Category: Uncategorized

We have a long way to go before we will arrive at gender equality in the workplace. And in the realm of AI we have even longer to go still. In a recent survey by Wired.com it was reported that AI “is less inclusive than the broader tech industry”. Below is a chart that exhibits its findings:

The importance of having a diverse AI community is obvious: we need a non-biased AI to make decisions that will affect our planet. This equality is important as our workplace goals are directly reflective of the world we live in.

There has already been a conversation about sexism within AI, with people arguing that most virtual assistants are given female first names. Inherent in this naming process is the assumption that those serving will be of the female sex- reinforcing gender stereotypes and expectations within the tech sector.

AI must be representative of the whole of humanity if its benefits are to be fully realised. Machine learning technology cannot fully progress if there if only a very specific type of person in charge of its development.

There have been some heartening initiatives taken to increase female participation in the AI world. Organisations such as ‘Women in AI’ and ‘Women in tech’ have gone some way in addressing these issues but the rebalancing effort is far from over.

Diversity in AI is essential if we are to improve the way we present our possible futures and the benefits of technology in a way that will inspire future creations.

It is well documented that AI has already played a key part in transforming the way companies function. From marketing departments to the admin processes, automation is here to stay. Whilst we have already identified the five key ways that AI has transformed business processes, there is another area where AI can promise even better and bigger profits. With technologies like ours here at Jaggu, companies can use the gathered data and insights to improve the experiences of their customers. Here are the five key ways that AI is transforming the consumer journey:

1. Standardised customer communication

Manual consumer communication is often inconsistent, relying on the good humour and energy of the customer service assistants. Often we are put off returning to a company if we have had a bad encounter with their customer service team. The benefit of AI chatbots is that although they are trained to understand emotion they are not flustered or affected like humans are. Bot communication will be accommodating and of high standard across the board- ensuring that no one customer receives a different level of service than another.

Another plus of this automated service: it never sleeps. AI gives customers a fully 24/7 type of assistance—something most companies would not be able to previously offer due to cost and staffing.

In this age of immediate gratification customers are simply not willing to wait till business hours to get answers to their pressing questions. AI makes this level of service immediately and consistently possible.

2. Inspiring self-service

These automated chatbots create a sort of ‘self-service system’ that make it easy for consumers to ask detailed questions and get accurate answers that ensure they are able to continue along the buying journey. Brands like Amazon consistently rank at the top of satisfaction indexes whilst relying heavily on self-service- suggesting a clear connection between strong self-service capabilities and award-winning customer experience.

Done well, self-service not only boosts the customer experience but also increases sales and efficiency. Providing timely information makes consumers more likely to buy while deflecting queries from more expensive channels (such as the telephone or email) means that brands can reduce their costs.

This AI removes the need to wait for an available customer agent and allows customers to take control of their own simple problems. This process can feel empowering which in itself is a way to ensure repeat business.

3. Personalisation

AI can ensure that all content the consumer encounters is personalised and specific to context. With the ability to comprehend Big Data- brands are able to find out all that is relevant about their customers wants and needs.

Companies like Spotify use our history to make recommendations that are specific to us- gleaned from the AI’s knowledge of what makes kind of music and genres make us tick. In this way AI is helping brand’s deliver personalised interactions in real time, engaging with their consumer proactively and anticipating their desires.

Companies can also use this AI analysis to create personalised content- grounded in the emotions and realities of their consumer base. Understanding who your customers really are- how they feel, and are interacting with one another, will help companies produce content that actually engages and resonates with your target audience.

In this way AI is creating a personalised catalyst for winning over existing and potential consumers.

4. Text and video sentiment analysis

Visual engagement with text and voice sentiment AI analysis will help brands measure the emotional states of their customers . Here at Jaggu, we can use our video analysis technology to understand facial expression in video chat conversations or even in-store.

By augmenting this process companies can determine how to route communications and resolve issues in real-time, identify what leads to consumer satisfaction and what might potentially disappoint. In this way, AI can assist companies in delivering positive sentiments that increase their own company values- which in the long term will lead to repeat customers and more revenue.

5. Streamlined decision making

In a more general sense, AI is creating a paradigm shift in terms of decision making. The power of AI has paved the way for a new type of decision-making process. Whereas before companies relied on intuition and expertise to make business decisions, AI has made it much easier to continually back decisions up with data. Everything from a product review to the creation of a new customer service becomes informed and scientific- eliminating the margin of error or waste.

PWC recently created a report that used AI gathered from the US Census Bureau, US financial data and other public licensed sources to create a large-scale model for financial decision making of 320 million US consumers.

As AI continues to grasp the intricacies of changing consumer behaviour, marketing decisions will grow to become more accurate and persuasive.

As we enter an age of huge technological transformation, we find ourselves at a crossroads between the old and new ways of doing things. The digital innovations have already transformed many features of the modern world; from automated and more efficient business processes to the way we shop as well as major advances in sectors like manufacturing, healthcare and marketing.

As we go towards 2020, AI is becoming more prevalent and with its ability to redefine the world of work comes issues and some discomfort. As AI technology takes a more key role in our lives, understandably anxieties are propping up about what this will mean for the future. Here at Jaggu we feel it is are responsibility to be part of the conversation about how these anxieties can be addressed and dealt with, to ensure we are all working towards the same positive results. If we can responsibly anticipate AI problems then we will be able to deal with them before they arise. If we do not recognise people’s anxieties, we risk seeing all the brilliant positive outcomes of these technologies lost beneath fear and negativity.

Communication is key

One of the key anxieties within the work place stems from the fact that there is often a lack of communication internally about new technologies. With this lack of communication comes mystery and confusion. Organisations have a responsibility to be completely transparent with their employees when they adopt new systems such as ours here at Jaggu. This transparency will ,in turn, reduce anxiety and create more buy-in within companies. If leaders clearly communicate what AI is being utilised, its benefits, goals and the possible repercussions of it, employees will be more open about communicating their concerns, in turn, and seek reassurance before any potential tension escalates.

Seek cross-board support

It is really essential that the whole board agrees on the benefits of bringing in AI systems before you do. A unified front will make it less concerning to employees and ensure that positivity trickles from the top down.
When implementing AI, clear and open communication with any anxieties will assuage them before they get lost in a quagmire of confusion.

Public Policy

Our own government is beginning to get involved with the conversation. In recent years they have been developing an ethical framework when it comes to the use of data and AI. Here at Jaggu we fully support these efforts to create regulation as we feel it is essential to have public trust.

Augmentation as assistant not enemy

It is also of vital importance that we communicate that AI is here to enhance working life and not replace it. There are so many fear-mongering narratives and the only way to address these to highlight that these technologies enhance jobs and do not eliminate them.

If you head to our Jaggu website, you can see our case studies as proof of how other companies have already adopted AI and seen daily improvements to their working life.

Talking helps

What is clear is that it is only through communication that the full rewards of AI can be realised. Once organisations start having a clear discourse on the balancing of AI with worker’s needs, fears can be assuaged and problems conquered together.

By placing employees at the front of these technological processes AI emerges as an assistant to humanity and not a replacement. A friend and not a foe.

While AI gathered data might seem to be the antithesis of creativity, it can actually help brands empathise with their customers.

With the increasing openness of the internet, content marketers have access to resources that will help them build relevant content that really speaks to their consumer base. We live in an age of a gradually fragmenting marketing landscape. The old rule book has been torn up. Indeed, a GIF of a monkey and a pig can suddenly be just as resonant as a new movie advert. Furthermore, the old model of likes is no longer a clear way of measuring how well content is engaging- with likes often being impulsive and not well thought out.

The increasing advent of AI and machine learning in the creative space presents a unique opportunity for brands to blend the levelheadedness of gathered data with the emotionality of context. Audiences are tired and sceptical. They can smell inauthenticity a mile off and crave stories and content that is well thought out and substantial. YouGov recently surveyed 2,000 UK consumers to evaluate their views on branded content and found that 44% of those surveyed said that they felt that brands used content to convince them the brand was better than others. The cynicism is real.

If a brand is to succeed in creating content that will breed lasting consumer relationships, then they must get better at telling stories. We know what we like when we see it and will go out of our way to share content that really resonants with us. So how can content marketers use creative content to produce great stories?

Companies can use AI systems to track and measure how audiences are reacting to different ideas, concepts or articles at different times of the day, and by doing so help them decide what and when to post. But this technology is not just about the basic practicalities of what, when and where. Machine learning can be used to listen to the ‘indicators’ from social media and contextualise them to better understand an audience’s emotional state. Take our in-house Jaggu AI analysis on how people are interacting with ideas of ‘Brexit’ online. These signals would help inform and mould government content in a way that make actually land with the wider public.

Whoever you are marketing to, understanding who your customers really are, how they feel and are interacting with one another, will help you produce content and copy that actually engages with your target audience. By anchoring your work in the emotions of your audience you can create content that really engages, resonates and ensures that you are work doesn’t end up in the junk folder.

By 2020 it is predicted that chatbots will operate 85 percent of customer service (Innovation Enterprise). This is up from 51% in 2017. One thing is clear- AI is here to stay.

While many already know how this technology is transforming people’s daily lives, others are still unsure about the specific ways this technology can benefit businesses.If you ,like many others, have been wondering how AI could transform your working processes look no further than here- you’re in the right place.

1. Personalisation of customer journey through understanding

Machine Learning technology takes the mundane out of marketing -helping brands gain insights into their audiences quickly, at scale and in real time. These insights become an invaluable tool for understanding how brands’ (or their competitors’) products are being interpreted by consumers- the language used, the visual associations being made, the locations chosen, the timings of posts and the emotions that underpin them. Technology, like ours at Jaggu, help brands find out who their consumers actually are, how they feel, what they care about, and how they are relating to and influencing one another. It can even help marketers predict how their consumers might react to future situations. All this means that brands can offer more unique and personal experiences to their customers.

2. Increased process productivity

Big data comprehension provides answers to process questions. With those answers comes a streamlined process that avoids human error and any waste of team resources. AI technology gives companies a 360 view of their internal systems- eliminating anything unnecessary. It also allows for a swift diagnosis of any potential errors- which once removed will result in an immediate increase in performance and productivity. AI gives organisations the full, complete story.

3. Reduced Costs

With big data comprehension comes an ability to predict markets and discover trends and tribes. Once you have all the information you need, you can use it to reduce costs by cutting unnecessary processes out.

With more accurate prediction comes better planning and an ability to produce the right amount of product- with no waste. This means inventory is likely to be much more accurate and excessive costs are cut out seamlessly.

AI analysis means that everything is perfectly planned and timed- sales are expected and production is only underway when necessary.

4. Realtime communication

One of the most obvious uses of AI ,in our already established business lives, is the the advent of AI customer service assistants. They key difference between this and the old method of having an employee sift through messages is that these chatbots operate day and night and are able to answer most relevant questions on the spot. By creating several touchpoints ,and a feedback loop full of consumer information, communication is fully optimised.

Conventional strategies did not allow for such a high level of service- customers are now consistently informed and the support they require is there exactly when they need it.

Human manual 24/7 channels are more expensive and often prone to error. The emotional and physical needs of the worker also mean that the responses are variable depending on the answerer’s mood or energy levels. Automating this process is a way of creating a standardised form of communication, that is more effectual and consistently professional.

This means that AI helps business create a definitive consumer experience. This is all done thanks to the indispensable customer data gathered, comprehended and utilised.

5. Customer Responsive Product

Not only is big data going to improve customer service by making it personal, it’s also allowing companies to make consumer responsive products.At its core, innovative product design is focused on satisfying the wants of consumers in ways previously thought impossible.

Smart data analysis can be used to predict what is wanted out of a product- what they should look like, do and how they should be marketed. In this way a faultless design is already apparent at the idea conception.

By comprehending and gathering information via buying behaviours, consumer emotions, online surveys, case studies and the ways people are interacting with products online companies have unprecedented access to the needs and wants of their target audience.Products also become almost faultless as big data determines what they should look like and be marketed as.

AI is the future

It is clear that AI is already well on its way to helping businesses achieve more in a shorter space of time, at less cost and with better results.

Get in touch with Jaggu today to ensure you are not one of those left behind.

We have all seen the films. The merciless robots that are coming for our jobs, homes and families. But are we correct to so fear automation? In many ways our lives are already automated. These are such subtle and gradual changes that we may not even notice it has happened. Alexas that play our music and technologies that have already disrupted our workplaces in small, understated ways. But is it helpful to brand these developments as ‘foe’ or is friend more reflective of reality? Once we rebrand this technology as a tool and not a threat the benefits become more obvious.

Much has already been discussed about 2019’s buzzword- with the perception of this ‘black box’ magic still prevalent. Most businesses sprinkle the ‘AI’ word over their websites without any core understanding of what it actually means. But as the benefits become more widely reported, boardrooms across the globe are better acquainting themselves with how technology can enhance their companies. Indeed, research performed by EY recently found that “organisations enabling AI at the enterprise level are increasing operational efficiency, making faster, more informed decisions and innovating new products and services.”

At its most basic cost vs. benefit level the adoption of AI technology just makes sound financial sense. Costs are lower as are overall head counts.

One of the key concerns around AI is that it will take a significant amount of jobs away from humans. However, the stats are actually much less dramatic with PwC predicting that the displacement of jobs will only be around 3% in the first wave of automation. And of course every sector will be affected in some way, but not every job is at equal risk. Displacement is very much industry dependent- administrative and transport jobs for example are likely to suffer the most disruption. Occupations that rely on creative, social or emotional intelligence will remain uniquely human processes.

How will AI benefit businesses?

Most companies are optimistic that a shift towards AI technologies. With the advent of new computer systems, new jobs and skill sets will be created specific to running these technologies. Companies will benefit from an increase in efficiency as a result of greater automation, meaning a definitive rise in revenue. This, in turn, means more money will be spent on development and services- supporting jobs in other more exciting areas of business.

The main benefits of automation are:
· Automates all the thankless jobs you don’t want to do (or even think about) at record speed.
· Carries out tasks faster, and more accurately than a human ever could.
· Assesses huge volumes of data and generate new types of insights, freeing up employees to concentrate on the areas where human judgement is essential.

It is certainly true that AI will continue to transform our lives in the next ten years- both within and outside of the workplace. But the fear of automation is simply too reductive a view of a very nuanced and evolving transformation. By embracing this AI as friend and not foe, businesses will benefit from systems that elevate and compliment human endeavour, not replace it.

AI is often feared. Perceived as some sort of ‘Black Mirror’ alternative to humanity, people have made much of the potential social ills that could spring from an increasingly ‘Smart’ world. Both The Drum and The Guardian have recently reported the unease of AI experts like Nick Bostrum, who have even gone so far as to create advisory institutions like the ‘Future of Humanity’ to investigate the rise of AI and its threat to humanity.

However, despite these dramatic assertions, the adoption of AI into marketing industries has the ability to do profound social good. The core benefits of this technology are that machines can use deep learning to make humans’ lives and jobs easier.

Social media has recently been getting a very bad name. The Guardian reported in April that the government where planning to hold executives personally liable for any harmful content shared on their platforms. People have rightfully been concerned that material featuring suicide and self-harm has been distributed through these channels.

Here at Jaggu, our technology has the ability to analyse thousands of user generated images on social media sites. Our insight tool understands data, at speed and in real time, across the breadth of the web. The emotion, geography and timing of data and images is analysed in just a matter of days, where before it might have taken marketers weeks of time and effort. By training the computer to detect and analyse facial expressions and understand the sentiment in text our technology could begin to identify those in a vulnerable mental state. There is therefore real potential for social media companies to use AI to reposition themselves as a first responder to mental health issues.

Automation can likewise be of real social use with regards to healthcare. Using the same technology that makes sense of images- scans and x-rays could be quickly comprehended and potential issues seamlessly diagnosed. Suddenly fractures, tumours and broken bones are immediately trackable and the cost, access and quality of care is could be improved.

This technology can also be used to identify and measure social and economic equality. Machine learning technology has the potential to detect signs of disparity using street images. Imperial College London trained the AI with 25,860 images from 156,581 postcodes across London, combining government stats with images from Street View. Factors like health, crime and pollution were also programmed in. This technology helps measure the success of government schemes, more quickly identifying problem areas and allocating resources effectively and fairly.

Despite our pop culture perceptions of AI as some far-out robot companions intent on using their superintelligence to wipe-out the human race- the reality of this technology is much simpler. Computer learning is about recognising and diagnosing patterns, quickly and efficiently, in complex data and addressing some of society’s most pressing challenges.

If used correctly and intelligently, AI technology has the potential to recreate the social fabric of our planet. When innovation is combined with the best technology available (Jaggu) these computers can potentially improve the lives of millions of people. By taking our base-line technology and applying it to multi-dimensional fields like Healthcare, Social Media and Policy, the social results can be very promising. AI ,if used perceptively and cautiously, has the aptitude to do a great good for a great many.

IT IS WELL DOCUMENTED THAT AI CAN NOW recognize images. Such technology is behind Facebook’s ability to automatically tag people in your photos or how your iPhone cleverly sorts the various people in your life into image folders.

In other areas of AI research, like understanding text and language, similar models have proved more elusive. But recent research from Open AI has signalled potential breakthroughs through the creation of new language models.

Here at Jaggu we have gone once step beyond this- creating technology that understands the text that actually appears in images. Being able to identify the language in images, within the contexts they appear, has a myriad of different business uses.

Our technology has the ability to remove text from millions of images, in real time, and input this information into a text recognition model. Once that happens our technology users’ classifiers to comprehend the context of the text and the image together and make sense of what it is seeing.

This technology can pick up text of all different sizes and shapes and is as adept at detecting both printed text and more handwritten styles. Once these words are understood they can then be placed in a readable format for searching and organisation. Suddenly labels like captions, product names, text logos, street names, licence plates and product names become mappable and identifiable at scale, eliminating the need for anyone to manually scan each image for the relevant text.

For brands this technology could be revolutionary. Being able to search images based on the text they contain means that they can find and measure who, when and why is interacting with their products. Suddenly even if their product is placed in the back of an image it can still be turned into meaningful and actionable data. Furthermore, by being able to detect your brand’s logos on people’s accessible social media, brands can reach people that already have an interest in their products. In this way, understanding text in images will contribute to a new, more personalised form of customer relationship.

Another use of this technology is to ensure compliance in adcopy. The technology can look at the visuals and text within copy, scanning them in order to ensure that all logos and descriptions say what they should, where they should. We recently worked with a global computer company that wanted to automate the process of checking if their compliance name mentions were being correctly placed alongside the compliance logo on their products. The amount of time and money that this would normally take employees to manually go through this content is frankly unthinkable. The automation of this task improved the productivity of their teams- freeing up their time to focus on more creative and strategic tasks and reducing the chance of any human error.

Jaggu’s computer vision helps our costumers you find, see, understand, and unlock the text insights that lay dormant in your image data. These in turn can be the key in helping you achieve your goals in today’s ever-changing world.

What would your Sunday morning dash to Waitrose or your Monday morning coffee in Pret look like as data? To have these personal, physical journeys mapped and understood would be goldust to retailers. Of course, all our consumer journeys online are already tracked, computed and turned into actionable data already so the next logical step is to apply this technology to the real-world.

It is well documented that Bricks n’ Mortar is not doing so well. According to PwC a record net 2,481 stores disappeared from the UK’s top 500 high streets in 2018 – 40% more than in 2017 – a worrying statistic for the future of the high street. Now, more than ever, retailers need to understand their customers physical journey through the store and get some much-needed insight into customer patterns to understand what is working and what is not.

AI technology can help by applying a sort of Google Analytics to the real world. Working with brands, this technology provides companies with a much-needed picture of customer journey instore- making trends like customer loyalty, foot traffic depending on locations/markets, demographics of customers and even customer emotions measurable. Of course, once this data is tracked it can then turn into actionable information that can make the difference between a purchase or not. It’s about who, what, where, why and how people are shopping physically and crucially will help brands understand how their performances measure up to their competitors.

Some of the ways this AI data collection can manifest as real solutions are:
• Camera systems can detect the “fresh” status of perishable products before on-site employees and the machine learning technology can reorder supplies without need for any manual operation.
• Camera technology can also work alongside an AI platform to monitor how long a customer has been in a certain aisle as a way to measure how marketing and placement is working best and with what demographics.
• Retailers can monitor wait times in checkout lines with camera and AI technology to understand store traffic and merchandising effectiveness at the individual store level—and then tailor assortments.

A mix of sensory technology and AI can be used to follow consumers as they journey through stores, gaining invaluable insight on what attractive products arrest attention or why bottlenecks in stores are occurring. By gathering this data, automatically and in real-time, on how customers are interacted with various areas of a store, brands can map and realign the customer experience.

According to Forbes, UK retailers have the potential to see a 0.5–1.0% increase in annual productivity growth if they start properly utilising their in-store data. But cost, a lack of analytical talent and siloed data within companies remain barriers to this sort of progression.

AI and machine learning can help scale the repetitive analytics tasks required to drive better leverage of the available in-store data. When deployed on a companywide, real-time analytics platform, they can become the single source of truth that all enterprise functions rely on to make better decisions.

So how will AI and machine learning change retail analytics, as they are currently understood? We expect that AI and machine learning won’t kill analytics as we know it, but give analytics a much needed and impactful makeover what will in drive the future of physical retail. In the future we could see:

• Analytics will increasingly focus on analysing manufacturing machine behaviour, not just business and consumer behaviour.
• Analytics will happen in real time and act as the glue between all areas of the business.
• Retailers will include machine learning algorithms as an additional factor in analysing and monitoring business outcomes in relation to machine learning algorithms.
• They will use AI and machine learning to sharpen analytic algorithms, detect more early warning signals, anticipate trends and have accurate answers before competitors do.

AI is a huge opportunity for retail and one that it shouldn’t waste any time in grabbing wholeheartedly. It is the key to understand who, why, how and what people are purchasing and with that knowledge comes profit, growth and accuracy. It is time for Google Analytics to get real.

When we use the term ‘Smart’ we are, more often than not, referring to our latest iPhone or Alexa device. Yet London itself is being smartened up rapidly. Indeed, our Mayor Sadiq Khan is currently working alongside the Smart London Board to ensure London is abreast of all technological developments.

Cities like London produce a whole lotta noise and a whole lotta data- and this is only set to increase. It is said that by 2025 two thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas. This rapid urbanisation of our society has brought with it a number of new issues, including overcrowding, congestion, sustainability and resource management. Machine learning technology can offer solutions to manage these issues by organising all this data and putting it to real beneficial use. It provides a way to turn all this information, all this noise, into actionable insight.

Image: London and Partners image of Sadiq Khan at London tech week

And London is ideally placed on the frontline of this AI revolution. Our population is meant to hit 10 million by next year. Our urban issues rapidly require smart solutions and there is a real appetite for this technology. New research by ATG has established that almost a quarter of Brits (24%) say they would happily fund smart city solutions using their own tax contributions.

Image: ITV

Machine learning is the ‘Smart’ in the solutions that everyone is referring to. This technology’s power lies in its ability to apprehend, process, inspect and evaluate data to influence everything from traffic, water and energy management. It has the potential to revolutionise the structures and processes of our urban environment and create a cohesion between social, economic and environmental opportunity.

Smart city initiatives will help us understand how cities are functioning and will become a vital source to city planners. Part of the power of this technology is its ability to identify many different elements of urban life simultaneously and in real time- suddenly cars, people and rubbish make up part of an all-encompassing metropolitan picture.  Machine learning is something that deepens with time as the computer learns to spot consistencies, so  it follows that the future will see it predicting changes and patterns.

Technologies, such as our InMotion platform, can be employed to automate pedestrian, road and traffic analysis. In London, for example, our roads are often in need of repair and maintenance- an estimated £150 million is spent each year on fixing potholes. Our technology works alongside sensors that fit directly onto vehicles that both spot portholes and share this data with the relevant local authority.

Likewise, this technology can also ease our clogged roads and help us deal with the increasing problem of traffic. Traffic cameras are placed strategically to automatically detect vehicles and this information is then sent back to authorities that can estimate the density of traffic on the road. The system can then alter traffic lights accordingly and reduce overall congestion safely and seamlessly.

The benefits of this technology are numerous- one of the most obvious being that it will drastically cut costs. If technology takes on the burden of traffic, pedestrian and road management, there is no longer a need to pay humans to do mundane tasks like watching traffic cameras. The knock-on effect of this is that automating these tedious jobs frees humans up to focus on creative thinking and strategy. Likewise, if traffic is flowing energy consumption will also be reduced, improving emissions and air quality. There is ,therefore, a very clear interconnection between social, economic and environmental remuneration.

As our city becomes more and more congested, it has become increasingly clear that our current urban infrastructure is no longer fit for purpose. Technologies like Jaggu’s are remapping the future of our urban spaces and making sure that no-one is left behind.