Tableau is growing tentacles and expanding outside of business analytics, according to Paul Lilford, senior director of technology and market intelligence at Tableau Software, Inc. Lilford spoke to Dave Vellante and Jeff Frick, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, about the novel ways consumers are utilizing the software.

Founded in 2003, the Seattle, Washington-based company is known for helping businesses make sense of data with analytics tools. That remains their official mission, but according to Lilford, users are finding new ways to repurpose the software. He spoke about job seekers using Tableau to create interactive resumes that can actually show employers what they’ve done. Academics are also finding uses for the platform in their work in colleges.

Becoming a standard

Vellante remarked that it seemed that Tableau was becoming the standard for business analytics. Lilford agreed, “We’re hoping we become a verb soon,” he said. “We’re north of 32,000 customers as a company.”

Lilford said that despite the company’s image as computerizing business, he still believes humans are where a business’s real value lay. “We’re an extension of the human brain, not a replacement,” he said.

He admires RapidMiner for its forward-looking mission and believes the strides it is making in data will be used to further improve Tableau down the line.

Watch the full video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of RapidMiner Wisdom 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE