The IT Nerd

Element AI, a global developer of artificial intelligence-powered (AI) solutions and software, today announced a collaboration with PemPem, a company that develops mobile-based enterprise resource planning technology for paper-based and informal supply chains. PemPem will integrate Element AI Document Intelligence features into its platform to assist Indonesian palm fruit traders (farmers, transporters, aggregators and processors) in verifying sales transactions. The technology will also help create a more sustainable palm oil supply chain in the region.  

Without data digitalization or formal contracts, workers in the Indonesian palm oil industry worked with unreliable harvesting, market-sales, and income histories. Traditionally, with earnings having been managed through word-of-mouth processes, workers struggled to build credit histories, resulting in barriers to access basic banking services. The palm oil industry is also linked to climate change, with much of the trade being undocumented. 

PemPem will work closely with Element AI to create accurate earnings ledgers for workers through the integration of EAI Document Intelligence with its mobile-based technology. Workers will simply take photos of paper receipts they get from their buyers (processors, aggregators, transporters) with their smart-phones and upload these onto the PemPem App, which will use  the data entity extraction feature in EAI Document Intelligence to automatically extract and verify the information.  The automated data extraction from the receipts will enable the PemPem platform to cross-check and correlate the amounts that farmers are entering with the data extracted from the receipt—ensuring accurate historical records.  

The technology will also be used to digitize information regarding the volume and origin of the palm oil traded, creating a more accountable and sustainable supply chain, ultimately helping combat climate change. The technology can easily be applied to other supply chain applications, in different business scenarios. 

This project is supported by grant funding provided by Prompt, a non-profit organization dedicated to facilitating partnerships and R&D financing between businesses and the public research sector. This project is one of 65 innovation projects Prompt has chosen to fund this year.   

To learn more about Element AI and AI-powered solutions, visit: https://www.elementai.com/. 

Jean-François (JF) Gagné, CEO and Founder of Element AI, a global developer of artificial intelligence-powered (AI) solutions and software, today announced the release of the third annual Global AI Talent Report. The 2020 report examines the most current global patterns for the worldwide AI talent pool.

This year, research methods have been expanded to take a broader look at the primary technical roles attracting more people to the AI industry and had many findings. The supply of technical AI talent has grown significantly all over the world to try and meet demand during the last several years. While the COVID-19 pandemic has put a dent in demand in most major markets, it may have a surprising result in more talent going to emerging AI hotspots.The report shows that already there is notable development of more AI-related talent in countries like Brazil and India, as AI tooling becomes democratized and the training needed is more accessible via online courses.

The 2020 Global AI Talent Report also finds:

• Top AI talent remains global and highly mobile
• The gender imbalance between males and females in AI research has not changed
• Few of those employed in the AI industry are conducting fundamental research

The complete 2020 Global AI Talent Report with detailed citations, methodologies, and graphical diagrams is available now on the JF Gagné website here.

Methodology

This year’s AI Talent Report adds estimates of various other critical specialized technical roles in the value chain related to developing an AI product: ML engineering, technical implementation, and data architecture. JF Gagné and his team measured the size of the available talent pool for industry through self-reported data on social media and demand via the monthly total job postings for the same roles. The team expanded its view of those contributing to AI research by moving from analyzing conferences as a proxy—whose limited seats don’t fully capture the growth of the ecosystem—to postings in arXiv. ArXiv is an open-access repository where researchers pre-publish their papers and is a credible resource for measuring the census of AI research, with a broader view of AI growth by observing included papers on applied methods.

Element AI, a global developer of artificial intelligence-powered (AI) solutions and products, today announced the Indian insurer Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance, as its newest client. Launched in 2011, Edelweiss Tokio Life has quickly become an important player in India’s life insurance market as one of the most innovative insurers with a product offering that fits today’s customer expectations.

The Element AI team will work closely with Edelweiss Tokio Life to create an actionable roadmap for strategic AI deployment for the company, which will ultimately support a detailed AI transformation plan. This work will utilize unique learnings and insights from Element AI to establish technical feasibility and identify AI use cases.

Commenting on the development, Nilesh Parmar, Chief Operating Officer, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance said, “As an organisation, we are focused on building agility and scalability within our processes and systems. With a single-minded focus on delivering a seamless and superior customer experience, we want to empower ourselves with digital technologies like artificial intelligence that can help us better serve our customers. We are glad to have found a like-minded partner with Element AI to assist us in this transformation journey.”

Element AI helps organizations like Edelweiss Tokio Life accelerate AI adoption by:

• Identifying how AI can help address the key challenges facing a business and finding the unique AI investments that balance creating value today with building capabilities for tomorrow
• Assessing the potential of a company’s current data, technology and software infrastructure to deploy AI workflows and systems through a strategic lens
• Empowering employees to work smarter with AI by building an organization’s literacy and trust to work with AI
• Establishing a framework for trustworthy, explainable and responsible AI for now and the future

To learn more about Element AI for Insurance, visit: https://www.elementai.com/industries/insurance.

To learn more about Element AI Advisory and Enablement, visit: https://www.elementai.com/products/advisory-and-enablement.

Element AI, a global developer of artificial intelligence-powered (AI) solutions and services, today announced it is joining the SGInnovate Deep Tech Summit as an ecosystem partner. In line with the launch of its AI for Climate program, the company’s participation in the Deep Tech for Good initiative will help accelerate the use of frontier technologies including machine learning (ML) and AI to improve the human condition and fast-track sustainable developments across multiple markets.

The first session featured at Deep Tech for Good was the AI for Climate Masterclass: How AI Can Help Manufacturers to Achieve Sustainability Goals. This workshop was designed to help leaders and practitioners in manufacturing-related industries learn about the challenges and opportunities for deploying AI to drive organisational sustainability goals whilst managing ROI.

As part of this continuing series, Professor Yoshua Bengio, Scientific Director of Mila and Co-Founder of Element AI, and Dr Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and President of Sinovation Ventures Artificial Intelligence Institute, will share their perspectives on the topic, “Using AI to fight COVID-19 and Climate Change”. The virtual session will be happening on July 23rd at 9am (SGT). Register here.

Through its collaboration with the Deep Tech for Good initiative, Element AI is sharing insights from its experiences at the forefront of AI technology deployments and its work alongside sustainability experts from industries such as energy, manufacturing and supply chains to improve the efficiency of processes and the impact of sustainability programmes. The core intention of this initiative is to educate decision-makers about how technology can be leveraged for good, applying sustainable, climate-friendly methodologies that also create positive return on investment for businesses.

For more information about Element AI solutions and services, contact: elementai.com/contact.

Element AI, a global developer of artificial intelligence-powered (AI) solutions and software, today announced a new collaborative relationship through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank). Element AI will be contributing to the development of a governance framework for the responsible adoption of AI as UnionBank looks to develop trusted & fair AI solutions for its customers.

Element AI will work with the UnionBank’s AI and Data Policy Unit, which is dedicated to leading the development of ethical and business standards for artificial intelligence, to ensure proper data governance, respect for human rights, fairness and accountability for AI systems. Initially Element AI will conduct specific research that will inform a whitepaper which will act as the roadmap to evaluate fairness in the context of various financial services use-cases, such as fraud detection in retail credit card transactions. The ultimate outcome will be the development of technical measures and solutions that ensure that the principals of the fairness framework for the use of AI and data are embedded in all of UnionBank’s digital products and services at an operational level.

To learn more about Element AI advisory & enablement, and AI-powered solutions, visit:https://www.elementai.com/.

Element AI, a global developer of artificial intelligence-powered (AI) solutions and software, today announced a new collaborative relationship with the Veritas Consortium led by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), to assist with developing a framework for driving the responsible adoption of AI in the financial services industry.  The consortium has an overarching mandate to implement the FEAT principles (Fairness, Ethics, Accountability, Transparency) as critical considerations for the deployment of Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA) technologies within financial institutions.

The FEAT principles and the Veritas initiative are part of Singapore’s National AI Strategy, aimed at building a vibrant and responsible environment for AI adoption within the financial sector.  As one of the AI technology providers to the consortium, Element AI’s involvement aims to include a range of research and development activities in support of this mandate. One of the first initiatives being undertaken is in collaboration with United Overseas Bank (UOB), one of the lead consortium members. Together they will develop a set of quantifiable metrics for financial institutions to assess the extent to which data and the algorithms or models used to evaluate credit scoring for unsecured lending meet the principles of Fairness. 

The consortium’s goal is to publish a research report on the project and to open-source the code for the metrics for AI practitioners to review and to eventually use within their own organizations. The report is expected to be published in the second half of 2020.

To learn more about Element AI advisory & enablement, and AI-powered solutions, visit:https://www.elementai.com/.

Element AI, a global developer of artificial intelligence-powered (AI) services and software solutions, today announced its first phase of research and development with Shinan AI, the newly launched AI-powered investment advisory services company, a subsidiary of Shinhan Financial Group. 

As one of the company’s first specialist AI development partners in Korea, this strategic partnership is focused on the co-development of next generation solutions, a key focus for Element AI and Shinhan Financial Group, who signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in May 2019. Element AI has now begun a research collaboration to integrate its cutting-edge AI forecasting technology with Shinan AI’s NEO investment advisory platform, introduced in September 2019.

In today’s highly competitive and algorithmically powered capital markets, forecasting index prices for investment decisions has become quite complex. Element AI is applying its proprietary algorithms to offer a novel approach to forecasting equity indexes while providing for future extensibility to additional asset classes. These deep learning based algorithms will help simplify and accelerate application and forecasting decisions support for the tracked indexes on the NEO platform.

The highly acclaimed expertise of the Shinhan Financial Group along with the globally recognized applied research and AI innovations from Element AI, will offer capital market customers using the Neo platform higher quality analysis, more accurate predictions, and powerful investment and asset rebalancing guidance when markets face unexpected conditions.

Element AI will continue to work as a key partner and advisor to Shinhan AI in the coming years to continue researching, developing and deploying cutting edge AI powered solutions to unlock the transformative value that AI offers to Shinhan Financial Group and its customers.

To learn more about Element AI and its global solutions and services, visit: https://www.elementai.com/

Element AI, a global developer of artificial intelligence-powered (AI) solutions and services, today announced that it has published the AI Maturity Framework, which consists of a mapping tool and a whitepaper. The whitepaper provides in-depth insights on how organizations across all industries can become AI-ready faster and the tool helps organizations quickly map their AI-readiness. The tool and whitepaper address a knowledge gap in the AI industry, as few resources exist on how organizations can actually evolve their AI-readiness from theory to practice. 

Since 2019, the Element AI AI Maturity Survey has collected data vital to informing the AI Maturity Framework whitepaper and tool. To date, the survey has collected insights from 200 senior decision-makers across multiple industries—primarily in North America—and determined that organizations are still struggling with their AI journeys. Key findings in the survey reveal:

• Fewer than one in ten organizations are mature enough to operationalize and scale AI production
• 79 percent of organizations surveyed haven’t graduated from experimenting with AI in a lab setting
• Only 14 percent of organizations surveyed are formalizing their approach to deploying AI within their organization

While there are plenty of resources written with calls to invest in AI and the benefits of the technology, few exist on how organizations can take AI technology and develop a plan that is actionable and fits within an organization’s culture. The Element AI AI Maturity Framework whitepaper provides insights into how the AI journey is unfolding in multiple industries, drawing from firsthand experience of the Element AI advisory and enablement practice. The whitepaper provides a deeper dive in understanding the nuances of the different stages and dimensions of AI-readiness, and provides industry benchmarks, case studies and practical tips/tactics on how to move to the next stage of AI integration.

The Element AI AI Maturity Framework tool and whitepaper is available for free download here: https://www.elementai.com/products/ai-maturity

For more information about Element AI solutions and services, contact: elementai.com/contact.

Element AI, a global developer of artificial intelligence-powered (AI) solutions and services, today announced that it has appointed a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Roger Blanchette, and a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Stephan Rioux. These new members will work with the executive team and across all lines of business as Element AI continues to focus on delivering solutions and services to its global customers.

As CFO, Blanchette will oversee all of Element AI’s financial activities including financial planning, forecasting, and reporting. Prior to joining Element AI, Blanchette was the CFO of Skyword, a private equity backed software company that provides a marketing content management solution. He has a proven track record of providing strong financial leadership while significantly contributing to the definition and execution of corporate strategy.

Stephan Rioux, in his role as CRO, will establish strategic alignment for all revenue-related functions, including marketing, sales, customer support, and revenue management. Prior to joining Element AI, Rioux was the Global CRO for JW Player and spent 13 years at Adobe as Vice President of North America Strategic Verticals, M&E, FSI and Retail. He is a global sales leader and has deep expertise with enterprise software, SaaS, security, data and AI.

As artificial intelligence and machine learning integrations continue to rapidly evolve, Element AI acts as a bridge between fundamental AI research with advisory and enablement services that lead to full-stack AI solutions. The addition of both Blanchette and Rioux to the executive team will help the company assert financial synergies between these separate yet equally important arms of the business. 

For more information about Element AI solutions and services, contact: elementai.com/contact.

Element AI, a global developer of artificial intelligence-powered (AI) services and software that helps enterprises ‘operationalize AI’, today announced Element AI Orkestrator, the latest addition to the company’s portfolio of AI-powered software solutions. Designed for AI practitioners and the IT teams that support them, Element AI Orkestrator is a workload scheduling tool built as a result of the company’s need to optimize its own computing resources. A software-as-a-service (SaaS) version is available now, with an on-premises version expected for Spring 2020.

Element AI Orkestrator helps customers future-proof their IT infrastructures through optimized utilization of GPU clusters, allowing AI practitioners to build quality models and remove most of the engineering heavy lifting required to efficiently use GPUs. By maximizing these specialized and in-demand resources, Orkestrator will play a pivotal role in supporting the structural backbone of organizations deploying AI solutions for increased overall productivity.

Using Kubernetes, Element AI Orkestrator provides AI researchers, applied research scientists, and developers with the computing infrastructure needed to efficiently build and maintain AI models. Providing enhanced transparency and control over job scheduling, Orkestrator allows AI practitioners to conduct higher-level jobs such as batch processing and hyperparameter searching.  IT administrators can simultaneously optimize cluster use, simplify node maintenance, and gain better visibility through dashboards

As organizations build and implement their own AI solutions that will need to be scaled over time—computing power and storage requirements will grow to accommodate heavier GPU-based workloads with increasingly complex resource distribution and management.

Watch a video demonstration (1min. 20sec.) of Element AI Orkestrator here:

To request a sales call or product demonstration for Element AI Orkestrator contact: elementai.com/contact

To learn more about Element AI and its AI-powered products, visit: https://www.elementai.com/