.jpg)
Massive Analytic Limited believes that by bringing AI to the masses, businesses will be able to cut through uncertainty, getting the right results more of the time
There is a huge boom in artificial intelligence technology, with many industries keen to reap the benefits of all manner of exciting topics, from robotic process automation to machine learning and natural language processing. There’s just one catch: where do you find experts in a field that is still emerging?
George Frangou is founder and chief executive officer of Massive Analytic Limited (MAL), a company that he says can square the circle. He says that by bringing AI to the masses, businesses in any sector will be able to cut through uncertainty, getting the right results more of the time and not wasting time or resources on strategic or operational gambles based on gut feel.
MAL has created a suite of products that makes understanding and applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to business as simple and ubiquitous as Microsoft Excel did for spreadsheets.
MAL originated as a managed services company but through its work on big-data transformation projects for companies such as Thomson Reuters, British Gas and the Financial Times, Mr Frangou and his colleagues saw both the vast potential of AI and the lack of vendors providing enough of the right tools to get the most from an AI investment.
The company decided to produce such technologies itself, and the result, Artificial Precognition (AP), is a patented technology that sits at the heart of MAL products, and is able to parse vast amounts of data and predict likely follow-on events or trends even in uncertain or new situations. Oscar:DataScience, one of its core products, gives businesses the capabilities normally reserved for data scientists, and aims to solve “real-world big data problems”.
The technology has applications across industries, and is especially relevant to smart cities, precision medicine and defence, he says. “Our patents have been granted in the USA, China and Israel, with more pending, and we’re looking at growing to be a global leader in this space in the next five to 10 years.”
MAL has applied its AI technology to two other products, Nethra:VideoAnalytics and Aftos:Robotics, which concentrate on analysing live video and supporting the control systems for autonomous machines. “The vision is to create a whole new category for the way people interact with machines,” says Mr Frangou.
Big problems with big data
MAL says it is addressing an industry-wide challenge in AI – while there is plenty of data, there are not enough data scientists. The demand is fierce, with the number of jobs requiring AI skills 4.5 times what it was in 2013. “Over the next five to 10 years we’ll see a massive uptake in AI adoption,” says Mr Frangou. “Companies will start to deliver on the promise of AI and companies that don’t take advantage will be the ones left behind.”
With AI technologies permeating nearly every industry, he says, the biggest challenge in the AI industry will be cultural as businesses adapt to a new way of working and bring on board new people who can make sense of incoming technology and its myriad applications.
Mr Frangou suggests that fear of AI may have held its more widespread adoption back, and stresses that despite popular sci-fi conceptions, MAL’s vision for AI is more practical and collaborative – an automated helper rather than a threatening overlord. “Our goal is robotic process automation, with our AI autonomously pulling in data, analysing it and automating the responses with very little hand-holding from people,” says Mr Frangou.
“Currently only a small percentage of businesses are taking advantage of even basic AI technologies to improve their business operations. Moving from where we are right now to a point where companies are taking the leap to nearly full automation will be a major shift.
“It’ll take a willingness to change and adapt. The technology is here, the question is are you ready?”