BI
Abbreviation with 5 meanings
| Stands for | Business intelligence |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 5 |
| Categories | Business & Finance, Geography & Places, Science & Engineering |
| Also written | Bi |
BI has five meanings. The most common are Business intelligence (management & strategy) and Bodily injury liability (insurance); it can also stand for Burundi, Bismuth and Business interruption insurance.
Meanings of BI at a glance
| # | BI stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Business intelligence | Business & Finance › Management & Strategy |
| 2 | Bodily injury liability | Business & Finance › Insurance |
| 3 | Burundi | Geography & Places › Country Code |
| 4 | Bismuth | Science & Engineering › Chemical Element |
| 5 | Business interruption insurance | Business & Finance › Insurance |
1. Business intelligence
Business & Finance · Management & Strategy Abbreviations · also used in technology
Technologies and practices for collecting, integrating, analyzing and presenting business data so managers can make better decisions, typically through dashboards, reports and ad hoc queries. BI tools sit on top of data warehouses and answer questions about what happened and why.
Example: The BI dashboard shows daily sales by store, so regional managers no longer wait for the monthly report.
Popular BI tools include Microsoft Power BI, Tableau and Looker. IBM researcher Hans Peter Luhn used the phrase in a 1958 paper, and Gartner analyst Howard Dresner popularized it in 1989. BI is usually described as backward-looking analysis, whereas predictive analytics and data science aim to forecast outcomes.
2. Bodily injury liability
Business & Finance · Insurance Abbreviations · also used in transportation
Auto and general liability coverage that pays for injuries the policyholder causes to other people, including medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering and legal defense. Auto limits are usually written as a split, such as 50/100, meaning $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident.
Example: My policy has 100/300 BI limits, well above the state minimum.
State minimum BI limits are low, often $25,000 per person or less, so insurers and consumer advocates recommend higher limits to protect personal assets. The third number in a split limit, such as the 50 in 100/300/50, is property damage liability. In management, BI means business intelligence.
3. Burundi
Geography & Places · Country Code Abbreviations
Burundi, a small, densely populated country on Lake Tanganyika, moved its political capital to Gitega in 2019, while Bujumbura remains the economic center. The alpha-3 code is BDI.
Example: NGO budgets for projects in BI are reported in Burundian francs.
Burundi gained independence from Belgium in 1962. In business BI means business intelligence, a different context entirely.
4. Bismuth (Bi)
Science & Engineering · Chemical Element Abbreviations
Bismuth (element 83) is a brittle, pinkish-silver metal whose crystals grow in iridescent, stair-stepped shapes. It is the active ingredient of the stomach remedy bismuth subsalicylate and a nontoxic substitute for lead in solders, shotgun pellets and plumbing brass. Like water, it expands slightly when it solidifies.
Example: Lab-grown Bi crystals get their rainbow sheen from a thin surface oxide layer.
Bismuth-209 was long considered the heaviest stable isotope until physicists in France reported in 2003 that it undergoes alpha decay, with a half-life of about 2 x 10^19 years, more than a billion times the age of the universe. The name probably comes from German Wismut, of uncertain origin, Latinized as bisemutum. Claude François Geoffroy showed in 1753 that it was distinct from lead and tin.
5. Business interruption insurance
Business & Finance · Insurance Abbreviations
Commercial coverage that replaces lost income and pays continuing expenses, such as payroll and rent, when a covered physical loss like a fire forces a business to close or slow down temporarily.
Example: The fire closed the restaurant for four months, and BI covered payroll and lost profits.
Also called business income coverage. During the COVID-19 pandemic, most US courts ruled that BI policies did not cover shutdowns because there was no physical loss or damage, while the UK Supreme Court in 2021 found many British policies did respond. Contingent BI extends coverage to losses at key suppliers or customers.
Related abbreviations
More management & strategy abbreviations
- BAU – Business as usual
- BCP – Business continuity plan
- BD – Business development
- BHAG – Big hairy audacious goal
- BoD – Board of directors
- BPM – Business process management
- BPO – Business process outsourcing
- BPR – Business process reengineering
See all 92 management & strategy abbreviations →