SAS Institute Inc. is a privately held global analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) company headquartered in Cary, North Carolina. Founded in 1976 out of a statistical analysis project at North Carolina State University, SAS has grown into one of the world’s leading providers of data analytics, data management, and enterprise AI solutions. The company develops software that helps organizations access, clean, integrate, analyze, and model large and complex data sets, enabling data-informed decisions across sectors such as finance, healthcare, life sciences, insurance, government, and education.

A centerpiece of SAS’s modern offerings is SAS Viya, a cloud-native platform that supports advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI, while integrating with open-source languages and tools such as Python and REST APIs. SAS is known for its strong emphasis on rigorous analytics, enterprise-grade reliability, and support for highly regulated industries.

Beyond its software products, SAS is widely recognized for its commitment to data literacy, education outreach, and its “Data for Good” initiatives, which apply analytics to social and humanitarian challenges. The company also promotes responsible and ethical use of AI across its work.

SAS provides a variety of software solutions and programs to help educational institutions and students leverage data and analytics:

• Data-Driven Administration: Administrators use SAS to forecast enrollment, manage resources efficiently, evaluate program effectiveness, and make data-informed decisions for school improvement and policy changes.
• Free Academic Access: OnDemand for Academics provides students and instructors with free cloud-based access to SAS software for teaching and learning purposes.
• Academic Programs: SAS collaborates with over 400 academic programs worldwide to help universities integrate analytics into their curricula, ensuring students gain job-ready skills. This includes access to free resources, course materials, and discounted certification exams.

SAS plays a significant role in preparing the current and future workforce for a data-driven world:

• Talent Development: Provides customized talent development programs for businesses, offering role-based training to upskill and reskill employees, improve retention, and build strong analytics teams.
• Workforce Planning: Organizations use SAS analytics to understand supply and demand trends in the labor market, analyze workforce data (e.g., employee retention, engagement), and inform HR policies and strategic planning.
• Industry Applications: The software is used across various industries for critical tasks such as fraud detection in finance, risk management, and analyzing clinical trial data in healthcare, meaning that a large number of professionals use SAS in their daily work.

Resources

SAS. (n.d.). Homepage. https://www.sas.com/en_us/home.html

SAS. (n.d.). Education Outreach. https://www.sas.com/en_us/company-information/education-outreach.html

SAS. (n.d.). SAS Academic Programs. https://www.sas.com/en_us/learn/academic-programs.html

SAS. (n.d.). SAS® Workforce Transformation Services. https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/documents/technical/training/en/en_id-sas-workforce-transformation-services.pdf