Guide
How to Become a Business Intelligence Analyst in 2025
Written By Liz Eggleston
Edited By Jess Feldman
Last updated January 30, 2025
Written By Liz Eggleston
Edited By Jess Feldman
Course Report strives to create the most trust-worthy content about coding bootcamps. Read more about Course Report’s Editorial Policy and How We Make Money.
Course Report strives to create the most trust-worthy content about coding bootcamps. Read more about Course Report’s Editorial Policy and How We Make Money.
Want to break into the fast-growing field of Business Intelligence or take your BI career to the next level in 2025? BI Analysts are in high demand, helping companies turn data into actionable insights. In this guide, industry experts share how to become a BI Analyst – even without a college degree! We’ll walk you through the BI career path, typical salaries, and how BI analytics differs from data analytics. Plus, discover the essential skills, tools (including AI-powered BI tools), and data bootcamps + certificate courses take control of your career this year.
Business Intelligence (also called “BI” in the industry) is the combination of methods and technology that businesses use to analyze data and turn them into ideas that have practical insights and applications that can be used to make concrete business decisions. Candace Periera-Roberts, a General Assembly instructor with 20 years of experience in data, adds that the business intelligence field “includes professionals such as data analysts, business intelligence analysts, data engineers, and data scientists, who work with data visualization, reporting, and analytics to drive informed business strategies.”
What do these BI insights look like? This information can come in the form of reports, graphics, maps, or summaries to provide decision-makers with detailed documentation about a business’ current status and a suggested “roadmap” of how they should move forward.
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✏️ Here’s an example: Let’s say your company’s sales have declined in Q3 – the BI Analyst would be tasked with finding out “the why.” Is that decline coming from a specific region, a certain product/service, or a specific sales rep? A BI Analyst would take a top-down approach to answering those questions and would deliver their insights in the form of reports, graphics, maps, or summaries to provide decision-makers (in this case, the Head of Sales or Rev Ops or the CEO) with detailed documentation about the business’ current status and a suggested “roadmap” of how they should move forward. |
In today’s marketplace, business intelligence and data analytics are often used interchangeably, but they are two distinct processes. While both use data to drive decisions and outcomes, they take a different approach to get there. Essentially, data analytics uses statistical and computational procedures to analyze large sets of data from which to mine information and make more informed business decisions. On the other hand, business intelligence entails analyzing and communicating data that help leaders make strategic and profitable decisions to move the company forward.
As Periera-Roberts explains, “In general, BI Analysts work to make sure that the data is ready for use from the sources and work with other roles such as Database Administrators and Data Engineers. Data Analysts work more closely with customers (internal and external) to meet their data needs and they work with BI Analysts as well. Many times these roles are actually blended.” So while the two roles can be distinct, there is often quite a bit of overlap, depending on the company.
While everyday tasks and responsibilities will vary from company to company, in general, a BI Analyst will be expected to:
Keep in mind that there are two kinds of Business Intelligence: Traditional BI and Modern BI.
| Traditional Business Intelligence | Modern Business Intelligence |
|---|---|
| Uses internal data such as inventory, sales, and finances, and is stored in data warehouses | Uses up-to-date technology to give users the data from multiple sources such as NLQ (natural language queries) and interactive dashboards |
| Uses tools like OLAP cubes and dashboards to analyze data | Utilizes AI algorithms to streamline the discovery of information from intricate and multifaceted data sets |
| Examples of Traditional BI: financial reporting, sales analysis, operational performance | Examples of Modern BI: real-time reporting, predictive analysis, self-service analytics |
At smaller companies, data roles like data scientist may be tasked with business intelligence analysis. Data science bootcamp graduate Emily says that in her first data role at the Gates Foundation, "They'd hired me as a data scientist but since they didn't have business intelligence analysts in place, I ended up doing a fair amount of that role...The work I did was a lot of data preparation work – trying to get the data in one place and making it play nicely together to then build some simple visualizations, less so actually getting to some of those higher levels of analysis."
As of January 2025, the average salary for a BI Analyst in the United States is $99,864. Salaries do depend on the following factors:
According to Candace Periera-Roberts:
A typical career trajectory would be to start as a BI Analyst, then Senior BI Analyst, then Lead BI Analyst, then Director of Business Intelligence.
The following technical tools and skills are important for a BI analyst to have on their resume:
The short answer is: No! Today’s BI Analyst may use AI tools for automating data cleaning and data extraction or to help with predictive analytics, but companies still need BI analysts with human soft skills that cannot be replicated by AI. Periera-Roberts advises that “anyone looking to get into BI should have knowledge and skills that are both technical and non-technical,” which means that soft skills are still integral to the role. AI can help a BI Analyst become more strategic and reactive to patterns, but human skills like communication and cross-functional team management are what actually get results from that data into the organization.
Organizations need BI analysts with human skills, which means:
Of course, exact tasks and responsibilities for a BI analyst will vary based on the company and specific industry, but in general, BI analysts will have many similar responsibilities. A typical day in the life of a BI Analyst may include:
You don’t need a college degree to become a business intelligence analyst. As Periera-Roberts says, "I personally didn’t get a data degree, but rather learned on the job throughout my career and actually taught myself SQL. I eventually got my Masters in Computer Information Systems, but that’s not necessary for a career in business intelligence! In General Assembly’s Data Analytics Bootcamp, we’re not only teaching the tools, but also how to frame a hypothesis and work through an empirical process. Students build an Excel project, then a SQL project, and finally a Tableau project."
To make a career change into business intelligence analysis if you have no previous technical experience, we recommend starting with an expert-led bootcamp, which will give you the live instruction, industry-aligned curriculum, dedicated career support, and hands-on learning you need. A data analytics bootcamp or a business intelligence analytics bootcamp can prepare you for this career path:
Ifyou're already working in a data adjacent role, a certificate course may help you level up your career into BI Analytics:
Liz Eggleston, CEO and Editor of Course Report
Liz Eggleston is co-founder of Course Report, the most complete resource for students choosing a coding bootcamp. Liz has dedicated her career to empowering passionate career changers to break into tech, providing valuable insights and guidance in the rapidly evolving field of tech education. At Course Report, Liz has built a trusted platform that helps thousands of students navigate the complex landscape of coding bootcamps.
Jess Feldman, Content Manager at Course Report
Jess Feldman is an accomplished writer and the Content Manager at Course Report, the leading platform for career changers who are exploring coding bootcamps. With a background in writing, teaching, and social media management, Jess plays a pivotal role in helping Course Report readers make informed decisions about their educational journey.
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