Which analytics type allows businesses to predict future trends based on current usage data?

The selected answer refers to predictive analytics, which focuses on analyzing current and historical data to identify patterns and trends that can forecast future outcomes. By leveraging statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques, predictive analytics enables businesses to anticipate potential future behaviors and trends based on their existing usage data. This type of analytics is particularly valuable for strategic decision-making, as it allows organizations to allocate resources effectively, manage risks, and improve overall performance by forecasting future scenarios.

Descriptive analytics, on the other hand, primarily summarizes past data to provide insights about what has happened; it does not offer predictions about future events. Diagnostic analytics seeks to understand the cause of historical events by analyzing data to find actionable insights, but it is focused on explaining past performance rather than predicting future outcomes. Prescriptive analytics goes a step further by recommending actions based on analyzed data, but it does not inherently involve predicting trends. Therefore, predictive analytics is the appropriate choice for the question regarding forecasting future trends.