
Generative AI, with its ability to automate insight generation, presents an enormous opportunity. Alteryx plans to capitalise on this by integrating natural language processing and chatbot capabilities into our platform, making analytics accessible even to non-technical users. We also see cloud-native architectures gaining prominence due to their scalability and agility. Alteryx is focused on enhancing support for multi-cloud environments and seamless interoperability with providers like AWS, GCP, and Azure. We aim to empower businesses to adopt hyperscale-neutral solutions that optimise their data analytics processes.
What major challenges did you encounter in 2024, and how did you address them?
In 2024, one of the significant challenges across the industry was addressing the growing complexity of data integration in the era of AI. Businesses today are dealing with enormous amounts of data from multiple sources, and bringing all this information together in a coherent and meaningful way is critical for success. A common issue many organisations face is the disconnect between departments—where one team has valuable insights that are not easily accessible or understood by others. This creates a fragmented experience that limits the potential of AI to deliver accurate and actionable insights.
At Alteryx, this challenge highlighted the importance of empowering non-technical business analysts with the tools to unify data across the enterprise. By enhancing our platform to enable these analysts to work with disparate data assets, we’ve positioned ourselves as a leader in solving these integration issues. Additionally, our focus on creating seamless user experiences—drawing from expertise in designing interfaces for AI tools—ensured that businesses not only access the right data but do so in ways that are traceable and reliable. This approach not only addressed immediate challenges but also laid the groundwork for a more AI-driven, data-connected future for our customers.
Which emerging technologies do you believe will be in high demand in 2025, and why?
Emerging technologies like Generative AI, cloud-native analytics, and agentic AI will dominate in 2025. Generative AI will automate higher-value tasks and drive productivity gains, while agentic AI will enable autonomous decision-making processes. Cloud-native architectures will become essential for scalability and agility, ensuring organisations can keep pace with rapid technological advancements.
Natural language processing will also play a significant role in democratising data analytics, making insights accessible to broader user bases. These technologies align with Alteryx’s vision of blending innovation with accessibility, empowering businesses to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
What will be your primary focus areas and strategic priorities for 2025?
Our primary focus in 2025 will be on enhancing AI and machine learning capabilities within the Alteryx platform, further integrating cloud-native solutions, and improving user experience. We are prioritising governance tools, workflow automation, and explainable AI to ensure transparency and reliability in data health.
We are also investing in training and support programs to help businesses fully leverage our solutions. These efforts are geared toward empowering organisations to navigate the increasing complexities of data analytics and derive measurable value from their investments.
Are there plans to explore new markets or introduce new products/applications to your portfolio in 2025?
Yes, Alteryx is actively exploring opportunities in new markets and expanding our product portfolio in 2025. We aim to introduce solutions that integrate Generative AI capabilities, providing tailored insights and automating complex analytics tasks. Additionally, we plan to strengthen our presence in emerging regions, aligning our offerings with local market needs and fostering global growth.
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