Tag Archives: Artificial Intelligence

Can an AI business advisor tell you how to run your business Amastra Eileen Brown

Can an AI business advisor tell you how to run your business?

There are over 500 million small to medium business owners (SMBs) on the planet. Only one percent of these owners have access to a business advisor. But that could soon change with this new AI app.

A team of young entrepreneurs and software programmers spread between New York, Cebu, and Sydney have launched the world’s first artificially intelligent (AI)business advisor.

The free app, called BRiN, is an AI chatbot that helps business owners to scale. It uses artificial intelligence to create a customized learning program for every user. It is capable of providing personalized education and human-like support to every entrepreneur on the planet, at the same time.

Early results seem impressive, with over 10,000 business owners signing up for the service within the first 3 months, according to the company.

The company interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs, about their preferences for current learning models. It then modelled trends based on these responses.

The app has 1000 business videos over 80 topic categories in video and audio formats. There are titles such as “Should I leave corporate and become an entrepreneur?”, “How to plan out your website in 45 minutes”, and “A five minute tech byte on Mailchimp.”

The app will know the answer to more than 10,000 business questions. The founders expect that later in 2017 users will be able to connect BRiN through APIs to other business applications such as Salesforce, MailChimp, QuickBooks, and Google Analytics.

In terms of business models, the company has a goal to get 100,000 business owners using BRiN over the next 12 months, before the company introduces video ads, in-app purchases, and a monthly subscription for premium features and content.

Founder and CEO, Dale Beaumont said: “Chatbots are great at holding a conversation, asking questions and finding out what a user needs. However, when it comes to the solution, chat-style interfaces are completely inefficient when it comes to dispensing actual advice.”

When asked if their name has anything to do with Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Beaumont explains the link is pure coincidence.

“Following in the footsteps of Siri, Cortana and IBM’s Watson, we wanted a name that was personal, feminine, short and easy to remember. So quite simply we searched ‘Four Letter Girls Names’. That’s when we found BRiN and we loved it.

Unified communications robots help patients get better

The Vgo device is a robot with a difference.  It is 4 feet 6 inches tall, communicates over 4G and can conduct 2 way audio and video conversations through a 5 inch screen on its head.

5 of these robots are being used in a pilot program at the Childrens hospital in Boston.  The intention is to reduce the frequent trips back to hospital for check ups after an operation.  It replaces hospital monitoring with home based monitoring.  The robot goes home with the patient.

When at the patients home, the robot is controlled by staff at the hospital who remotely drive the robot around in the house.

Vgo was designed by a team that specialises in video communication and robotics.  They allow remote telepresence wherever you are.  You don’t need to be in front of your computer to interact with a remote user.  As long as you can be seen by the robot, the other party can interact with you.

 

If this pilot scheme works, the hospital plans to expand to a 40 patient home trial to see how effective this type of care can be.

It already works well with remote teaching methods for children who are unable to attend school and it brings interaction through technology innovation.  Telepresence robots are evolving and bringing other senses such as long distance touch to the 2 way interaction.

Bring in the robot with the human face and intelligent conversation and before long, we’ll have realistic looking avatars interacting with us.

Blade Runner as a reality by 2019 anyone?

Eileen is a social business strategist, ZDNet columnist and author of Working The Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business. Contact her to find out how she can help your business extend its reach.

Artificial Intelligence: Angry Chatbots and the existence of God

I’ve been playing with Cleverbot recently to see just how much chatbots have improved since the old IM bots of a few years ago.  But Ross Dawson’s blog pointed me to a YouTube video which showed just how far these chatbots will go whilst having a conversation.  The research has been done by Cornell creative machines lab and the conversation quickly becomes surreal.

Have a listen to this video…

  

It’s a bit disconcerting to see them arguing – with the women bot being assertive and bitchy.  It’s also odd to hear them arguing about God – and weird that they move the discussion on so quickly.

The use of bots to do simple tasks is not new.  I read my electricity meter readings to an automated system that understands my voice and updates my quarterly bill.  Exchange Server has been able to understand what you say to it since Exchange 2007.  Now imagine where we’ll be in 10 years time, when chatting to chatbots in our everyday and business life will be a reality for us….

And I wonder what sorts of arguments there will be then… Smile

Eileen is a social business strategist and author of Working The Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business. Contact her to find out how she can help your business extend its reach.