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These four companies are already using AI to do your job better than you

While there’s plenty of conjecture about how artificial intelligence (AI) is going to change society over the next few decades, many overlook the fact that there are already a long list of businesses applying machine learning and other AI techniques to today’s problems.

AI isn’t something that is far off in the promise land (or the dystopia) of the future. It is something that is having a very real impact on how businesses are operating right now.

No matter what sector or industry you work in it’s likely that there is a company somewhere that is using AI to do your job better than you can, and with London such a hotbed of AI innovation many of them are already operating from the heart of the capital.

Bdaily has collected four of the most promising below to help you work out whether now is the time you should start to think about retraining as a computer scientist.

Onfido

This identity verification startup was one of the early posterchildren for the new generation of AI startups when it launched in 2012.

Onfido uses machine learning algorithms to provide tech firms such as Taskrabbit, Deliveroo and others with almost instant identity verification of their users and employees through a combination of identity documentation, facial recognition and geo-location checks.

Effectively, the firm’s AI-based checks save companies potentially hundreds of hours of onerous administrative work and helps to cut down on fraud too.

Who should be worried?

Back office admin staff, not to mention nefarious fraudsters themselves.

Previse

Some recognisable names piled in for Previse’s seed funding round earlier this summer when the AI startup raised £2m from Hambro Perks and Founders Factory.

Those names alone should have you sitting up and taking notice, but the company’s ambition to wipe out the scourge of late payments from corporates is perhaps even more eye-opening still.

Whether they will be able to do that remains to be seen, but for now rest assured that its AI platform will scan ‘millions’ of data points instantly to determine how likely a large firm is to eventually pay a supplier’s invoice.

From this, its platform provides a score to funders, including banks and asset managers, who can then pay the supplier on the buyer’s behalf. They then get paid back once the firm pays up.

Who should be worried?

Tight-fisted corporates who routinely stiff suppliers with their invoices.

Phrasee

Putney-based Phrasee attempts to solve possibly the most vexing challenge for any email marketer: how do you get people to open an email?

The tech firm applies language optimisation techniques to craft machine-honed subject lines, body text and calls to action that it claims are more effective than anything a lowly human could come up with.

The firm’s tech is already utilised by big companies like Gumtree and it closed a £1m seed funding round last summer with backing from communications group Next 15 and angel syndicate Galvanise.

Who should be worried?

Mediocre marketers and content peddlers.

Snap.hr

London-based Snap.hr is a new recruitment platform that launched earlier this year that uses its AI-powered recommendation and matching engine to join jobseekers with potential roles.

The likes of Tesco, TransferWise and Skyscanner are already using Snap.hr for their tech recruitment efforts amid claims that it can cut down the recruitment process from an average of 24 days to just 12 days.

The system is constantly learning from those who utilise the platform meaning it should theoretically only get better.

Who should be worried?

Insistent recruiters and career consultants.

The revolution isn’t coming…it’s already here

These four are just the tip of the iceberg of AI innovation currently underway in London with a whole raft of startups and established tech firms already applying algorithms and machine learning to everyday problems.

What’s clear is that the revolution isn’t coming, it’s actually already here.

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