2025 BI and Analytics Trends for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses

Every year, I step back and take a look at where the business intelligence (BI) and analytics market is headed. Unlike most of these predictions, I’m interested in how it’s impacting smaller and mid-sized businesses. At Klipfolio, this is who the overwhelming majority of our customers are. We care about how the new advances, the trends, and the hype actually impact this group—not the stratosphere of the enterprise that usually gets all the attention.

OK, let’s dive in. 

P.S. If you’re curious about my 2024 predictions and if I was on the mark, here is my analytics trends post from 2023!

1. Self-Service BI and Democratization of Data (this has been on the list for years!)

BI analytics software is becoming easier for non-technical users to navigate. In particular, chat-based natural language interfaces have opened up access to a new group of users who were previously overwhelmed by the complexity of working with data. The rise of defined metrics and metric catalogs has also welcomed these new users, enabling them to access and explore business metrics in a safe and user-friendly environment.

Most SMBs don’t have data analysts. They might have someone responsible for the data, but there’s certainly no BI team to rely on for building dashboards and reports. Users within smaller organizations need to make decisions based on good data—without the luxury of a full-time analyst.

What you should do: Up your data game. Self-service BI, and the promise of chat-based business intelligence, require good data and well-defined metrics. Nail these, and everything else will become easier.

2. Embedded Analytics in User Workflows

Most BI tools available to SMBs offer basic functionalities, such as exporting data as CSV or Excel files or downloading images for presentations and documents. Some tools also feature Slack or Teams integrations, making it easy to query data on the fly. The most advanced options take it a step further, allowing live metrics or dashboards to be embedded directly into other applications. 

While the promise of self-service BI will open up analytics to a much wider audience, it’s unlikely that employees at small and mid-sized businesses will start spending more time in BI tools than in email, Excel, Word, or Slack. Users need data and insights where decisions happen—and that’s within the tools they use every day.

What you should do: Survey employees to understand how they prefer to access and interact with data. Do they need scheduled PDF attachments via email, or would a chat interface in Slack be more effective? The ultimate goal is to empower more people to make informed decisions with the right data.

3. Natural Language Chat Interfaces

Natural language processing chatbots were some of the big newsmakers of 2024. Although we’ve peaked on the hype cycle, advances in AI are continuing to race forward at a jaw-dropping pace. For BI and analytics, this translates to more time-saving benefits for end-users, including deeper root cause analysis, data summaries, and actionable advice. 

The ability to chat with your data has opened the door for non-technical users to adopt BI and easily get their data questions answered. This is especially valuable for SMBs, where there’s no analyst to translate questions into well-formed queries and reports. 

Chat interfaces empower anyone to explore data using loosely defined questions in their native language.

What you should do: Leverage chat interfaces to engage users who were previously hesitant to use BI tools. Show them how easy and safe it is to ask questions and get meaningful answers. As I’ve mentioned before, this will only work well if your data is of high quality.

4. Real-time Analytics (this has been on the list for years too!)

Modern cloud-based BI tools are inherently real-time. Most, if not all, of the data services and applications that small and mid-sized businesses connect to also run in the cloud and provide real-time data. This is less of a trend and more of a fundamental requirement. 

All businesses need to respond quickly to changes. Being able to spot a trend—or a problem—before it’s too late enables employees to confidently make decisions throughout the day.

What you should do: When designing your metrics and dashboards, ensure that the current “real-time” value of your metric is presented with context. For example, knowing you currently have 100 boxes of inventory in storage is useful, but it’s far more meaningful if you also know that 100 boxes represent only 20% of yesterday’s total. 

Adding context to your real-time data helps employees better understand and act on what’s happening.

5. Advanced Analysis

Advanced analysis features, including forecasting and normal ranges, were once exclusive to enterprise BI tools. Now, these capabilities are becoming available in modern, best-in-class tools designed for SMBs.

For employees at small and mid-sized companies, the more context provided to understand data and trends, the better. BI tools must fill the role of a full-time analyst. Advanced analytics, such as forecasting, normal ranges, or trend lines, help provide this valuable context.

What you should do: Encourage your users to familiarize themselves with forecasts and normal ranges and learn how to use this additional guidance to make better decisions—all without the need for costly data science teams.

6. Higher Quality Consolidated Data

Most BI tools now offer easier data integration options, including joining and modeling capabilities. SMBs often deal with fragmented systems, leading to siloed data and overlapping field or dimension names. As the amount of data SMBs collect and manage continues to grow, so does the opportunity to leverage it effectively.

Additionally, the increasing accessibility of inexpensive, user-friendly data warehousing tools is enabling small and mid-sized organizations to consolidate, clean, and prepare their data into consistent, analytics-ready tables.

What you should do: Throughout this article, I’ve emphasized the importance of high-quality data. Investments in this area will improve every step of your BI and analytics journey—from metrics to dashboards to AI.

7. Dashboards, Dashboards, Dashboards

Every year, without fail, a headline appears declaring, "Dashboards are dead." I’m here to tell you that well-designed dashboards that tell a story and aren’t overwhelming are here to stay.

Dashboards have an unparalleled ability to tell a story, bringing multiple data points together to help users understand trends and context. They are the backbone of Monday morning standups, weekly pipeline reviews, and formal board meetings. There’s no substitute for a well-designed dashboard or report.

What you should do: Make sure the metrics and visualizations on your dashboards are clear and cohesive. Thoughtfully apply date ranges and filters to ensure users view data that is accurate, relevant, and free from confusion or misinterpretation.

8. Data Privacy and Compliance

Software vendors of all sizes are being held to higher standards as well. SMB software vendors are continuing to invest in access controls, compliance certifications, and ongoing security testing to meet these requirements.

New and stricter legislation is increasingly holding SMBs to the same data governance principles and privacy standards as larger companies. The penalties—both financial and reputational—are severe.

What you should do: Choose tools that are GDPR and SOC 2 compliant and support secure sign-in protocols, such as MFA. When adding users, ensure they have appropriate access rights to the data you’re sharing to minimize risks.

9. Affordable Scalability

Modern BI solutions offer incredible value, providing cost-effective access to enterprise-grade analytics, including AI and advanced features, without requiring heavy upfront investments or skyrocketing costs as teams scale. While BI and analytics remain top spending priorities for most companies, the current economy is driving closer scrutiny of budgets—especially as subscription costs continue to grow.

What you should do: Choose tools with a "try before you buy" model and transparent pricing structures. Look for modular add-ons that scale alongside the value you derive from the solution.

Summary

Business intelligence and analytics will continue to evolve in the coming year, offering small and mid-sized companies powerful tools to drive smarter decisions without a lot of heavy lifting. 

Building on previous years, real-time analytics will still remain a fundamental requirement, enabling businesses to quickly respond to trends or issues. As data volumes continue to grow, higher-quality consolidated data will become essential, with modern BI tools offering improved integration and data cleaning capabilities.

Advanced analytics such as forecasting and trend analysis will become more accessible to SMBs, eliminating the need for expensive data science teams. Dashboards will remain a critical tool, offering clear, story-driven insights that support decision-making across all levels of an organization. Data privacy and compliance will be a growing concern, with SMBs needing to meet stricter regulations while ensuring secure data practices.

There are some trends that are continuations from previous years, such as self-service BI and the democratization of data, allowing users to access and analyze data independently, without needing a dedicated analyst. This is further supported by new advances in natural language chat interfaces that simplify data interaction, empowering even non-technical users. 

Embedded analytics will integrate insights directly into daily workflows, allowing employees to act on data without leaving the tools they are already familiar with. Affordable scalability will also allow SMBs to leverage enterprise-grade analytics without the prohibitive upfront costs, focusing on tools with transparent pricing and scalable features. 

By embracing all these trends, SMBs can unlock the full potential of their data, gaining insights that fuel growth and efficiency in a competitive landscape.