The business marketplace for artificial intelligence (AI) software is booming as firms look for brand new ways to scale back costs and automate tedious tasks. And that trend is already reflected on this yr's FT Statista rating of America's 500 fastest-growing firms: It includes at the very least two dozen that claim to make use of AI or machine learning of their products.
The AI services market is estimated to be value $50 billion within the U.S. alone this yr, but it is going to take one other three to 5 years for nearly all of firms to make use of the technology, predicts Nick Patience, senior analyst at 451 Research from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Here the FT examines three of the AI firms on this yr's rating.
Automated ads
Waymark makes television promoting for clients based on what’s freely available on the Internet. Founded in 2017, the Detroit-based company reported revenue of $4.1 million in 2022, up from $2.4 million in 2019, placing it 442nd within the rankings.
The company claims it might probably produce 30-second video ads with AI voiceover in minutes. Customers give transient instructions, after which Waymark's software — which uses 13 AI models, including OpenAI's ChatGPT — imports data from the client's website, similar to marketing information and logos, in addition to from social media and native business databases.
Waymark's software creates two or three draft versions of the ad. The customer selects one and edits it before publishing. Pricing starts at $150 for 2 video ads monthly.
“Smaller ad agencies love us (because they use our software) to create more ads for his or her clients who previously couldn't afford ads,” says Alex Persky-Stern, CEO of Waymark.
The US radio company NRG Media has created a video promoting campaign using Waymark's AI software. The ads will be accomplished in about half-hour, in comparison with hours before, says Erica Dreyer, director of integrated media at NRG Media. “We found that AI gets us about 80 percent there, after which we will make a number of tweaks (to the display),” she says.
Previously, the variety of ads NRG Media could produce was limited because of the necessity to shoot videos on location and the dearth of on-site videographers, she says.
Waymark developed its video generation software before generative AI “was a giant thing,” says Persky-Stern. Since then, the corporate has expanded its product to incorporate generative AI capabilities. “Our founder is a giant AI expert and as soon as (OpenAI's) GPT-3 was released in beta form (in 2020), we got access and commenced developing our video generation software,” he explains.
Data labeling
Like any business technology, an AI system is simply pretty much as good as the standard of the info fed into it. This is where Cogito Tech comes into play. It characterizes the large amounts of information – images, videos, audios and text – that AI systems must eat and learn from to make sure their output is top of the range. In addition, reliable data similar to media articles are provided for the AI systems of its corporate customers.
For example, if a producing company wants its assembly line AI systems to be trained to detect cracks or dents in its products, it could provide examples to Cogito's data analysts. They would then review and categorize the info to make sure it’s of sufficient quality for use to coach the manufacturing company's AI system.
“The biggest thing about AI is garbage in, garbage out,” says Rohan Agrawal, CEO of Cogito. “If that data isn’t good quality, you’re essentially training a really, very biased or bad model.”
Founded in 2011, Cogito is capitalizing on increasing demand for AI and the “big language models” that underpin systems like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. Cogito employs around 2,000 people in New York and Uttar Pradesh in northern India. Around 70 percent of the business comes from the USA, the remainder from Europe. In 2022, Cogito's revenue was $8.9 million – a rise from $2 million in 2019, rating it 137th on the FT list.
Customers typically include firms with revenues between $500 and $2 billion. Many have large IT departments but are unable to arrange their very own AI data since the labeling work is “tedious” and “labor-intensive,” explains Agrawal. Companies would quite think about constructing the AI models, he says. “During the gold rush you sell shovels; We do the identical for AI,” argues Agrawal. “Essentially, we’re arming (firms) with data, which is the brand new oil.” . . to create highly effective AI models. And so far as we’re concerned, we’re just scratching the surface.”
Legal advice
AI that may automate data collection and evaluation can also be in high demand – and legal service providers are among the many first adopters. Over the last decade, AI has automated many tedious legal tasks, similar to reviewing long contract documents to seek out clauses that violate legal policy and ensuring compliance with financial and data regulations.
LinkSquares focuses on AI software for corporate legal departments. The company is ranked forty third within the FT Statista table and reported revenue of $24 million in 2022, up from $2 million in 2019.
Founded in 2015 by two non-lawyers, the Boston-based company now helps organizations like Time magazine and restaurant chain TGI Fridays save time, keep track of documents and manage projects.
“(Our AI software) might analyze a big contract and suggest where certain clauses may very well be modified to make them more favorable to a customer,” says Vishal Sunak, founder and CEO of LinkSquares. Such automation can halve the time it takes firms to draft and sign contracts, the corporate said.
According to Sunak, much of the expansion is because of corporate legal departments adopting AI for the primary time. “There is a lot . . . greenfield market opportunity. Companies now understand that they need technologies like (our AI) to . . . work more efficiently and work more collaboratively.”
