AI-powered Time Collection Forecasting would be the strongest facet of machine studying out there right this moment. Working from datasets you have already got, a Time Collection Forecasting mannequin may also help you higher perceive seasonality and cyclical conduct and make future-facing selections, corresponding to lowering stock or employees planning. By simplifying Time Collection Forecasting fashions and accelerating the AI lifecycle, DataRobot can centralize collaboration throughout the enterprise—particularly knowledge science and IT groups—and maximize ROI.
AI Forecasting Can Overcome Actual-World Complexity and Combine Current Processes
Whereas AI-powered forecasting may also help retailers implement gross sales and demand forecasting—this course of could be very complicated, and even extremely data-driven firms face key challenges:
- Scale: 1000’s of merchandise combos make it tough to manually construct predictive fashions
- Actual-World Complexity: The fixed altering circumstances of demand swings, uncontrolled elements, such because the COVID pandemic, and inner actions are arduous to forecast in opposition to and may render fashions ineffective in a single day
- Integration and Disparate Instruments: Throughout the identical group you might need totally different groups working with totally different applied sciences, instruments, and frameworks, so there’s a problem in constantly of forecasting solutions, making alignment tougher and slowing down time to worth
Why is it so tough to do it manually? For instance, simply to forecast gross sales on a shirt with 5 totally different sizes in 5 totally different colours provides you 25 combos. Now, add over 5,500 retailer places with a 7-day rolling forecast—which truly takes 42 days to forecast—and also you’ll get greater than 5 million predictions.

That is the place the DataRobot AI platform may also help automate and speed up your course of from knowledge to worth, even in a scalable setting. Let’s run by means of the method and see precisely how one can go from knowledge to predictions.
The use case shall be forecasting gross sales for shops, which is a multi-time sequence downside—each supervised studying and time sequence regression. On this use case, the forecasting shall be on a day decision, however for different Time Collection Forecasting, the decision could be totally different, corresponding to a month, a yr, and many others.
The method I’ll current shall be utilizing the DataRobot GUI. For code-first customers, we provide a code expertise too, utilizing the AP—each in Python and R—on your comfort.
Organising a Time Collection Challenge
The machine studying life cycle all the time begins with the dataset. Import the information from varied choices: from a neighborhood file or URL or create an information reference to numerous knowledge sources, corresponding to Snowflake or Amazon Redshift, and add it to the AI Catalog, which helps handle datasets, versioning, and shared capabilities with different customers.
In case your dataset will not be in time order (time consistency is required for correct Time Collection tasks), DataRobot can repair these gaps utilizing the DataRobot Information Prep software, a no-code software that can get your knowledge prepared for Time Collection forecasting.
As soon as the information is prepared, DataRobot will do some preliminary exploratory knowledge evaluation – along with an information high quality evaluation of the information – to get a deeper understanding of the dataset previous to mannequin coaching. As you dive in, you’ll be able to have a look at the distribution of every characteristic, establish outliers, goal leakage, or lacking knowledge, create a var transformation, higher perceive what these options could also be, and extra.
As soon as the information is able to begin the coaching course of, you might want to select your goal variable. After we select ‘gross sales’ it’s instantly acknowledged as a regression downside. Observe: the DataRobot platform helps each supervised and unsupervised studying.
Subsequent, you might want to arrange the time-aware modeling settings, together with the Characteristic Derivation Window (FDW), or how lengthy of a interval you might have to generate options that may be related on your downside. Then generate a Forecast Window—which reveals the futures interval you wish to forecast—and the operationalize hole (the time frame for which forecasted predictions can’t be made actionable).
Calendars may also enable you to perceive seasonality and incorporate it into the forecast mannequin. For instance, how holidays and occasions have an effect on forecasting. When you don’t have your individual calendar, DataRobot will generate one based mostly in your location.
Superior settings will let you configure extra parameters to the forecasting venture, like “recognized upfront” (KA) options—that don’t change after the forecast level—corresponding to advertising and marketing promotions, vacationer occasions, and extra.
I might additionally configure the venture based mostly on phase, which can lead to a number of tasks “below the hood.” As soon as the segments are recognized and constructed, they’re merged to make a single-object—the Mixed Mannequin. This results in improved mannequin efficiency and decreased time to deployment.
The DataRobot Coaching Course of
Now that every one our settings are in place, we’re able to go. To start coaching your mannequin, simply hit the Begin button and let the DataRobot platform prepare ML fashions for you. Primarily based on the FDW, new options shall be generated. You may dive into every considered one of them and discover the characteristic lineage, permitting you to see the transformation from the unique characteristic to the one which was created.

You may as well see the correlation between every characteristic and the goal variable. Within the background, fashions are being skilled in parallel for effectivity and velocity—from Tree-based fashions to Deep Studying fashions (which shall be chosen based mostly in your historic knowledge and goal variable) and extra.
To speed up the method, you may also enhance the variety of modeling staff (variety of jobs operating on the identical time).
After your venture has been finalized, you’ll be able to overview all of the fashions that had been skilled. The order of the fashions shall be based mostly on the venture’s metric—and could be modified based mostly in your configuration. Within the coaching course of, totally different fashions with totally different characteristic lists and coaching intervals had been examined, and solely one of the best performing fashions continued to the following spherical, ensuing within the first mannequin listed within the leaderboard, which is the really helpful mannequin by DataRobot for deployment.
The mannequin coaching course of will not be a black field—it contains belief and explainability. You may see your complete course of from knowledge to predictions with the entire totally different steps—in addition to the supportive documentation on each stage and an automatic compliance report, which is essential for extremely regulated industries.

Mannequin Efficiency, Insights, and Explainability
Do you wish to see how your mannequin is performing? Taking a look at Accuracy Over Time means that you can see the actuals versus the predictions of the mannequin—and reveals how seasonality and calendar occasions are included. Superior Tuning, in the meantime, will allow you to additional tweak the mannequin.
Are your small business selections aligned with the mannequin outcomes? On a macro stage, see which options drive the mannequin’s end result. On a micro stage, uncover how a change in a particular characteristic impacts the goal variable. For instance, selecting the ‘vacationer occasion’ characteristic reveals us that holding such occasions ends in increased gross sales.
All the from the platform will also be exported outdoors of DataRobot.
The Deployment Course of
Now it’s time to place our mannequin into manufacturing and get some predictions—and unlock actual worth and ROI. There are a number of methods to take action. Carry out advert hoc evaluation in your dataset and preview the predictions for the upcoming seven days for a particular sequence. You may as well deploy the mannequin utilizing the DataRobot API—guaranteeing a easy and quick connection between knowledge scientists and the IT crew.
Basically, utilizing DataRobot MLOps, you may also see fashions that you just at present have in manufacturing—from totally different coaching and deployment environments. Test for mannequin accuracy and knowledge drift and examine every mannequin from governance and repair well being views, respectively. In case your mannequin is decaying, you’ll be able to exchange it with a extra correct challenger mannequin—which could be monitored with automated guidelines and notifications.
Shut the loop by connecting your predictions into any database—together with batch or real-time predictions utilizing the DataRobot API. And to hook up with the enterprise, you’ll be able to join predictions to your small business utility. For instance, I used Tableau on this use case. On the highest, you’ll be able to see the general forecasted gross sales for the following seven days in all of the shops mixed, and on the underside, you’ve gotten every sequence (every retailer) displayed individually.
Speed up the Machine Studying Life Cycle with AI-Powered Forecasting
Time Collection Forecasting is perhaps essentially the most highly effective facet of machine studying out there to organizations right this moment. The flexibility to strategically plan for what’s to come back can set you aside out of your competitors.
With accessibility from the UI, but in addition from code—and with Trusted AI and explainability to assist enhance the worth and unlock ROI—the DataRobot platform may also help your group rapidly make correct predictions and get actionable insights.
To see a demo on how one can leverage AI to make forecasting higher, and speed up the machine studying life cycle, please watch the complete video, AI-Powered Forecasting: From Information to Consumption.
In regards to the writer

World Technical Product Advocacy Lead, DataRobot
Atalia Horenshtien is a World Technical Product Advocacy Lead at DataRobot. She performs a significant function because the lead developer of the DataRobot technical market story and works carefully with product, advertising and marketing, and gross sales. As a former Buyer Going through Information Scientist at DataRobot, Atalia labored with clients in numerous industries as a trusted advisor on AI, solved complicated knowledge science issues, and helped them unlock enterprise worth throughout the group.
Whether or not talking to clients and companions or presenting at business occasions, she helps with advocating the DataRobot story and the best way to undertake AI/ML throughout the group utilizing the DataRobot platform. A few of her talking classes on totally different subjects like MLOps, Time Collection Forecasting, Sports activities tasks, and use instances from varied verticals in business occasions like AI Summit NY, AI Summit Silicon Valley, Advertising AI Convention (MAICON), and companions occasions corresponding to Snowflake Summit, Google Subsequent, masterclasses, joint webinars and extra.
Atalia holds a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering and administration and two Masters—MBA and Enterprise Analytics.