Stream processing is key for enabling real-time insights from big data. It allows continuous processing of data as it flows through a system, enabling instantaneous actions via alerts. This is unlike traditional batch processing where data is analyzed only after it has been stored. Stream processing is becoming more important as organizations need faster decision making and new data sources like sensors produce high volumes of data quickly. It has broad applications across industries like financial services, telecom, online advertising, and IoT. Example use cases include fraud detection, dynamic bidding, infrastructure management, and predictive maintenance. Open source technologies now make stream processing more feasible at large scale for real-time analytics.