T3 Podcast | The Sectoral Journey of Data - Tolga Ahmet Kalaycı

In this episode of the T3 Podcast, we welcome Tolga Ahmet Kalaycı, Director of Data Science at Hepsiburada. Kalaycı shares his definition of data science, its applications across various industries, its implementations at Hepsiburada, and advice for those seeking a career in this field.

Mr. Tolga defines data science as a field that employs scientific methods and algorithms to extract information and insights from both structured and unstructured data. The sectors where data science is heavily utilized and examples of its applications include:

• Marketing: Customer segmentation, campaign targeting, and personalized experiences.
• Manufacturing: Predictive maintenance, logistics, and warehouse layout optimization.
• Healthcare and Finance: Image recognition, treatment recommendation systems, credit scoring, and fraud detection.
• Human Resources: Applying customer relationship management CRM-like approaches to employee management processes.

In the e-commerce sector, data science applications at Hepsiburada focus on three main areas:

1. Customer Experience Applications: Enhancing customer shopping experiences through product recommendations and personalized campaign suggestions.
2. Operational Efficiency Applications: Improving efficiency by optimizing internal processes without direct customer interaction.
3. Strategic Decision Support Applications: Supporting decision-makers in areas such as pricing and campaign strategies.

Kalaycı emphasizes that the fundamental goal of all these initiatives is to "make customers' lives easier".

The greatest advantage of investments in data science is that the returns they generate can be clearly measured. As these investments become an integral part of an organization’s daily operations, they deliver significant benefits both in the short and long term.

In line with the vision of the Metaverse as a digital environment where people can do everything they can do in the physical world, it is expected that current applications of data science will remain relevant within the Metaverse in the future.

The most important competencies sought in today’s data scientists are:

• Ability to Follow Technological Advancements: Given the continuous evolution of the data science field, the ability to constantly update one’s knowledge is critical.
• Business Understanding and Problem-Solving Ability: Beyond technical knowledge, the ability to understand business processes and problems and translate them into mathematical models is a highly valuable skill gained through experience.