This article came out a few months ago, but is a good overview on why GIS people are so critical to data science. This could be useful to share with some of your colleagues who think all you do is make maps!
After all, everything happens someplace, and thus GIS folks (all of us) have valuable perspective and capabilities in almost everything we do in our various roles in the County.
https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/arcuser/five-reasons-every-data-science-team-needs-a-geographer/
That was a good read. Thanks for sharing.