As you rightly point out, some industries or specific industry segments have used data analytics for decades--if not centuries. But now, we're seeing a rapid proliferation of data analytics across the entire corporate/organizational landscape.

Organizations that didn't see analytics as useful are rethinking that assumption, and they're pushing analytics further down into the decision making structure--beyond just directors and managers. Technology is driving much of this change. Not only can data be collected, stored, analyzed, and disseminated more easily than in the past, there's a lot more of it.

At the most basic level, people won't use data analytics (or big data) any differently in the future than they have in the past--to help them make a decision. It's just the process that's changing. But, in a way that will transform both business and our society as a whole.