50 Smartest Companies of the Year 2020
The Silicon Review
In the world of technology, AI and digital transformation are the most prominent buzzwords. Organizations are enthusiastically embracing these advancements, and the spending on the same is also on the rise. For a technology like AI to be adopted by business, it must drive tangible business value such as improving customer engagement and conversion or improving operational efficiency. Enterprises are becoming increasingly intelligent with the developments in AI powered by ML and data-driven techs, but its implementation and adoption is non-trivial. AI technologies are not only revolutionizing the way we perceive and do business, but also the business environment and its overall evolution. The current AI technologies are dependent on the availability of relevant, right, and in most cases, abundant data. They are also dependent on experts to develop data science models, combine models and other logic to develop and deploy AI systems. This dependency is the reason why 8 out of 10 enterprise AI projects are stalled (Dimension Research 2019).
To overcome these challenges, firms like CognitiveScale help enterprises accelerate digital business transformation with intelligent, trusted, and transparent AI. Its award-winning Cortex software helps organizations leverage their data to transform customer engagement and lifetime value, boost employee expertise and operational productivity, and protect organizations from AI business risks. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, CognitiveScale has offices in New York, London, and Hyderabad, India, and is funded by Norwest Venture Partners, Intel Capital, IBM, Microsoft Ventures, and Westly Group.
In conversation with Akshay Sabhikhi, Co-Founder and CEO of CognitiveScale
Q. How do you address the black box problem and what are the implications of it?
We deliver transparent and trusted AI with Cortex.
This means that the insights generated from our system are explainable with relevant evidence - We call these “recommendations with reasons.” The implications are substantial in heavily regulated industries like Healthcare and Banking, as these organizations need to maintain detailed audit logs of the insights delivered to their customers. Across Healthcare and Financial Services, explainable systems drive greater trust and transparency with end consumers.
Q. How do you gather insights to update your offerings?
We are a customer and market-driven company that has effectively used its customer engagements as a way to enhance and challenge the boundaries of AI adoption. We’re constantly finding new ways to deliver AI seamlessly within mission-critical enterprise processes and continue to enhance Cortex to support this objective.
Q. There are other major players in this segment. How do distinguish your services/ standout from the rest?
We compete and successfully differentiate ourselves against other players in the AI market segment with our focus on infusing AI into mission critical business processes that have delivered proven value to our clients. We do this by simplifying data readiness for AI, personalizing omni-channel interactions, and driving measurable and explainable AI on a highly portable infrastructure.
Q. How flexible is your solution to be used in various sectors?
Cortex is industry and process agnostic, however, CognitiveScale and our partners have built accelerators and templates to support core business processes in healthcare, banking, and digital commerce verticals.
Q. Tell us about the capabilities of your Cortex software.
Cortex automates AI development and AI control through a low-code developer environment that simplifies data readiness for AI, personalizes omnichannel interactions, and drives measurable and explainable AI delivered on a highly portable infrastructure.
Q. How do you market your services?
We market through direct and partner led marketing strategies. We run direct campaigns to target Chief Digital Officers, Chief Information Officers, Chief Data Officers as well as Line of Business owners in focus industries. We are also available in all major cloud marketplaces and are marketed by major cloud service providers as well as systems integrators.
Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?
We’re continuously enhancing our product with new capabilities. Cortex is a fifth-generation product and we’re actively working to release Cortex V6 by December of 2020. Cortex V6 will transform how low skilled AI developers build goal-optimized AI systems.
Q. What are your trajectories for the next 5 years?
Over the next 5 years, we plan to continue on our trajectory to establish a solid footprint in our focus verticals with industry leading customers. We’re already working with several leading software companies to embed Cortex within their AI, Data, and Cloud offerings. We are also establishing partnerships with industry leading enterprises to build new disruptive business models that will completely transform core processes with AI, and how AI systems are developed and monetized.
Meet the leader behind the success of CognitiveScale
Akshay Sabhikhi is the CEO and Co-founder of CognitiveScale. Akshay has more than 20 years of experience in enterprise software leading high growth startups and software divisions within the Fortune 50 companies. He has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UT Austin.