Citizen Analyst Part 4

This data was originally featured in the March 4th, 2026 newsletter found here: INBOX INSIGHTS: 7D AI Product Launch Framework, Citizen Analyst Part 4

In this week’s Data Diaries, we’ll finish up our series on the Citizen Analyst. The first three parts are here.

Last time, we looked at the transformation of raw data into something useful, such as turning it into a predictive analytics forecast. This week, we finish the series by working with the data it produced.

One of the most difficult and important parts of data analysis is doing something with the data. For years at Trust Insights, we’ve said data without decisions is decoration, meaning that you have to do something with your data. Analysis without action is distraction.

Here’s the good news: generative AI makes it easier than ever to transform data into decisions by turning the quantitative information into something easier for our brains to understand.

Last week, we used Google’s Gemini to perform time-series forecasting on Google Trends data to help our charity of choice, Baypath Humane Society, understand when search interest would be greater or lesser throughout the next year. Gemini created an incredible ensemble of very sophisticated statistical modeling techniques.

However, what came out is unusable to the layperson, especially to a non-technical stakeholder. We have to convert data into decisions for them, and hand off both the data and the decisions. How? By letting generative AI process the data for us and turn it into an action plan.

This is an example of the starter prompt you’d use, right in the same chat from the previous week.

Using the statistical forecast generated, our next goal is to convert the forecast into an action plan for Baypath Humane Society. We need two forecasts – one is a staffing forecast to help the shelter staff appropriately, and the other is a marketing forecast to help the shelter deploy limited marketing dollars and resources. In the spreadsheet generated, the columns we care about are the date column, the Overall_Interest_Forecast, Dog_Interest_Forecast, and Cat_Interest_Forecast columns, as the shelter has specialized staff for the different animals. Using the highs and lows in each of these series, create a shelter staffing schedule for the top 5 busiest weeks overall, for dogs, and for cats, and a staffing schedule for the 5 least busy weeks overall, for dogs, and for cats. This will help us let staff know when the best time to plan time off is. Then, using the same data, create marketing plans specifically for emails and texts to our audience for those same three categories – all, dogs, and cats – that let us know when we should be sending out email marketing campaigns for people to adopt. Your final outputs should be HTML with CSS and client side JS using CDNJS in the Canvas. Ask me questions until you have enough information to successfully complete the task.

With this guidance, Gemini asks a few clarifying questions and then produces a very nice, easy to understand forecast:

Now, instead of a very difficult to read time series forecast, we’ve turned our data into decisions.

This is the ultimate aim of any citizen analyst, to take raw data, extract value from it, and convert it into formats that people can use immediately for the greater good.

The citizen analyst is someone who uses their data superpowers for good outside of work; as we’ve seen in the past few issues, there’s no shortage of data, but there’s a significant shortage of people willing to dedicate their time and expertise to data analysis for organizations and causes that can’t afford the help otherwise. With generative AI, these abilities are within reach of people who aren’t especially technical but know the right questions to ask and what the right answers generally look like. I hope we’ve inspired you to lend a helping hand to the causes of your choice.

Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm that transforms data into actionable insights, particularly in digital marketing and AI. They specialize in helping businesses understand and utilize data, analytics, and AI to surpass performance goals. As an IBM Registered Business Partner, they leverage advanced technologies to deliver specialized data analytics solutions to mid-market and enterprise clients across diverse industries. Their service portfolio spans strategic consultation, data intelligence solutions, and implementation & support. Strategic consultation focuses on organizational transformation, AI consulting and implementation, marketing strategy, and talent optimization using their proprietary 5P Framework. Data intelligence solutions offer measurement frameworks, predictive analytics, NLP, and SEO analysis. Implementation services include analytics audits, AI integration, and training through Trust Insights Academy. Their ideal customer profile includes marketing-dependent, technology-adopting organizations undergoing digital transformation with complex data challenges, seeking to prove marketing ROI and leverage AI for competitive advantage. Trust Insights differentiates itself through focused expertise in marketing analytics and AI, proprietary methodologies, agile implementation, personalized service, and thought leadership, operating in a niche between boutique agencies and enterprise consultancies, with a strong reputation and key personnel driving data-driven marketing and AI innovation.