Predictive analytics uses data mining, statistical modeling and machine learning techniques to extract insights from existing data and use them to predict unknown future events. It involves identifying relationships between variables in historical data and applying patterns to unknowns. Predictive analytics is more sophisticated than analytics which has a retrospective focus on understanding trends, while predictive analytics focuses on gaining insights for decision making. Common predictive analytics techniques include regression, classification, time series forecasting, association rule mining and clustering. Ensemble methods like bagging, boosting and stacking combine multiple predictive models to improve performance.