A company whose flagship technology increases the shelf-life of food produce and reduces waste has secured £750,000 from investors to support its rollout across the UK and internationally.
The funding boost for OSY Group will accelerate its commercialisation of Xtend, an antimicrobial packaging coating which enables a range of food types, including fruit and vegetables, to stay fresh in their packaging for longer.
It will also enable OSY Group to expand its team, who are based at the Manchester International Office Centre near Manchester Airport.
Marc Braterman, chief executive of OSY Group, said: “Currently 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted or lost each year globally, and between eight and 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions result directly from food waste.
“We aspire to lead the charge in global food waste reduction through our innovative technology, as well as helping to drive down greenhouse gas emissions and food poverty, supporting grocers as they strive to achieve their sustainability targets, and enabling food producers to tap into more export markets.
“This latest funding round is a major milestone as it will enable us to accelerate the commercialisation of Xtend in the UK and internationally, while also focusing on growing our team. We are looking to create a number of roles in the coming months in line with our strategy.”
Xtend is a water-based antimicrobial coating for packaging surfaces. It leaves microscopic pins on the packaging surfaces that puncture and kill microbes and slow the natural spoiling process that affects the fresh produce within.
It has undergone extensive testing at independent laboratories, universities and other facilities, which has proven the technology to be food safe and compliant with the Food Contact Materials regulations for fresh produce, said Marc.
Testing has shown that Xtend extends shelf-life by multiple days on various forms of packaging, he added.
It is suitable for lidding film, plastic trays, flow wrap, fibre and board, flexible film paper, outer packaging and board and film combined for food-to-go, such as sandwiches.
Trials of Xtend have also been conducted with a major UK grocer as well as leading soft fruit producers and large European packaging companies.
Marc said: “These trials, in addition to the extensive testing carried out at facilities in the UK, have demonstrated that Xtend maintains freshness for longer and therefore significantly contributes to reducing food waste.
“It can be easily integrated into existing packaging production, and has a range of other applications beyond food produce due to its direct coating qualities.”
The latest investment, from three new individuals and one existing backer, follows a £250,000 equity fundraising last year and an award from Innovate UK through its ‘Better Food for All’ competition to support companies forging innovative ways to tackle nutrition challenges. Innovate UK’s funding is supporting OSY’s ongoing research and development.
OSY is one of only a small number of companies selected to be part of a global innovation business programme run by Innovate UK in Canada and Australia.
Among the advisers to OSY are Dr Malcolm Driffield and Dr Rhodri Evans, of scientific, engineering and regulatory consultancy Exponent International.
Inseego has achieved supplier status on the new Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Vehicle Telematics Solutions framework [RM6315] following the successful participation in the procurement agency’s previous agreement. During the past four years, the fleet technology specialist has experienced strong growth within the public sector, providing advanced fleet and video telematics solutions to local authorities, healthcare trusts, emergency services and other government organisations.
“The public sector is under huge cost and service pressures, so our aim is to deliver advanced telematics solutions to help organisations overcome many of the fleet challenges they face,” explains Steve Thomas, Managing Director of Inseego UK Ltd. “We are extremely pleased to be awarded a place on this latest CCS framework, which reflects our position as a proven supplier to UK government departments, agencies and public bodies within the UK.”
Inseego was named as a supplier on the new RM6315 Vehicle Telematics Solutions framework following an extensive tender process. The agreement will run for an initial 24-month period, including an option to extend for a further 12 consecutive months, with suppliers tasked with delivering hardware, software and associated services that help improve fleet efficiency and optimise risk management. It replaces the outgoing RM6143 Vehicle Telematics Hardware and Software Solutions framework.
“Central Government and the wider public sector will have continued access to our range of fleet and video telematics hardware and software, including the latest tracking, fleet management, driver performance, dashcam and multi-camera solutions. All our feature-rich systems are highly effective and simple to use, making them ideal for organisations looking improve fleet safety and performance,” adds Thomas.
Crown Commercial Service supports the public sector to achieve maximum commercial value when procuring common goods and services. In 2022/23, CCS helped the public sector to achieve commercial benefits equal to £3.8 billion – supporting world-class public services that offer best value for taxpayers.
Cooper Parry officially launches the second instalment of VentureCEO.
Partners of the programme include AWS, Balderton Capital & AlbionVC.
The tailored programme provides direct access to seasoned FinTech CEOs and Founders, specialised content and personalised mentorship sessions with industry experts.
VentureCEO has officially launched its ‘Future of Money’ cohort programme, designed specifically for early-stage CEOs – at no cost – by Cooper Parry’s Tech & High Growth team – the leading UK startup and scaleup advisor in the accounting and tax space.
The VentureCEO programme officially launched earlier this year, debuting with its ‘Future of Health’ cohort. This second instalment, ‘Future of Money’, marks the first-ever programme that focuses on the FinTech sector, which currently has 76,500 people across the UK working in the industry, with this set to grow by 105,500 by 2030.
The 10-week cohort provides a series of initiatives to help the selected early-stage CEOs get unique insights and support from later-stage FinTech CEOs and advisors who have been through significant scaling and fundraising events themselves, whilst also creating a powerful peer group. The collaboration will foster impactful and beneficial connections and drive growth during their time with the cohort.
Steve Leith, Partner and Head of Tech & High Growth at Cooper Parry. Steve created the team to support over 500 scaleups and high-growth companies in the UK. Before joining Cooper Parry, he spent 20 years in Grant Thornton’s Technology team and has worked with scale-ups that have raised in total over $5bn in venture capital. He has mentored at Wayra, Seedcamp, Microsoft Accelerator, L Marks accelerators and Cisco EiR London. Steve also supported the Tech Nation sector and scaleup programmes working with the UK’s fastest growing scale-ups.
Steve Leith, spokesperson for VentureCEO and Partner and Head of Tech & High Growth at Cooper Parry, comments on the aim behind the initiative:
“The UK has a globally recognised reputation for incubating and building world-leading FinTech brands, with British FinTechs having raised £1.4bn in the first quarter of 2024. Cooper Parry is dedicated to curating the amazing network of founders and advisors in this country who can positively impact the next wave of FinTech innovators.
“With the economy continuing to prove a tougher climate than in previous years, we have designed the ‘Future of Money’ programme to deliver early-stage founders with valuable and actionable guidance from some of the best in the industry. We are extremely fortunate to have the commitment of our amazing partners, together with experienced later-stage FinTech CEOs, who will facilitate connections, learning and community building to help fuel growth.”
The programme has several influential commercial supporters, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Mischon De Reya, and Capsule Insurance. In addition, fundraising advice and counsel will be given by Balderton Capital and AlbionVC, who both continue their support for the VentureCEO cohorts, alongside a dynamic array of sector-specific experts including CharlieHR, Luminous PR and Alex Arnot – one of the most prolific Board and Founder Advisors in the UK.. Each brings a unique set of resources and expertise to further enrich the experience for participating CEOs.
The later-stage FinTech CEOs involved include Tim Chong, CEO of Yonder, David Jarvis, Founder of Griffin, Martina King at FeatureSpace, and Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank – between them, they have raised over $750m
Tim Chong, Co-Founder and CEO, Yonder. Tim is the co-founder and CEO of Yonder; a consumer lifestyle Fintech that’s disrupting American Express. Since founding Yonder in 2021 – Yonder has raised over £20m in venture capital funding from early backers of Spotify, Wise, Figma, Monzo, Datadog and UiPath; and over £62m in debt financing. Since launching – Yonder has processed over £100m in card transactions with over 40,000 visits to Yonder’s partners across dining, travel, fitness and online experiences
Tim Chong, Yonder’s CEO and co-founder said: “The UK is undoubtedly one of the best places in the world to launch a FinTech startup, but the current climate has made survival tougher than ever. Advice and guidance from later-stage CEOs and industry experts were invaluable in helping me navigate the first few months of Yonder, so it was a no-brainer to join VentureCEO’s programme as a way to offer the same support to other new founders.”
Alongside addressing the needs of a rapidly scaling business, the programme will also prioritise personal well-being; MotivatePT will be rolling out group online fitness sessions, building community and encouraging participants to make time for movement to power up the mind-body connection.
Cat McDonald, Investment Director, AlbionVC Cat joined AlbionVC in 2018 and focuses on backing founders across fintech, cyber and legacy industries. Prior to joining AlbionVC, Cat worked in New York and London as an Investment Banker with Goldman Sachs. Cat holds a degree in Economics from Harvard University, where she focussed on global economic development and behavioural economics.
Cat McDonald, Investment Director at AlbionVC concludes: “Despite the recent slowdown in UK FinTech funding, we remain optimistic about the opportunities in this sector and impressed by the quality of founders and startups in the UK ecosystem. I’m delighted to have been invited to support this great group of ambitious founders in the next VentureCEO cohort”.
Over the 10-week VentureCEO Future of Money programme, the CEOs and Founders in the cohort will benefit from:
A curated peer group of CEOs at the same stage and in the same sector.
Access to later-stage CEOs and their valuable insights.
Laser-focused content designed specifically to enable highly relevant support to founders on both their personal and scaling journeys.
Immediate commitment of support from best-in-class experts across legal, accounting, tax, HR, PR, digital marketing, growth and fundraising strategy, founder finance, founder wellbeing and more.
The opportunity to connect with vertical-specific domain experts and investors.
Specialist inheritance recovery company Perane has been ranked in the top 25 of fintech businesses in the UK in TechRound’s 2024 Fintech50 campaign..
The FinTech50 celebrates the entrepreneurs using technology to disrupt the finance space, streamlining complex processes and increasing the speed of financial operations to the benefit of both businesses and consumers.
Bruce Cane, CEO of Perane said: “This is a terrific accolade and we are thrilled to be listed in such esteemed entrepreneurial company and to have been selected as one of the top 25 in the 2024 rankings.
“We would like to congratulate all the other fintechs on this year’s inspiring list and our thanks to TechRound’s judges for considering Perane as one of the most innovative companies in the sector.”
Using pioneering software, developed by the company over the past two years, Perane has exclusive access to previously inaccessible databases to search for dormant and unclaimed inheritances. .
Currently, there’s an estimated £50bn in unclaimed or lost assets held by UK financial institutions. Executors can miss these funds in the initial administration.
The company, founded in 2010, estimates that between 2-3% of searches reveal shareholdings dating back to the 1990s that probate failed to uncover during estate administration.
Perane searches, locates and reunites individuals, families and charities with their rightful inheritances. It has identified nearly £2m in unclaimed assets due to charities and repatriated hundreds of thousands of pounds to a number of charitable organisations as part of residual funds in wills.
One of Techround’s FinTech50 judges, Tracy Prandi-Yuen, VP Global Partnerships, Boku,Inc. Said: “It’s been a pleasure reading and learning about so many refreshing ideas and innovative companies in the fintech space.
“I’m excited to try out some of these products and services myself. Ranking them has not been an easy feat.
“I’ve based my decisions on potential impact, reach and social good. Looking forward to seeing how technologies will continue to evolve and shape our industry, and how these fintechs will grow and scale.”
IT MAINTENANCE expert Smart CT is trialling drone deliveries of equipment to customers as part of its drive to greater sustainability.
CEO Andy Morgan said the successful trial, which saw technology devices delivered to a nearby customer from a drone, is being assessed before further trials.
The Reading company provides parts and engineers to maintain, install, replace and repair business-critical IT infrastructure on behalf of IT suppliers who support an extensive range of organisations – from household brands to industrial businesses – in need of connected devices, including networking, servers and other workplace technology.
“From day one we’ve been trying to identify ways we can become more sustainable,” he said. “The drone delivery is just one of those ways because it is not only a more direct means of getting parts to our customers quickly, but it also reduces emissions, fuel consumption and pressure on our road network.
“We learned some important lessons from the trial and we’ll be looking more closely at how we can take this to the next level.”
He said it is just one of many ways in which Smart CT, which was the subject of a management buyout two years ago, is working towards Net Zero by 2045 – five years ahead of the government’s target. During the management buyout due diligence in January 2022 Mr Morgan commission an independent environment, social and governance report to rate its commitment to sustainability and responsible business practices. A follow-up report was carried out last year and Smart CT’s score rose from 34 per cent to 63 per cent. At the current rate of improvement, the company’s score predicted to 71 per cent this year.
Among the measures adopted by the company was the appointment of an ESG manager and an environmental manager who introduced tracking of waste reduction, energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions, staff training to encourage sustainable practices, a review of waste management and working with customers to understand Smart CT’s impact on their sustainability.
The reviewer applauded the company’s work, saying: “This represents the ESG journey in terms of fully integrating ESG into the corporate strategy through regular engagement with all key stakeholders.”
Mr Morgan said: “We decided to take more action two years ago to make ESG a big part of our culture. We asked our staff what they felt and one of the areas they came up with was around our sustainability.
“That showed me that we have got the appetite for change among our staff and management so we are able to make it a central part of our culture and part of our business. We know it’s important for our customers so we’ve commenced the journey.
“We are in the early stages but the latest ESG report shows we’ve doubled our score, which is just fantastic and all credit to the team for doing that. We’ve got some way to go but we’ve still got the appetite with people who are very passionate about enhancing our business.”
He said the company has also been engaging with customers through its satisfaction surveys about their attitudes to sustainability.
“We want to get their feedback because ultimately, the customer is why we operate and what they think is very important. That’s opened up new dialogues about how they’re doing with regard to sustainability, and it’s almost a cross exchange of ideas, which is great. It’s great feedback for us as we evolve our business.”
Find out more about the company’s services and read its latest ESG impact report at smartct.com.
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Pictured: Smart CT engineers carrying out the first test of the company’s drone delivery service from its headquarters in Reading
Report predicts emerging FinTech cluster could be worth £100M within three years.
Norfolk is home to the highest proportion of InsurTech firms in England, outside London, and also has the most concentrated insurance workforce outside the capital.
Financial services in Norwich contributes more than 20% of the city’s GVA, amounting to more than £1bn.
Norfolk performs strongly for female-led FinTech businesses, with 1 in 5 firms having a female founder, higher than other regions in England.
A FinTech report* released last week has revealed one of the UK’s most flourishing InsurTech hubs outside London.
The Norfolk FinTech Report 2024 – commissioned by Tech East and independently produced by Whitecap Consulting – forecasts Norfolk’s FinTech sector could be worth £100M by 2027, with the number of FinTech firms doubling within the next three years and forecast to create more than 600 new roles in the region.
The new study comes at a time when the region is exhibiting enhanced performance in terms of innovation and economic growth. Between 2010 and 2021, Norwich – the largest city in Norfolk – recorded the highest growth in real output per hour of all UK cities (2.3%) and also ranked 11th in the list of cities in the UK for the number of ‘new economy’ firms per 10,000 people in the workforce (28.8)**.
The report also highlights that Norwich boasts the most concentrated insurance workforce after London – a sector employing over 7,500 people – and houses a financial services industry that generates over £1bn, which is more than 20% of the city’s GVA and is home to the highest proportion of InsurTech firms of any English region, after London.
Norfolk is currently home to 24 FinTech firms who collectively have raised a total of £49m in investment, and are part of a wider East of England cluster estimated at over 80 FinTech firms. The Norfolk FinTech ecosystem also includes organisations across financial services firms and technology providers to the financial sector, an extensive support ecosystem of specialist businesses across professional and business services, funding, education and the public sector, which contribute to the regional FinTech economy and ensure FinTechs have expertise on their doorstep. The region’s financial, professional and business services sector is represented by FIG (Financial Industry Group), which has been actively engaged in the project to develop the report.
Despite the relatively small geographic size of Norfolk in comparison to some of its bigger counterparts, the FinTech sector in the region indicates that it is performing higher than average on other key notable points, such as sustainability, and diversity.
Norfolk was highlighted as having a high proportion of female FinTech founders (17%), which although in line with the national average of 16%, is higher than any other FinTech region in England, outside London.
The report also highlights a new wider analysis of the Norfolk economy by mnAi, which identifies 342 SMEs with relevance to FinTech, with net assets of just over £250m. 51% of this sector is estimated to be operating with ultra-low emissions, compared to the UK average of 38%.
Finally, the report sheds light on an increasing amount of support available to the FinTech sector in the region, referencing the inaugural Norwich FinTech Hackathon held in March 2024, hosted by Aviva and City College Norwich, and the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) FinTech Lab and post-graduate FinTech masters degree currently in development.
Ben Luckett, Managing Director, Venture Capital at Aviva, says this anticipated growth underscores the immense potential inherent in Norwich’s FinTech ecosystem: “With a robust support ecosystem and close proximity to primary investor hubs such as London and Cambridge, it’s clear that Norwich offers a fantastic environment for burgeoning InsurTech ventures. Couple this with a vibrant academic community and access to great early-stage career support including apprenticeship schemes in areas such as software development and data analysis, and you have a growing pipeline of skilled professionals and innovative thinkers ready and waiting to help Norwich join the likes of established clusters like Cambridge.”
Lisa Perkins, Chair of Tech East, added: “The findings of the report are very positive. Despite challenges with access to funding and relatively small financial investment, the Norfolk FinTech ecosystem is flourishing and this new report highlights some immense potential. The region is already a leading InsurTech hub, also distinguishing itself in sustainability and diversity within the FinTech realm and there has been a lot of appetite and support to ensure this growth continues. However, to truly unlock this potential and pave the way for sustained growth and innovation in the region, we must build new relationships and partnerships that expand the investment options for innovative new businesses, while also looking to foster a collaborative ecosystem that supports both established players and emerging startups alike.”
Julian Wells, Director and FinTech Lead at Whitecap Consulting, said: “Throughout this project we have experienced the collective desire of a wide range of stakeholders across the region to work together to develop the FinTech sector. Norfolk is the 10th region of the UK that Whitecap has analysed in this way over recent years, and what we have found in this region is an emerging and distinctive FinTech ecosystem.
He added: “Whilst the region is smaller than others we have reviewed, the strength in InsurTech comes through very strongly in our findings, and for the first time in any of our reports this is found to be the most prominent FinTech sub-sector. It is also the first time that payments have not been the leading sub-sector in a region. The proportion of female FinTech founders is the highest we have observed to date, giving Norfolk a crown that every region would crave. There is strong potential for economic growth through the FinTech sector in the region, and collaboration on a regional and national level can help drive this.”
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About Tech East: Tech East is a rapidly growing network of ambitious digital technology businesses, serving as the voice of tech in the East of England. With a mission to champion, connect, and catalyse digital innovation, Tech East is dedicated to propelling the region into a leading hub for technology and entrepreneurship. Founded in 2016, Tech East has rapidly emerged as one of the Top 5 UK tech clusters, showcasing the region’s potential and prowess in the digital landscape. Committed to accelerating the growth and amplifying the success of the digital tech economy in the East of England, Tech East continues to spearhead initiatives that drive innovation, collaboration, and sustainable economic development.
About mnAi:
mnAI is a data and analytics platform that provides meaningful insight for quickly targeting, researching and performing due-diligence on all UK companies. mnAi specialises in providing hard-to-find data on UK private companies. With 340 different data fields, historical information is complemented by cutting-edge technology to create unique and proprietary data available through API, platform and visualisations.
London, 29th April 2024 – EfficientEther Ltd, an AI and cloud cost optimisation start-up, is delighted to announce its recent achievement in obtaining the Cyber Essentials certification. This accomplishment follows the successful certification of ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 standards in October 2023, underscoring the company’s unwavering commitment to governance and security in its innovative solutions.
Established in June 2023, EfficientEther Ltd. is headquartered in London, UK, and specialises in artificial intelligence and deliver cost-effective cloud solutions. This certification marks a significant milestone in the company’s journey towards enhancing IT security frameworks and operational excellence. This accreditation not only bolsters our security credentials but also broadens our market opportunities in sectors that mandate compliance with Cyber Essentials standards.
Ryan Mangan, CEO of EfficientEther Ltd, highlighted the importance of this certification, stating, “Securing the Cyber Essentials certification further validates our dedication to robust cybersecurity measures. This achievement reassures our customers of our growing capabilities in protecting our infrastructure against cyber threats, and it aligns with our commitment to governance and security in the rapidly evolving cloud market.”
The Cyber Essentials scheme is designed to help organisations of all sizes fortify their IT systems against common cyber-attacks, offering a clear view of their cybersecurity level. It is also a critical requirement for businesses seeking to engage in certain government contracts, further enhancing their trustworthiness and competitive edge in the industry.
About EfficientEther Ltd
EfficientEther Ltd is an innovative start-up specialising in AI and cloud cost optimisation solutions. Founded in 2023 and headquartered in London, the company is committed to transforming the cloud industry through a focus on sustainability, information security, and cost-effectiveness. Following the attainment of the Cyber Essentials certification, alongside ISO 9001 and ISO 27001, EfficientEther Ltd is committed to providing secure and sustainable cloud solutions.
Naren Narendran says the shift from LLMs to SLMs and vectors is introducing focused AI models that demand less compute power and are more available to users
The cost-prohibitive nature of large language models (LLMs) is prompting a progression towards small language models (SLMs), resulting in solutions that decentralise and democratise their use, says Naren Narendran, Chief Scientist at Aerospike Inc., a real-time database leader. This propelling of the adoption of AI across a broader range of industries makes it accessible to mid-size organisations and enables data-driven hyper-personalised experiences.
While LLMs are exceptional at handling general purpose queries, they require huge amounts of compute and storage and are unaffordable to most companies whose pockets are simply not deep enough. However, the market is shifting more quickly than expected towards SLMs for specific domains with fewer parameters, requiring less processing power.
“LLMs are too large and unfocused for most business applications and are expensive to run, so companies are switching their attention to more economical and specific SLMs,” Narendran says. “In addition, vectors, which came to prominence because of LLMs, are beginning to be used for more classical applications, including predictions, fraud detection and personalisation. It’s no longer necessary to manually collect a set of features from vast amounts of data and feed them into a custom model. Instead a vector can be used to encode features past and present and provide hyper-personalised recommendations. This is expanding the horizons for semantic search in a way we could not have predicted just a few years ago.”
“Vectors have become part of the conversation in 2024 in the same way that LLMs did in 2023, and this is because LLMs can’t do the AI and ML job alone. There are other critical segments, including SLMs and vector databases, that bring together the full complement of tools. This evolution is allowing a new wave of companies, particularly in real-time industries, to adopt technology for split-second, automated decisions. Now they can more fully leverage AI for the business.”
Narendran thinks that this year will see more companies honing their AI strategies and adapting so they can use data in a more personalised way.
“As organisations bump up against the constraints of LLMs, they will try other options. If running ChatGPT is too expensive, they’ll turn to a SLM. Rather than depending on platforms to serve content based on behaviour collected from a user over the last year, they will turn to vectors that can dynamically encode and search on activity from an hour ago,” he said. “The landscape is changing quickly, and the search is on to use AI tools that can deliver business value. We anticipate an innovative year ahead.”
Pocket Box has enhanced its fleet software solution to meet growing demand from SMEs for an all-in-one system to manage vehicles, drivers and associated equipment. The new asset module within Pocket Box Fleet will provide added functionality to help customers maintain, monitor and protect a wide range of powered, unpowered and portable equipment within their operations.
“Ever since the launch of Pocket Box Fleet, our customers have been asking for a simple way to manage other equipment alongside their fleet operation,” explains Jim Finnegan, CEO of Pocket Box Ltd. “Our latest software development will make it possible to bring everything together into a single system, so they have complete visibility and control over their physical resources.”
The asset module is highly flexible, so it can be tailored to manage any type of equipment, with comprehensive maintenance, compliance and inventory management features. This can include powered equipment such as plant, forklift trucks and materials handling products, as well as unpowered assets including trailers, containers, skips and tools.
Using the Pocket Box Fleet app, drivers will now be able to undertake a tool audit at the same time as daily vehicle and equipment safety checks to pinpoint the last known location and condition of smaller items that have been allocated to them. This will enable fleets to keep track of portable assets to ensure mobile teams have the tools needed to complete their jobs, while minimising the impact of lost and stolen equipment.
“Our aim to deliver a digitised solution to eliminate labour-intensive operational processes that are causing an unnecessary headache to SME businesses. By bringing together the management of vehicles, equipment and drivers, our customers can save both time and money, while achieving the highest levels of health and safety compliance. The asset module will also enable us to introduce new security features moving forward that will help companies combat the issue of equipment theft,” adds Finnegan.
Pocket Box is a cloud-and app-based software company that has developed a comprehensive eco-system for the consumer motoring, automotive, fleet, road transport and construction sectors. The feature-rich eco-system is designed for ease-of-use and to support multiple integrations with third-party technology partners, enabling Pocket Box to deliver advanced vehicle, driver and equipment management solutions.
In the ever-evolving marketing landscape, one technology emerges as the potential linchpin – Gen AI. Joyce Gordon, Head of Generative AI, Amperity, recently joined forces with industry leaders, Rio Longacre, Managing Director at Slalom, and Jon Williams, Global Head of Agency Business Development at AWS. They revealed the key risks and the importance of setting boundaries when implementing a successful AI strategy.
Joyce Gordon, Amperity
When it comes to AI, it’s fair to say that we’re in a paradigm shift that’s similar in magnitude to the evolution from desktop to mobile. As a result, over the next couple years, we’re poised to see new types of products. We’re going to see new business models emerge as costs and cost structures change. And we’re going to see new companies enter into the market. But along with these developments, many regulatory questions across privacy and legal compliance arise.
Generative AI: Risky business?
There’s obviously a lot of excitement and promise surrounding Generative AI, but it’s not without its challenges and risks. Longacre echoes this sentiment, saying, “Nothing is without risk. And Gen AI is no exception.”
He advises all brands to consider the following risks, rules and considerations associated with Gen AI and its usage:
Generative AI needs a lot of content to be trained on. So if any of that content is copyrighted, then that copyright still holds. This means you have to be careful that anything you create is significantly different.
Content created by Gen AI cannot be copyrighted.
Under the new EU Generative AI act, any content needs to be watermarked, so it can be identified as created by Gen AI.
Without keeping a human in the loop, you could open your brand up to reputational risk.
Have the right partners, processes and data foundation to position yourself strongly in this era. If you hold your own customer data and creative assets in one place, you can use them to train your Gen AI on, so you’re not reliant on someone else’s copyrighted content.
“What’s going to be important are the tools you use and the partners you have. Make sure you’re using the right tools – don’t use the free ones. Spend a little more money, do your due diligence and pick ones that have digital watermarking capabilities,” Longacre advises.
“And remember, Gen AI is definitely not without legal risk. However, this is not an insurmountable problem. Partners like AWS have some great tools to help you.”
Williams chimes in, pointing out, “One of the most important things to start from a consideration perspective is making sure that your company-owned content is not being used to improve the base models or being shared with third-party model providers because, otherwise, you become a part of their model. And then, whatever information you provided access to is actually integrated into their capabilities.
“The way we think about that at Amazon is that with Amazon Bedrock, your content is never used to improve the base models and is never shared with third-party models – it’s encrypted at rest and you can actually encrypt the data with your own keys.
AI and reputational safety
When it comes to safety, he cautions that brands should be implementing guard rails. “In terms of your reputational safety, make sure that you’re putting guard rails around the use of Generative AI, making sure your marketing team has the opportunity to define a set of policies to help safeguard Generative AI applications. With Bedrock guard rails, you can configure those policies. You can set a list of denied topics that are undesirable in the context of your application.
“For example, an online banking assistant can be designed to make sure that it refrains from providing investment advice to people that log into that banking assistant. Content filters can make sure you’re filtering harmful content across hate insults etc etc and even coming soon. actually down to the specificity of words.
The other thing to be really careful about, Williams cautions, is PII (personally identifiable information) redaction. “So you can make sure you select a set of PIIs that can be redacted in your generated responses that are coming from your foundational models. In a customer environment, that’s incredibly important.
“The last thing you want to do is have your customers talking to something and it’s providing them with information that it shouldn’t have shared with them. Then, indemnification. So we actually offer uncapped intellectual property indemnity for copyright claims or raising from generative output from Amazon Titan image generator and all of the images generated by it,” he says.
“The Titan image generator also has an invisible watermark that can’t be cropped or pressed out. You can look at the use of the images or the models that you’ve created for the future and make sure that you can track those things accordingly. Those are some of the things that we’re putting into place to help with the security of company’s data but also sort of the reputational risk guard rails that you need to be making sure that you have a strategy for and the tools to be able to implement.”
AI and the human touch
Longacre points out that every use case he shared has a human in the loop. Since we’re in the early days of AI, that’s not surprising as most brands are starting with ‘human in the loop’ use cases. This is where AI generates outputs that a person then approves and potentially refines. ‘Human in the loop’ use cases enable productivity gains while minimising risks arising from hallucinations or unexpected outputs.
“Maybe the copy is being written by Gen AI, but a human reviews it,” Longacre says. “The image might be generated, but it’s not being pushed out into the wild.
“We’re starting to see a little bit of that, but generally, there’s human oversight. Even with chatbots. I mean chatbots have been around forever. Most of them were machine learning based. You need that knowing of, ‘OK, when do you have the escalation? Where do you pass from the chatbot to a live person for certain use cases?’ Identifying that is still super critical.”
Gen AI cost and customer risks
Beyond the legal and reputational risks that Gen AI poses, there’s another risk to consider: customer retention and satisfaction and cost. For example, a couple of months ago, I was trying to book a flight and hotel for a trip. I went through this whole conversation with a chatbot on the booking website. Then, at the end, it wasn’t able to complete the booking.
It had asked me a lot of questions like my preferences, who I was traveling with and all of these other things. These were things it should have already known as I’ve made many bookings with the site before. So, I left feeling frustrated because I wasn’t able to make the booking at all through this experience. It didn’t enhance my discoverability because it didn’t pull in any first-party data.
And back to the cost risk. This is often overlooked. But if you think about something like conversational AI, each time it has to ask the user a question, that’s another request that needs to be made to the LLM API. If this happens once or twice, then no big deal. It costs a fraction of a cent. But at the scale of hundreds of millions of users, this becomes a huge business expense. To avoid this, brands must think about other ways to integrate more first-party data to both create a better customer experience and reduce costs.
Is your company making this common AI mistake?
According to Williams, one major oversight companies often commit during the implementation of AI is neglecting to consider the “what” aspect – specifically, the identification of relevant use cases. Technology is a brilliant enabler, but it’s just one of the tools you can apply to help with real-world complications. So as an organisation, have the executive team work with their teams to identify what the time-consuming, difficult or impossible problems that Generative AI could help solve. Then think small with the day-to-day irritations of either your employees or your customers. What are their ‘paper cuts’ on an everyday basis, and how can you then develop those use cases to address those challenges?
Get very specific with exactly what it is that you are trying to do and how you track that. Also, make sure that you have alignment given. A lot of the way that Generative AI is going to be used effectively is predicated on your technology stack and the data that you have in your organisation. Therefore, making sure that your marketing organisation is talking to your IT organisation is also a critical step to take as a company.
Joyce Gordon is the Head of Generative AI at Amperity, leading product development and strategy. Previously, Joyce led product development for many of Amperity’s ML and ML Ops investments, including launching Amperity’s predictive models and infrastructure used by many of the world’s top brands. Joyce joined the company in 2019 following Amperity’s acquisition of Custora where she was a founding member of the product team. She earned a B.A. in Biological Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and is an inventor on several pending ML patents.
About Amperity
Amperity delivers the data confidence brands need to unlock growth by truly knowing their customers. With Amperity, brands can build a unified customer profile foundation powered by first-party data to fuel customer acquisition and retention, personalize experiences that build loyalty, and manage privacy compliance. Using patented AI and machine learning methods, Amperity stitches together all customer interactions to build a unified view that seamlessly connects to marketing and technology tools. More than 400 brands worldwide rely on Amperity to turn data into business value, including Alaska Airlines, Brooks Running, Endeavour Drinks, Planet Fitness, Seattle Sounders FC, Under Armour and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. For more information, please visit www.amperity.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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