The Power of Language: Arria NLG, an Advanced AI Technology Platform, Makes a Mark on World Stage

Our mission is to connect the Datasphere to humanity by giving it the Power of Language: Sharon Daniels

Over the last few years, there has been an ongoing conversation about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it is going to change our lives and how we do business. So, if you’ve been keeping up with the latest technology trends, then you know that AI has the potential to be the most disruptive technology ever. Today, we can ask Siri or Google or Cortana to help us with simple questions or tasks, but much of their actual potential is still untapped. The reason why involves language.

This is where natural language processing (NLP) comes into play in AI applications. Without NLP, AI only can understand the meaning of language and answer simple questions, but it’ not able to understand the meaning of words in context. Natural language processing applications allow users to communicate with a computer in their own worlds, i.e. in natural language.

Arria NLG engages in software development business. The company develops software that provides natural language generation (NLG) services and software as a service to industry. Its principal product is the Arria NLG Engine, a form of AI that offers communicating information in natural language.

Arria provides its products and solutions to multiple industries including; financial services, healthcare, oil and gas, weather, news & media, advertising and marketing, and management reporting.

The company is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. It has additional offices in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Sharon Daniels, Arria NLG CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Rewind: Getting off the Ground

Arria NLG was founded in 2009 under the name Data2Text Limited by Professor Ehud Reiter, Senior Lecturer Dr Yaji Sripada, and post-doctoral researcher Dr Ross Turner from the NLG research group at the University of Aberdeen, and meteorologist/entrepreneur Ian Davy. In May 2012, Data2Text joined forces with a specialist software development and marketing firm, Arria NLG (then a limited company), which took a 20 percent stake in Data2Text. In late 2013, Arria NLG acquired the remaining 80 percent of Data2Text, and in December 2013, the firm converted to a public listed company and was floated on the AIM.

Technology: In Full Swing

Arria is the global leader in the field of AI known as natural language generation (NLG). The company owns, develops, and licenses its core, patented NLG technologies, which are available via the Arria NLG Platform. The heart of the Arria NLG Platform is the Arria NLG Engine – the world’s most advanced natural language generation engine. The key to the platform is Arria NLG Studio – the world’s first true NLG tool for developers.

The Arria NLG Platform delivers an advanced and complete AI software system. It automatically writes rich, compelling narratives – based on insights extracted from datasets – that you would believe were written by a human subject matter expert.

Arria has a singular focus. To empower the global developer community to effortlessly and affordably build, embed, and maintain NLG applications in each of their clients’ technology stacks. Arria licenses its NLG technologies and supports developers via three distinct offerings:

Arria NLG Studio: The world’s first true NLG tool that empowers developers and non-developers alike to Build Everything NLG.

Arria Store: The world’s premiere online NLG marketplace enabling developers globally to Buy Everything NLG including Studio, Arria NLG SDK, plus a myriad of other NLG tools. It also provides a place for developers to sell any NLG applications they have built.

Arria Space: The world’s most inclusive NLG developer community enabling developers globally to Share Everything NLG. Arria Space reflects Arria’s total commitment to supporting the advancement of the global development community as their effort to add the Power of Language to every facet of the Datasphere gathers momentum.

Arria NLG: ‘We Believe our Humanity is Defined by Language’

Mission: At Arria, we believe that by moving the Power of Language from the mind to the machine, we are igniting a global revolution in communication; that the NLG tools and systems we are bringing to the world will fundamentally change the way people interact with technology.

Our mission is to connect the Datasphere to humanity by giving it the Power of Language.

Vision: We believe our humanity is defined by language. Our vision is to ensure, through our NLG technologies, that humanity is at the heart of artificial intelligence.

The Arria NLG Platform: A Much Needed Solution

Arria believes that neither the term “Internet”, nor the term the “Internet of Things” is adequate to describe the magnitude, complexity, or importance of the vast global network to which the developer community has inextricably connected us all over the past 25 years.

We believe the term “Datasphere” better recognizes the ever-evolving, dynamic, multi-dimensional, integrated nature of what could also be called the “Internet of Everything.” This includes the Internet of: Information, Commerce, Applications, Social Connections, Devices, Things, Experiences, and with the advent of NLG – Articulate Intelligence.

With the advent of NLG technologies, for the first time in human history, the Power of Language, the very thing that defines our humanity, has now been captured in software, moving outside of the human mind. Three key observations flow from this inflection point:

The advent of NLG technologies changes everything: Nothing will ever be the same again. As the Power of Language moves rapidly from the mind of man to the machine in the form of software, life will change for everyone, everywhere, in ways that cannot yet be imagined.

The missing layer is now being added to the Datasphere: The highest output, the presentation layer, of the most advanced analytics applications in the world, remains largely tabulated reports and visualizations. With the advent of NLG, visualizations will one day soon be seen as the cave drawings of the digital age. NLG is the missing layer.

NLG adds the Power of Language to the presentation layer in the form of rich, compelling narratives that are automatically generated by the Arria NLG Platform. This missing layer is now being added to the Datasphere.

The impact will be measured in trillions—not billions: When combined with four other key AI technologies, the emerging impact of NLG on the Datasphere and our lives will be measured in trillions of dollars – not billions. (McKinsey & Co. has observed that NLG is one of five core technologies enabling an economic impact estimated to be US $5.0 – $6.7 trillion annually by 2025).

Sharon Daniels: A Dynamic Leader

Ms. Daniel’s has over 30-years’ experience building and expanding technology companies. As an Arria co- founder who served as a founding executive director of Arria and as a member of the leadership team that planned and managed Arria’s listing on the London Stock Exchange AIM in 2013, Sharon brings a wealth of experience to the board. In 2001, together with other Arria co- founders, Ms. Daniels co-founded Diligent Corporation. It listed on the NZX in 2007 and was acquired by Insight Venture Partners in 2016 for US $624 million in cash.

“The Arria team believes it is igniting a global revolution in communication; that the NLG tools and services they are bringing to the world are fundamentally changing the way in which people interact with technology.”