The Future of Digital Analytics Is Not Digital
Reclaiming the Human Role in a Generative AI World
By Jason Thompson, CEO, 33 Sticks
The digital analytics industry is at an inflection point, we could say a very real breaking point. As Generative AI and automation sweep through organizations, promising to handle everything from data collection, to reporting, to basic analysis, we face a fundamental question, what will become of the digital analyst?
The answer probably won’t be found in fighting the against momentum of automation or doubling down on technical skills or becoming better statisticians. Instead, it will require us to acknowledge something that is probably really uncomfortable and that is digital analytics, as we've known it, is already obsolete. Not because the work doesn't matter, but because the name itself has become too small for what we must now become.
What will emerge from this disruption isn't the death of a profession, that term is way overplayed anyway, but the radical evolution from mechanical data workers to what we call "organizational anthropologists," practitioners of Human-Centered Analytics who help businesses see the humans behind the data.
The Name No Longer Fits
"Digital analytics" conjures images of dashboards, tags, data layers, reports, and conversion funnels, the mechanical artifacts of measurement. But this framing has always been a cage, limiting both how we see ourselves and how organizations value our work. When COVID-19 forced companies to make cuts, digital analytics teams were often first to go. Why? Because we had positioned ourselves as cost centers, as the people who "measure things," rather than as strategic advisors who illuminate human truth.
The work we're evolving toward deserves a new name. We're moving beyond digital analytics toward Organizational Clarity Through Data, a discipline that bridges behavioral science, ethics, design, and data strategy. Some might call it Decision Intelligence or Data-Centered Strategy, but the label really doesn’t matter. What matters is the shift from reporting on the business to actively guiding it, from measuring user behavior to interpreting it through context, empathy, and systems thinking.
This is fundamentally a different discipline, one that requires us to leave the basement and engage with the very humans our data represents.
The Analyst's Evolution
The traditional digital analyst's day is numbered, not because the work disappears, but because machines will do it better. Data collection, report building, dashboard creation, even basic commentary ("revenue increased 12% year-over-year") is quickly being automated. Large language models will inject a "human touch" into these artifacts, making them more accessible and “seemingly” insightful.
But this automation liberates us for something far more valuable. The new human-centered analyst must develop a grouping of skills that no AI can replicate:
Statistical literacy meets psychological insight
Business acumen meets ethical reasoning
Research methodology meets storytelling craft
Technical competence meets emotional intelligence
Their day looks radically different from today's report-builders. They will spend time:
Sitting with customers to understand unarticulated needs
Engaging with executives to uncover strategic blind spots
Identifying questions the business hasn't thought to ask
Building hypotheses about human behavior
Creating "empathy experiences" that help technical teams feel what customers feel
Presenting insights that challenge assumptions
Participating in strategic decision-making as equals, not service providers
This can no longer be a role that reacts to ticket requests, it must become a role that anticipates organizational needs and guides businesses toward clarity.
Beyond Dashboards: Value Reimagined
In this new paradigm, value is no longer measured by the number of dashboards delivered or the speed of report generation or JIRA tickets closed. Success isn't even directly tied to revenue impact, which often creates a conflict of interest that compromises the analyst's role as truth-teller.
Instead, value manifests in two interconnected ways:
External Value:
Customer Happiness and Retention. When you truly understand what motivates customers, what they want, what delights them, you create experiences that foster loyalty. Happy customers stay longer, buy more, and advocate for your brand, not because you optimized them into submission, but because you've genuinely served their needs.
Internal Value:
Organizational Clarity and Purpose. Human-centered analysts serve as strategic advisors across all business units, helping teams create better products and experiences. This leads to:
Higher job satisfaction as employees feel more connected to customer impact
Deeper sense of purpose in daily work
Better collaboration across departments
Improved decision-making at all levels
Career advancement for those who embrace this approach
The metric that matters most? Happiness. Both customer and employee happiness. When organizations optimize for human flourishing rather than pure profit, sustainable success will follow.
A Practice Rooted in Empathy
As AI handles more mechanical work, the risk of abstraction increases. How do we ensure that scaling analytical capabilities doesn't mean losing sight of individual humans?
The answer lies in positioning human-centered analysts as both advisors and guides to those building and maintaining automated systems. While non-human agents execute data capture and basic reporting, they must be guided by professionals who keep the human element at the forefront.
We envision something akin to the aging simulation suits used in healthcare training, tools that help data professionals viscerally experience what it means to be a customer. These organizational anthropologists will create novel ways for technical teams to empathize with the people behind the data, moving beyond personas and journey maps to create genuine emotional connection.
We need to be really clear here, this isn't about adding a "human touch" to AI outputs. It's about ensuring that every automated decision, every algorithm, every dashboard reflects deep understanding of human needs and experiences.
Tooling the Transition
Paradoxically, as our work becomes more human-centered, specific tools matter less. The technology stack will evolve into three interconnected layers:
Traditional BI stacks for finance, modeling, and feeding private LLMs
Evolved digital analytics platforms (Google Analytics, Adobe, Amplitude, et. al.) becoming more approachable repositories of human-centered data
Natural language interfaces allowing non-technical users to query data directly
The critical role for human-centered analysts isn't tool selection but tool governance, ensuring accuracy while maintaining human context. They'll transform these platforms from data repositories into empathy engines, making human-centered insights accessible across the organization.
The key is that technology serves the human mission, not the other way around. We're not heading toward full automation but toward strategic human-machine collaboration where technology amplifies human insight rather than replacing it.
How 33 Sticks Is Responding
At 33 Sticks, we're not trying to be the biggest or most "AI-powered" firm. Our role is more enduring and deeply human than that. For our elite clients, we're trusted guides helping brands ready to make the leap from data as reporting to data as clarity.
We could call ourselves architects, advisors, or translators. But what we truly are is:
Clarity-makers. Space-holders. Counter-narrative builders.
We help organizations see themselves through their data, not as spreadsheets, but as living, breathing systems.
Our approach:
We reframe analytics value from cost center to decision hygiene
We slow things down to ask "why" before jumping to KPIs
We de-mechanize data work, removing jargon, fear, and the myth that more equals better
What sets us apart is how we show up:
People-first always: Our work is built on relationships not hours billed
Boutique by design: Fewer clients, deeper engagement
Uncompromisingly human: No cookie-cutters, no fear-based urgency, just truth, kindness, precision, and clarity
We're not a consultancy in the traditional sense. We're a refuge for people and companies tired of being told their data is broken or their business is behind. We meet them where they are and help them walk into a new paradigm where data isn't a burden but a source of clarity, trust, and momentum.
A Call Forward
The future demands difficult choices from everyone in our industry.
For today's digital analysts:
Take a hard look at yourself. Do you want to continue on the track of mechanical data work that will inevitably shift to AI and low-cost providers? Or will you make the difficult but meaningful leap to become an organizational anthropologist? This fundamental shift won't be easy, but it's necessary if you want to remain not just employed but essential.
For CEOs and executives:
Answer this question honestly: Do you want to continue using data to optimize conversion and revenue? Or will you make the fundamental shift to use data to better see and understand your customers? The choice you make will determine whether analytics remains a cost center or becomes your organization's clarity engine.
For the industry:
Stop accepting the limiting narrative that our role ends at creating data artifacts. Stop undervaluing the human insight that only we can provide. Stop building our own cages.
The frustration we've felt watching powerful insights get ignored, seeing meaningful roles devalued, witnessing entire teams dismissed as non-essential, all of this stems from an industry that has accepted a diminished vision of itself. We've told ourselves our role stops at measurement, that we're not advisors, that we don't belong in strategic conversations.
That ends now.
The future of analytics isn't digital. It's human. It's strategic. It's essential. And it begins with each of us choosing to evolve from data collectors to clarity creators, from report builders to organizational anthropologists, from the basement to the boardroom.
The tools will change. The titles will evolve. But the mission remains constant, helping organizations see and serve the humans behind the data with clarity, empathy, and purpose.
This is our calling. The market might still be catching up but we're already there.
Jason Thompson is CEO of 33 Sticks, a boutique analytics consultancy focused on helping organizations achieve clarity through data. Known as the Hippie CEO, he believes in leading with heart and seeing the human behind every data point.
