Two thoughts: 1) Much of this is the bias of this community towards new and more more technical companies. At many of our work places Data Science is just part of the landscape and is now baked in. But there is a wide gap between that and legacy companies where the idea of using these techniques this way isn't new at all. In other words we've been through the initial wave of the hype curve and are now into mainstream growth of the idea. 2) Branding matters. In many companies that I get to interact with (fortune 100s) run-of-the mill analysts exist for ass-covering the non-data-based decisions of higher ups. Post-hoc decision justifying. But DS teams (currently) actually get a seat at the table and get listened to. If for nothing else that makes DS way more effective then just BI or whatever. And as long as we get things right that should turn into a virtuous cycle of being heard, being seen to contribute, and being asked to contribute more.