What problems does decision intelligence solve?

The sheer volume and variety of data, often fragmented across numerous data silos and lacking in quality, make it harder than ever for companies across sectors to gain clarity on their operations, customer behavior, or emerging risks, and to move forward with confident, data-informed decisions. That’s where decision intelligence (DI) comes in.

Unlike traditional business intelligence, which focuses on analyzing past data, decision intelligence helps organizations take action by using data to make smarter decisions in the moment.

During Linkurious Days London, Alan Brown, CTO at Aptitude Global—a specialist data solutions provider—gave an interview on how decision intelligence is essential today, as a key to unlocking smarter, faster, and more consistent decisions. 

This article explores why decision intelligence (DI) is gaining traction, what problems it solves, and how it empowers decision-makers across industries.

Decision intelligence (DI) is a practical discipline that connects data, analytics, and artificial intelligence to the way decisions are made in organizations. As Alan Brown explains, it’s about understanding not just the decisions themselves, but the context behind them, how and why they are made, and who makes them.

“Ultimately, we're seeking to improve the decision outcome by using a combination of data, knowledge, analytics and artificial intelligence,” he adds.

What sets decision intelligence apart is its focus on outcomes. It equips organizations with the full context they need to assign meaning and significance to data, empowering leaders to make better-informed decisions.

Decision intelligence enables both augmentation and automation. As Brown puts it, DI tools “augment, and even in some cases, automate their decision making process, through an easy to use, intuitive interface.”

Data is growing at an estimated 30% compound rate year on year. Brown explains, “We’re dealing with more unstructured documents, the quality of the data is typically quite poor, and that data has quite high criticality in terms of our decision-making processes.”

This data chaos demands tools that can turn disorder into clarity. According to Gartner, leading organizations are evolving from data chaos to managed complexity by using data and analytics to understand and shape the changes impacting their business. Decision intelligence is a key enabler of that shift.

Wherever organizations face complex, high-impact decisions that depend on context-rich data, decision intelligence offers a solution.

Brown points to the types of complex questions organizations face every day, that require contextual understanding to answer:

• Fraud detection and financial crime: “Do I approve this transaction, or is it likely to be a fraudulent transaction?”
• Customer onboarding: “Does this customer pose a risk? Are they who they say they are?”
• Insurance claims: “Is this a fraudulent insurance claim?”

These are not isolated challenges. Decision intelligence helps solve them by integrating disconnected data points, uncovering patterns, and revealing relationships that would otherwise remain hidden. 

It empowers decision-makers to act faster, more confidently, and with greater precision in situations where the cost of getting it wrong is high.

Decision intelligence is not limited to any one industry. Brown notes: “This is the curious thing about decision intelligence, it’s not specific to fraud and financial crime, it's not specific to insurance. There are use cases within every domain.”

Industries already seeing value from decision intelligence include:

• Financial services: Fraud detection, anti-money laundering efforts, and compliance through smarter transaction monitoring.
• Insurance: Streamlining claims assessment, detecting fraud, and improving underwriting accuracy.
• Public sector: Supporting case management, tax fraud detection, and benefits eligibility assessments.
• Manufacturing & supply chain: Enabling better risk assessment, inventory optimization, and response to disruptions.
• Cybersecurity: Strengthening threat modeling, incident response, and behavioral analysis.

Anywhere decisions are made using contextualized and connected data, DI can improve speed, accuracy, and outcomes.

Decision intelligence platforms extend beyond traditional analytics by integrating multiple advanced technologies:

• Data integration: Bringing together structured and unstructured data from different internal and third-party sources
• Entity resolution AI: Identifying and resolving duplicate data to reveal hidden relationships
• Graph analytics: Mapping and analyzing the relationships between entities to surface hidden insights
• Graph visualization: Providing an intuitive interface to explore connections and uncover anomalies
• AI and predictive modeling: Anticipating outcomes and suggesting best actions

Brown explains, “We need to be able to analyze the connections, discover hidden connections, discover insights, within the graph. And the key feature, in order to inform and improve the decision making is graph visualization.”

Graph visualization helps users move beyond individual data points and understand how they relate across multiple dimensions. This contextual awareness is essential when making decisions that depend not just on facts, but on patterns.

Decision intelligence adoption is still in its early stages. Brown notes that, “About 33 percent of organizations at the moment have deployed decision intelligence.” That leaves significant room for growth and innovation.

The future of DI lies in improving decision processes across organizations by combining technology and human thinking.

Brown emphasizes this synergy: “There are great opportunities for those seeking to improve their decision-making, using decision intelligence platforms.” As these platforms evolve, they will enable businesses to create value, discover new opportunities, and remain competitive by making smarter decisions, faster.

Decision intelligence isn’t about replacing humans. It’s about rethinking how we work, learn, and lead in a data-driven world—with technology as a partner in progress.

Want to hear more about how decision intelligence is transforming the way market leaders make decisions? Watch the full interview with Alan Brown, CTO of Aptitude Global, for more real-world insights on the tools and trends shaping decision intelligence today.