A method for operating an industrial automation system may include receiving, via a first module of a plurality of modules in a control system, a plurality of datasets via at least a portion of the plurality of modules. The plurality datasets may include raw values without context regarding the plurality datasets. The method may then include identifying a subset of the plurality of datasets that influences a value of a target variable by analyzing the data without regard to the context, modeling a behavior of the target variable over time based on the subset of the plurality of datasets, and adjusting one or more operations of an automation device based on the model.