The demand for data science truly has never been higher. It’s in demand, promised salaries are through the roof, etc. etc. While I do think learning data science is a worthy goal, in my experience companies aren’t there yet.
I think execs realize that the value is there, but they’re unsure how to take advantage of it. My recommendation is to focus first on delivering basic value. Visualizations, analysis, etc. From there, you can implement neural nets and regressions.
As a note to myself, data manipulation, visualization, and a predictive trend line can get you 80% of the way there.