Why is Python so important? Python improves work for everyone Python is widely used and is one of the top programming languages for data science, web development, system administration, writing automation scripts, and more. Out of the box, Python allows users to store, access, and manipulate data. It also has a huge and growing ecosystem with a variety of open-source packages and libraries. This means different roles can use Python for different purposes. Python is useful for almost every industry, including healthcare, finance, technology, consulting. The healthcare industry is using machine learning algorithms in Python to prevent and diagnose disease and optimize hospital operations. Farmers use Python to make yield predictions and manage crop diseases and pests with the help of IoT technology. Python is one of the most popular languages for business analytics today and continues to grow at an astonishing rate. It’s commonly considered one of the easier programming languages to read and learn—its programming syntax is simple and its commands mimic the English language. Python is replacing Excel to scale business decisions Python and other open-source programming languages like R are quickly replacing Excel, which isn’t scalable for modern business needs. Excel has been the de facto decision engine for companies for years. But it was built for a world where datasets were small, real-time information wasn’t needed, and collaboration wasn’t as important. Open-source programming languages can help companies make better use of their data, and many roles now require coding knowledge to be data fluent. One of our data scientists, Chris Cardillo, says, “If somebody spends more than four hours a day in Excel, they will undoubtedly benefit from learning Python/R.” Evaluating your workforce through this lens is useful—it compares the need for programming to a pattern easily identifiable in the workplace. In fact, the ability to drastically improve work outcomes with open-source code is exactly why Chris became a data scientist.