Study finds SAS Viya boosts AI productivity by 4.6 times

A recent study has revealed that SAS Viya, a data and artificial intelligence (AI) platform, is significantly more productive than several competing solutions.

The analysis, conducted by The Futurum Group, indicates that SAS Viya can enhance the speed of the data lifecycle process — from data collection to model deployment and decision execution — by up to 4.6 times when compared to certain other commercial and non-commercial platforms, including Jupyter Notebook with MLFlow and Python Libraries.

The findings have been detailed in the executive summary entitled "From Data to Decision: Increasing AI Productivity with SAS Viya." The study emphasises the importance of productivity in the AI and data sectors, aligning with the definition by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that considers productivity as a measure comparing economic input and output. Forrester has also recognised SAS as a leader in its recent evaluation report, underscoring the need for an efficient and methodical platform conducive for building an AI-driven future.

Russ Fellows, Vice President and Analyst at The Futurum Group, commented on the findings, stating, "Testing showed that an end-to-end data and AI lifecycle can be achieved with more than 4x greater productivity in SAS Viya than in competitive solutions." Fellows further noted that SAS Viya's productivity allows AI teams to generate business results and insights from data more swiftly. This research follows previous studies by Futurum conducted in 2023, which assessed Viya's operational speed.

Jay Upchurch, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at SAS, also reflected on the study's implications: "With Viya, you gain a competitive advantage," he said. "Because your AI runs faster and more efficiently on Viya, your teams learn faster and are more productive so you see results faster. Viya gives you agility and resiliency that empowers your organisation to see opportunities before your competitors do whether those opportunities involve approving customers for car loans, keeping trains safe or distributing merchandise from a retail distribution centre."

The Futurum study highlights diverse productivity enhancements experienced by various roles utilising the SAS Viya platform. Data engineers, for example, reported being 16 times more productive in accessing, preparing, and governing data. Additionally, data scientists experienced a productivity increase of 3.5 times in activities such as building, optimising, and validating models. MLOps engineers found their productivity improved by 4.5 times when automating, monitoring, and retraining models. Moreover, business analysts and non-technical staff were able to complete 86% of data lifecycle tasks using Viya as opposed to 56% and 47% in commercial and non-commercial environments, respectively.

The study underlines the importance of having an optimised AI/ML platform that facilitates collaboration and productivity across different organisational roles. The comparative analysis offers insights into how such a platform can expedite AI integration, thus fostering swift and informed decision-making processes.