Data Science Fundamentals

Predictive analytics uses historical and current data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes. Forecasting future sales, such as projecting December holiday sales, is a classic example of predictive analytics because it involves estimating what is likely to happen based on past trends and patterns. This differs from descriptive analytics, which only summarizes past or current data (what happened), and prescriptive analytics, which recommends specific actions to take based on predicted outcomes.