Explore business intelligence degree courses and the various specializations available. Discover possible career paths available after studying business intelligence.
Business intelligence involves gaining valuable business insights from data to shape future strategies and decision-making. Working in business intelligence offers many opportunities, excellent salary potential, and a strong job outlook. A degree in business intelligence can lead to many career options, including business analyst, data analyst, data engineer, and statistician.
Learn more about business intelligence, business intelligence degree options, and the possible career paths you can take once you graduate.
Business intelligence is the process of collecting, analyzing, and presenting raw data to gain information for making informed business decisions. Gaining insights from historical, current, and third-party data allows your business to assess its performance, see any trends and patterns, and make plans for improvements. It allows you to answer questions and solve problems such as:
What are the current consumer trends?
Which products are selling the most units?
When is the quietest sales period?
How is the market changing?
A business intelligence degree helps you build data analysis skills, allowing you to understand business trends and how you can use data to solve business challenges. You鈥檒l find a variety of bachelor鈥檚 degrees and master鈥檚 degrees that fall under this umbrella, varying in specialisms and course offerings.
Generally, students study business intelligence as a bachelor鈥檚 degree. A bachelor鈥檚 degree typically takes four years to complete as a full-time program and covers both theoretical and practical courses. You鈥檒l normally study core courses that cover topics like database management, data mining, and business analytics, with the option to take electives such as data wrangling and visualization, statistical programming languages, and supply chain analytics.
You may decide to continue your education to study for a master鈥檚 degree in business intelligence. Some colleges allow you to take an accelerated bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degree, completing both in five years.
Depending on the college you enroll in, you can study a straight business intelligence major at the bachelor鈥檚 degree level. You can also choose to specialize in business intelligence at a master鈥檚 degree level. Each university is different, and you鈥檒l find some that offer business intelligence as a major, some that offer something similar, and some that offer courses that include material to help you move toward a career in business intelligence. Some examples include:
Business intelligence and analytics management
Business intelligence and analytics
Functional data analytics
Business analytics
Business analytics and information technology
Data science
Computer science
Statistics
Business administration聽
If you鈥檙e studying for a bachelor鈥檚 degree in business intelligence, you can expect to cover a range of subjects relating to business intelligence and business analytics in addition to the general degree requirements of your program.
Your specialization will likely cover core trends with big data, how to interpret data, and how to solve problems using BI tools. Some examples of courses your business intelligence major may cover include:
Introduction to data science
Foundations of strategic and managerial business intelligence聽
Business intelligence systems
Big data analytics
Data management聽
Data visualization for business
Integrating business fundamentals with ethics and law
Financial management
Optimization and decision support modeling for business聽
Studying for a degree in business intelligence can equip you with a range of knowledge and skills you may build on by gaining practical experience through learning or opting for internships. Examples of skills you can learn include:
Data analysis
Business intelligence systems
Analytical software packages聽
IT infrastructure and information security
Managerial skills
SQL knowledge聽
Data modeling
Extracting, transforming, and loading (ETL)
Online analytical processing (OLAP)
Data warehouse architecture聽
Data visualizations
Critical thinking
Business intelligence roles come with good salaries and job security. Companies and organizations, regardless of industry, utilize business intelligence to gain insights and inform decisions, so you鈥檒l find roles in various sectors. Common industries hiring business intelligence professionals include government departments, private businesses, and consulting firms.
A business intelligence professional's average annual base salary is $127,654 [], which is considerably higher than the national average.
A business intelligence degree is a good entry point for several different careers and for progressing within the field to leadership roles. Here are some possible job roles in business intelligence and their average annual base salaries.
Average annual US base salary: $102,961 []
Job outlook (BLS): 23 percent []
As a business intelligence analyst, you analyze business, competitor, and industry data to find ways to improve a company鈥檚 efficiency, increase sales, and meet business goals. Business intelligence analysts present findings to executive-level staff to inform important decision-making.听
Average annual US base salary: $100,666 []
Job outlook (BLS): 23 percent []
As a business intelligence developer, you design and develop dashboards, data querying tools, visualizations, and reports for analysts. They can be used to gather, analyze, and gain data insights about a business and its performance.听
Average annual US base salary: $146,785 []
Job outlook (BLS): 23 percent []
As a business intelligence manager, you鈥檒l lead a team of business intelligence analysts who gather, analyze, and report on insights they gain from data to support business leaders in making important strategic decisions.听
Average annual US base salary: $78,915 []
Job outlook (BLS): 9 percent []
As a financial analyst, you gather and analyze current and historical data to support businesses in making financial decisions. They typically focus on how money is spent, investments, and increasing return on investment (ROI).
Average annual US base salary: $76,443 []
Job outlook (BLS): 8 percent []
As a marketing analyst, you鈥檒l gather, analyze, and report on consumer, industry, and company data to develop marketing strategies. You鈥檒l also assess whether products are marketable, who will buy them, and what the best price point is.听
Business intelligence and data science have similarities, but while business intelligence analyst and data scientist roles might cross, they are different. A data scientist or analyst might create reports based on data, but a business intelligence analyst will translate the data into a business context. Data science relies on analysis using algorithms and mathematical equations, but business intelligence takes a more human approach and solves problems in a business environment.
Business intelligence is the process of collecting, analyzing, and reporting on data to help achieve business goals. You鈥檒l find a number of business intelligence degree courses available, whether you are looking to study at a bachelor鈥檚 degree level or an advanced level. You may also consider a Professional Certificate to bolster your resume, such as the Google Business Intelligence Professional Certificate, available on 糖心vlog官网观看.
Glassdoor. 鈥, https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/business-intelligence-salary-SRCH_KO0,21.htm.鈥 Accessed March 31, 2025.
Glassdoor. 鈥, https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/united-states-business-intelligence-analyst-salary-SRCH_IL.0,13_IN1_KO14,43.htm.鈥 Accessed March 31, 2025.听
US Bureau of Labor Statistics. 鈥, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/operations-research-analysts.htm#tab-1.鈥 Accessed March 31, 2025.听
Glassdoor. 鈥, https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/united-states-business-intelligence-developer-salary-SRCH_IL.0,13_IN1_KO14,45.htm.鈥 Accessed March 31, 2025.
Glassdoor. 鈥, https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/united-states-business-intelligence-manager-salary-SRCH_IL.0,13_IN1_KO14,43.htm.鈥 Accessed March 31, 2025.
Glassdoor. 鈥, https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/united-states-financial-analyst-salary-SRCH_IL.0,13_IN1_KO14,31.htm.鈥 Accessed March 31, 2025.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics. 鈥, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/financial-analysts.htm.鈥 Accessed March 31, 2025.
Glassdoor. 鈥, https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/united-states-marketing-analyst-salary-SRCH_IL.0,13_IN1_KO14,31.htm.鈥 Accessed March 31, 2025.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics. 鈥, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/market-research-analysts.htm#tab-1.鈥 Accessed March 31, 2025.
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This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.