Tabular Data Augmentation for Machine Learning: Progress and Prospects of Embracing Generative AI

Lingxi Cui, Huan Li, Ke Chen, Lidan Shou, Gang Chen

Machine learning (ML) on tabular data is ubiquitous, yet obtaining abundant high-quality tabular data for model training remains a significant obstacle. Numerous works have focused on tabular data augmentation (TDA) to enhance the original table with additional data, thereby improving downstream ML tasks. Recently, there has been a growing interest in leveraging the capabilities of generative AI for TDA. Therefore, we believe it is time to provide a comprehensive review of the progress and future prospects of TDA, with a particular emphasis on the trending generative AI. Specifically, we present an architectural view of the TDA pipeline, comprising three main procedures: pre-augmentation, augmentation, and post-augmentation. Pre-augmentation summarizes eight commonly-used preparation tasks that facilitate subsequent TDA from different perspectives. Augmentation systematically analyzes current TDA methods, categorized into retrieval-based methods, which retrieve external data, and generation-based methods, which generate synthetic data. We further subdivide these methods based on the augmentation process at the row, column, cell, and table levels. Post-augmentation focuses on the datasets, evaluation and optimization aspects of TDA. We also summarize current trends and future directions for TDA, highlighting promising opportunities in the era of generative AI. The accompanying articles and related resources are continuously updated in GitHub.