Creating The Right For Startups: AI Strategy
Creating The Right For Startups: AI Strategy
Creating The Right For Startups: AI Strategy
AI Strategy
for Startups
www.quytech.com
Table of Contents
01 Linking AI with a Business Strategy 3
05 Case Studies: A Look at how Global Brands are Embracing (& Acing) AI 12
06 Strategy Execution 18
09 References 22
Introduction
Artificial Intelligence is a blanket term that includes technologies embedded in computers or devices to deliver human-like
capabilities such as understanding, cognition, reasoning, learning, and decision making. These abilities are induced with AI
subsets including - Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning (DL), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computer Vision
(CV) which can work on huge data sets, to solve complex algorithms and finally correlate between variables to suggest or
make decisions.
Artificial Intelligence has progressed to a stage where it is now feasible to create solutions for the everyday use-case. Now, with the availability of skills,
solutions expertise, development platforms, and cutting-edge infrastructure, organisations are embarking upon their AI journey. This is opening tremendous
opportunities for startups, entrepreneurs, SMEs and enterprises to build unique AI based solutions in a matter of months and get an early mover advantage.
Adopting the principle of AI-first, many startups have penetrated AI to find answers, re-think products, and get things done in a unique context which led them
to call themselves True AI Startups. For instance, Deep Sight AI Labs aims to replace the dumb CCTV systems into smart CCTV solutions. To transform the
vigilance camera system to detect threats, protect assets, trigger alerts and provide end-to-end smart security features, a smart video surveillance retrofit
solution called ‘Super Secure Computer Vision Platform’ is developed by Deep Sight AI Labs working on AI and deep learning technologies.
Another great example that can be classified as AI-first is Comsense – a global marketing technology and analytics services company. Comsense is working
on a solution aimed to enhance customer experience through insights and analytics. Their flagship product, ‘Data Sense,’ helps the client to get a complete
understanding of the customers' behaviour in real-time to enhance marketing strategies and offer personalised products and services to consumers.
Using AI technology in voice and audio cloning, Deepsync is simplifying the audio recording and cloning process for the audio products and industry using
voice services. Deepsync’s AI based voice technology aims to personalise the listening experience and bridge the industry gap through voice replication
techniques.
A majority of startups and businesses are deploying AI to derive analytics, enhance customer experience, and add value to their product by employing a system
fitted with intelligence. There are some great examples of AI-enabled businesses such as the pizza delivering companies Pizza Hut and Dominos using
Artificially Intelligent based services to smoothen the process of ordering and delivery. To enable seamless ordering experience, the companies have tied
Facebook Messenger bot and Twitter chat applications with their systems to help customers order a Pizza. To create an order, customers can simply drop a
message on their Facebook Messenger account to create direct orders through chatbots without relying on any other applications and additional signups. This
translates in greater convenience for users which converts their loyalty index towards companies.
Enhancing customer experience as an AI enabled company, with over 100 million customers and operations in more than 190 countries, Netflix is continually
revamping the experience of platform users by continuously optimising their preferences to show them intelligent recommendations and programs they watch.
As an AI-enabled company, Netflix is using machine learning models in various processes such as their R&D and production algorithms.
Yet another example is a Bengaluru based ride-hailing major Ola. The cab aggregator has an AI based safety feature known as 'Guardian' which uses real-time
ride data monitoring system to recognise irregular trip activities, route deviations, and stops. Thereafter, such anomalies are monitored and flagged into the
system which intimates the company to perform and put safety checks in place.
Fintech: Leveraging AI based solutions and integrating the technology to enhance existing products and services, the Fintech industry
is experiencing an increased momentum through AI. Various fintech companies are adopting AIbased products to provide
personalisation services, identify prospects, mitigate risks, and detect frauds through intelligent systems.
Empowering traders and retail investors across the globe, Vantagepoint software has developed an AI based trading software solution that is transforming
the services of traditional stock brokerage houses, analysts, and prediction experts. The company claims that their Vantagepoint AI software can detect price
fluctuations of stocks, commodities, forex, and forecast the future price. The software works with an accuracy rate of 86% and even predict the price direction
changes for the next couple of days.
With the emergence of disruptive financial services, many financial organisations have started adopting and integrating intelligent fintech chatbots to assist their
users on general-purpose and financial queries.
The uptake of AI is increasing in fintech and taking care of services, resolving human problems, and enhancing efficiency in various aspects which is beyond
human scale.
EdTech: With digitalisation in place, millennials and post-millennials are now digital natives which is triggering the digital adoption in
EdTech. Witnessing the digital era, many educational institutes and universities have started equipping themselves with technology to
transform the students' experience, with better education delivery and access to resources through digital means. This is helping
education systems irrelevant to their location to eliminate various obstacles in concern with providing quality education, cutting edge
R&D tools, infrastructure, and automated systems.
The adoption of AI technology by educational institutes and universities is taking the education system to new heights. AI systems are replacing the legacy
education environment into a modern-day setting by customising syllabus and books for certain age groups, and students' grades. Besides this, AI is also
simplifying administrative tasks through grading exams, providing a valuable response to students, and assessing their work in real-time. An EdTech company
in India, Next Education has developed an AI-driven assessment platform that is used by many schools and institutes. The intelligent system possesses
an ability to set evaluation papers within minutes and customise questions to each studentlearning levels with nearly instantaneous results.
Looking at the possibilities and effects of technology on the global education system and society, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in a
non-profit project to uniquely explore the potential in AI, personalised learning, sensor networks, mobile communications and more. The growing rate of
technology and machine learning tools in the education sector is boosting the market growth. A report 'Artificial Intelligence Market in the US Education
Sector 2018-2022' states that the US Education sector will experience a growth rate of 48% from 2018 to 22.
Some of the open-source based AI tools are also encouraging the adoption of AI in Healthcare. For instance, Healthcare.ai is an open-source community that
focuses on streamlining healthcare machine learning strategies and processes. Such open-source tools are helping clinicians, developers, and healthcare
institutions to come together and simplify workflow and deployment models specific to healthcare.
Transportation and logistics: The transportation and logistics is ramping up its AI adoption to leverage operational efficiency
in the supply chain process and improve the overall tracking and tracing methods to enhance the customer experience. We are
witnessing autonomous vehicles, drones, delivery, and warehouse bots making up their way to eliminate the current logistics and
supply chain problems.
Through incorporating AI as a use-case by a transport logistics company, a transport company can track the entire fleet of operational vehicles in real-time and
employ AI to help improve the fuel efficiency, time and cost of the trip. AI can also enable the company to determine the best transport route with minimal stops,
fewer congestions, and good roads. In addition to this, the company can extract and use the data from sensors and GPS systems in areas such as predictive
maintenance or optimising the cost and efficiency of the entire fleet.
vis-à-vis cyber security from the customer’s perspectives involves the privacy and security of the user-data while they are accessing the network and
cloud-based services through their digital or smart devices. To strengthen the cyber security and safety on consumers-end, many companies have started using
AI security systems in their products to aware customers and to strengthen their security while they access services such as reminding customers on setting
2-factor authentication, tracking irregular usage patterns, geo-tagging products/services, creating geo-fencing, enabling time based-sessions, and more and
have implemented incident response plans for consumers. For instance, AT&T’s fraud detection application looks for irregular patterns to scan and suspect
fraud, spam, and robocalls. This enables them to block scammers, telemarketers through their smart call protect application to identify scam calls and prevent
cybercrimes and identity thefts.
Oil and Gas: Several emerging technologies are being utilised by the Oil and Gas industry as they continue their journey to remain
competitive in a highly aggressive space. AI and machine learning applications have enabled companies to control aspects ranging from
their production process to controlling back-end systems in an automated way. This allows companies to enhance safety and gauge risks
associated with their operations and projects-including workers' safety, prediction analysis, managing infrastructure, geographical location
analysis, oil exploration and making efficient use of resources. An energy technology company, Baker Hughes has AI based ‘BHC3
Production Optimization’ application to view real-time data, production details, and projections for forecast production to help them
execute their operations cost-effectively and efficiently.
AI is also helping telecom providers to deal with huge volumes of repetitive calls. AI based chatbots have relieved their contact centre teams to take care of calls
of repetitive nature queries and focus on calls that are escalated to them. The system is also improving through continuous learning and predicting answers
through data, and the frequency of calls. Overall, such AI based systems are helping in reshaping the telecommunications industry and redefining the customer
experience.
Governance: Governments of various nations across the globe are adopting technology to enable efficient use of infrastructure and provide
better services to its citizens. The adoption of AI technology is one such initiative which is enabling government departments to form
intelligent inter-departmental communication and also help citizens with access to data and services through an intelligent source for
decision making process. Tools such as virtual assistants and chatbots are enabling governments to implement automation and reduce the
workload of customer agents by removing the repetitive process or simplifying the domains where information is required in the most
common form of frequently asked questions. The US Citizen and Immigration Service (USCIS) has an AI chatbot, Emma, to take care of
Level-1 queries. Similarly, Australia has also rolled out their smart assistants-Roxy, Sam, Oliver, and Charles to assist government
department staff in gaining efficiency. In addition to this, governments are also focusing on developing future AI roadmap.
We are witnessing national AI strategies being formed by various national governments - including Australia, Singapore, and India contributing towards
building AI resources for better service ability and governance.
Another great example of AI in retail is Yelp. To create a personalised shopping experience employing AI and ML structure, Yelp helps its customers to get better
search results. To make it work, Yelp collects data from its customers with their permission and curate personalised search results for them based on their
demographics, location, taste, nature, and personal preferences. Such recommendations are a win-win situation for the company assisting with the search,
their customers in getting results, and businesses on getting new sales opportunities.
Another application of AI in retail is the incorporation of technology in cameras, monitoring, and surveillance systems in retail stores and shopping malls. AI
enabled cameras monitor the hot-zones with the maximum customer footfall thus helping the companies to advertise and brand their products in the zone.
Another application of intelligent camera technology is in smart-changing rooms. Designer houses are limited to their retail presence and find it difficult to
expand their e-commerce base. AI can help them automate sizing and fitting issues and scale up their e-commerce operations. With a growing list of companies
implementing AI, a great example of an AI platform is a magic mirror. It is an open-source platform that helps create a smart mirror with a screen behind it.
The mirror is a plug-n-play solution for digital kiosks and solutions for retail. Smart mirrors are also being used in applications such as branding, text,
multimedia, data, and video display ads.
Embracing (& Acing) AI Here's how top global brands are extracting the
true value of AI and capitalising on its infinite
potential to transform the very way brands
communicate and connect with customers.
USD 1bn - The amount of money Netflix saves every year by employing its AI based recommendation engine using ML-based algorithms to offer personalised
suggestion of TV shows and movies to the users. To drive this, Netflix has deployed AI-based solutions in combination with human control to refine the business
and consumer complexities, and deliver an exceptional user experience:
The challenges: Over the years, the video and audio-based content had increased in volumes, and with the internet streaming services into the equation the
challenges of managing the libraries and streaming services while reducing the cost appeared.
The solution: Netflix decided to offer content to its consumers based on the value, offering, and user-preferences which made their life easier. The company
used AI algorithms to learn and offer personalised recommendations to users based on their past viewing habits, history, and usage patterns. This helped the
users to continue watching the next recommended content suggested based on their interest which let them stay tuned and also stick them to pay a regular
subscription.
‘We saw that users spent an average of 1.8 seconds considering each title they were presented with while on Netflix. We
were surprised by how much impact an image had on a member finding great content, and how little time we had to capture
their interest.’ - Nick Nelson, Netflix’s global manager of creative services.
Key Takeaways: Through this lens, Netflix has redefined the streaming experience by understanding their customer
challenges and continually working on the root of the problem. The company has employed AI as a tool to evolve its offerings
while maintaining a healthy blend of human and AI technology in a data-rich‘AI-Enabled’ platform.
Image Source
AI to hyper-personalize the reader's video feed: At the very beginning, users do not need to specify their preference when they join TikTok and AI
algorithms get at work immediately to analyse their behaviour and make recommendations. In the least possible time, they learn from the user behaviour
preferences, personalise engagement, and start developing the advertisers and vendors for this profile.The use of AI allows the platform to 'control' the vibe to
a large extent - which is often described as silly, upbeat, funny, and/or wholesome.
AI based content censorship: With so much content it would be difficult to monitor and identify the inappropriate content by humans alone. The AI algorithm
technology decides on filtering the content based on the percentage of questionable content and specify the censorship on videos to show the users.
All in all, the app's success wholly depends on the strength of algorithms.
Key takeaway: For all intents and purposes, TikTok is like a TV with AI serving as the remote control. In fact, according to
the NY Times, TikTok brings back fun to social media. All thanks to AI, Aye?
Before diving deep into AI, businesses must define their goals and understand how AI can help them achieve success in the long-run and derive a competitive
advantage. This involves understanding and analysis of the rich-data sets which later comes into the execution strategy. A well-established AI strategy involves
high-quality data points and processes to drive real value. Once the service is established, before moving the service to the final deployment, it is essential to
batch-test AI service and ensure that it follows data privacy and data ethics norms.
seeking the route of AI, either through in-house developments or relying on other partners.
For AI startups there are numerous opportunities as the technology gains momentum. Many Indian, as well as global AI companies, have attracted investors
earning big-ticket investments to work on R&D and develop solutions in the areas of machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and computer
vision exploring smart solutions and penetrating the market.
Conversational AI Startups - From government institutions to businesses, conversational AI in the form of chatbots, and speech-based assistants is becoming
an integral part of many contact center processes. Leading on that, an Indian conversational AI startup Haptik.ai created a conversational AI chatbot which is
empowering industries such as utilities, BFSI, E-Commerce, telecommunications, and more. The company has also spread its presence in other regions- US,
MEA, SE Asia, India, Europe, and Australia. Recently, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited ('Jio'), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited brought a major stake
in the company.
Logistics AI Startups - Reinventing supply chain by using AI and ML, LogiNext has developed an intelligent software solution that resolves route planning
challenges while additionally offering end-to-end logistics management capabilities. The startup has received funding by investors and highlighting their most
recent funding, in Jan 2020, the company raised $39 million in fresh financing round from Tiger Global, Stead view Capital.
Fintech AI Startups - Rubique is a fintech startup that uses technology to match the borrowers and lenders for credit and loan transactions using AI based
recommendation engine. The platform features application tracking and enables a paper-free experience for the platform users along with managing their KYC
profiles. Having raised over $10 Million in funding, Rubique claims to have serviced over 100K customers till now.
Deep Tech Startups - Deep Tech startups are found with an objective on helping with scientific discoveries and innovative technologies to help in substantial
scientific researches. Myelin Foundry, a deep tech AI startup working on transforming human experiences and industry outcomes through AI algorithms based
on audio, video, and sensor data for edge devices. Recently, the startup raised an expansion funding from Infosys co-founder’s family office in addition to last
years’ $1 Million in a seed round from Endiya Partners. AI is a technology which is offering various benefits to businesses, governments, citizens, and society as
a whole provided it is following human-centric and ethical values. With time, AI will gain operational efficiency which can strengthen the competitiveness of the
industry and improve the well-being of humans. Moreover, it can contribute to finding solutions to pressing problems - including environmental sustainability, food
and health, crime, and applying AI where necessary and appropriate to help improve the world.
References:
• https://deepsightlabs.com/
• https://comsenseconsulting.com/
• https://deepsync.co/
• https://www.vantagepointsoftware.com/
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