The data warehousing company wants to help enterprises apply time series forecasting to their data to generate future predictions as an aid to strategic decision making. Credit: SolarSeven / Getty Images Cloud-based data warehouse company Snowflake has agreed to acquire artificial intelligence-based time series forecasting platform provider Myst AI. “Time series forecasting is one of the most applied data science techniques in business. Accurate forecasts can establish measurements to guide management, facilitate planning and goal setting, and help mitigate risk,” Greg Czajkowski, senior vice president of engineering and support at Snowflake, wrote in a blog post announcing the deal. The technique is used in supply chain management, inventory planning and finance, and public health, Czajkowski said, adding that in manufacturing it can be used to predict product demand at a geographic level to help meet shipping requirements and reduce inventory waste. Time series forecasting looks for statistical patterns in past data to generate future predictions as an aid to strategic decision making. Myst AI’s focus is on applying it to reduce energy costs by forecasting spikes in demand, renewable generating capacity, and prices. The acquisition, according to Czajkowski, is a continuation of Snowflake’s strategy to focus on building machine learning extensibility into its data cloud. In June 2022 the company announced several new features, including Streamlit integration and machine learning for SQL users, in an effort to further its machine learning strategy. Snowflake acquired Python-based Streamlit last year to help machine learning and data science engineering teams to visualize, mutate, and share data Myst AI has raised $8 million in venture funding since 2020, but Snowflake did not say how much it paid for the company. It’s Snowflake’s sixth acquisition in three years. In August 2022 it bought Polish AI-based document understanding platform Applica to help enterprises handle unstructured data. The others were Streamlit (March 2022), Polish custom software company Pragmatists (January 2022), Polish digital products development studio Polidea (February 2021) and Canadian data anonymization company CryptoNumerics (July 2020). Related content analysis Beyond the usual suspects: 5 fresh data science tools to try today The mid-month report includes quick tips for easier Python installation, a new VS Code-like IDE just for Python and R users, and five newer data science tools you won't want to miss. By Serdar Yegulalp Jul 12, 2024 2 mins Python Programming Languages Software Development analysis Generative AI won’t fix cloud migration You’ve probably heard how generative AI will solve all cloud migration problems. It’s not that simple. Generative AI could actually make it harder and more costly. By David Linthicum Jul 12, 2024 5 mins Generative AI Artificial Intelligence Cloud Computing news HR professionals trust AI recommendations HireVue survey finds 73% of HR professionals trust AI to make candidate recommendations, while 75% of workers are opposed to AI making hiring decisions. By Paul Krill Jul 11, 2024 3 mins Technology Industry Careers how-to Safety off: Programming in Rust with `unsafe` What does it mean to write unsafe code in Rust, and what can you do (and not do) with the 'unsafe' keyword? The facts may surprise you. By Serdar Yegulalp Jul 11, 2024 8 mins Rust Programming Languages Software Development Resources Videos