Women make up only 16% of the population of data scientists and machine learners, according to online community kaggle. While there are no statistics to confirm, trends from other industries would indicate the percentage for women of color in the data field is exponentially lower. I had the chance to speak to Sadie St. Lawrence, the CEO and founder of Women in Data to discuss women’s role in data and where she sees data going in the future.

On Monday morning, the tech world got shaken up when Salesforce announced they had acquired data visualization software, Tableau for a whopping $15.7 billion. “We are bringing together the world’s #1 CRM with the #1 analytics platform. Tableau helps people see and understand data, and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers,” co-CEO of Salesforce Marc Benioff said in a statement after the announcement. What started off as strictly a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform, it’s clear that Salesforce is looking to expand their influence to other industries such as data analysis – creating a product that has everything a company needs all in one software.

I recently wrote an article about Walmart’s new Intelligent Retail Lab (IRL) from a supply chain perspective. Walmart’s IRL, is a new AI powered store that uses technology and data to monitor every day tasks from re-stocking shelves, notifying employees when a new cash register needs to be opened; and insuring that there are always enough carts available for customers.