What is Predictive Analytics and how does it relate to BI?

The "predictive" approach stems from modeling data and storing in such a way an analyst/statistician can use it to make those decisions "openly" rather than boxing a decision maker into a silo of data which can limit them. You'll see a tool such as SAS, SPSS (and there are other approaches) used to allow a person to perform"what-ifs" that'll evolve the data to help them drive to conclusions.

Traditional BI reporting does a fine job at aggregating and showing how a company has done to date but lacks the ability to make decisions on what one should do. Predictive analytics builds on the practice of data mining and the principles of building decisions on what's in front of a company based on existing data, market conditions and the driving conclusions of model scores.