Data Analysis Basics
AI can accelerate analysis, but you still need to define the metric, inspect the data and verify calculations.
AI can accelerate analysis, but you still need to define the metric, inspect the data and verify calculations.
What are you trying to learn?
What rows, columns and units do you have?
Can you reproduce the calculation?
Understand the working model
Ask the model to describe its calculation logic and assumptions before trusting a result. Ambiguous column names, missing values and mixed units can quietly change the answer.
Use AI for cleaning suggestions, formula drafting and interpretation, but keep deterministic calculations reproducible in code or spreadsheet formulas when accuracy matters.
Practice
Apply the pattern above to one real task you already do. Keep the first version small enough that you can inspect every input and output.
Do not accept a surprising number without checking the denominator, units and filters.
Use AI to accelerate analysis, but keep definitions, calculations and verification explicit.