Ben Werdmuller suggests some startup ideas worth considering:

Metrics in a box. A tool that connects to your analytics, payment processor, newsletter tool, etc, and automatically gives you insights, generates actionable reports on your preferred cadence, and answers questions without you needing to deal with schemas, configure specific views, or make queries yourself. You could refine its outputs by giving it feedback in natural language, and ask questions using the same. Another way of putting this: what if your in-house data analyst was software that you didn’t need to configure?

This one in particular resonates with me, being a data engineer, even though if it came to fruition there would be a lot fewer jobs for folks like me. Being able to automatically connect to your different tools and simplify the setup process would really be a step ahead of what’s out there.

I don’t think so-called AI tools are anywhere near up to this task yet, and a lot of platforms like Tableau are already trying to create the kind of natural language-driven insights Ben is talking about. That said, they’re doing a pretty poor job of it, and the right startup could really disrupt the space.