AI
Innovative Data and AI Solutions Tackling Global Food Waste
Global food waste is a staggering issue, with about 1.3 billion tons of food discarded each year, according to the United Nations. This waste, amounting to a third of the world’s food production, has dire environmental and economic consequences. In the United States alone, the USDA reports that 30-40% of food ends up in landfills, a significant loss especially when food costs are escalating.
Efforts to feed the world’s population more efficiently are crucial for future food security. Innovative organizations are harnessing the power of data and artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline food distribution, reduce waste, and support those in need.
Reducing Spoilage in Retail
Retail establishments and the food service industry account for 13 percent of global food waste. More Retail Limited (MRL), one of India’s largest grocery chains, has made strides in addressing this issue by leveraging data.
Previously, MRL’s forecasting accuracy was a mere 40% using traditional methods. In partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Ganit, a data science consulting firm, MRL implemented a demand forecasting and automated ordering system using Amazon Forecast. This system utilizes historical data, considering factors like seasonality and promotions, and categorizes products by shelf life and price.
Sanjeev Maddila, AWS Worldwide Head of Supply Chain Solutions, explained the impact of accurate forecasting, “Over-forecasts in demand at a retail store would result in selling stale or over-ripe products, or mean potentially throwing away much of that inventory. If they under-forecast then products will be out-of-stock, meaning lost sales and loss of customers.”
The shift to machine learning models has catapulted MRL’s forecasting accuracy from 24% to an impressive 76%, replacing over 1,000 traditional models. As a result, MRL has seen up to a 30% reduction in waste, an improvement in in-stock rates from 80% to 90%, and a 25% increase in gross profit.
Better Understanding Customer Demand
In South Korea, the startup Nuvilab has introduced an AI 3D food scanner to tackle waste in cafeterias, where side dishes often go uneaten due to lack of choice in types and amounts. The scanner analyzes food consumption before and after meals, providing valuable data to cafeteria managers.
Logan Kim, CEO of Nuvilab, emphasized the importance of their technology, “Food waste is a global issue that has become more serious as food prices soar yearly, and organizations are receiving regulatory pressure to reduce food waste. [The] AI-based 3D food analysis technology powered by AWS can help reduce food waste and critically impact the environment in meaningful ways.”
Adoption of Nuvilab’s technology in over 60 national K–12 institutions and 10 corporations has led to a 30% reduction in overall food waste and up to 42% reduction in on-plate food waste.
Redistributing Excess
The disparity between food waste and hunger is stark, with 828 million people going hungry while a billion tons of food are discarded. FareShare Greater Manchester, part of the UK’s longest-running food redistribution charity, is making headway in bridging this gap.
FareShare’s complex operations received a boost from an AI application model developed by Peak, which matches supply and demand almost instantly. Oskar Nummedal, Data Science Team Leader at Peak, described the application as a tool to “reduce waste and help the FareShare Greater Manchester team spend more of their time where it is really needed.”
In 2021, FareShare Greater Manchester redistributed enough food for 6 million meals to those struggling to afford food.
Promoting Global Food Sustainability
Data-driven solutions are proving invaluable in the fight against food waste and for promoting global food sustainability. By optimizing supply chains, understanding consumer demands, and enabling targeted interventions, these technologies are fostering more efficient, ecological, and equitable food systems.
In a significant move that promises to redefine the landscape of business intelligence, TextQL, an innovative startup, has successfully raised $4.1 million in funding. This substantial financial backing reflects the industry’s confidence in TextQL’s vision to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions with current business intelligence and documentation tools, thereby making data access more democratic across a multitude of sectors.
Hurst Lin, General Partner at DCM, which co-led the funding rounds, expressed his enthusiasm for TextQL’s mission, stating, “With the rise of data came another issue: non-technical workers were not given the tools to find the answers they needed in the data, until TextQL.” He further added, “We’re excited about the work that TextQL is doing to help non-technical workers across various industries and organizations access the critical data they need to make informed business decisions, and we see TextQL as the solution to free data analysts from the monotony of pulling data requests with their virtual data analyst.”
TextQL’s groundbreaking mission is to fully automate every single step in the lifecycle of data. To achieve this, TextQL has created an AI-powered analyst, aptly named Ana, which simulates the experience of collaborating with a human data analyst. Ana’s integration is seamless across the entire data stack. It connects to your BI tools and directs users to existing dashboards for previously asked questions. Ana also documents your semantic layer and can switch to writing semantic layer code when necessary. This capability is made possible by referencing documentation from enterprise data catalogs, such as Alation, as well as notes in platforms like Confluence or Google Drive.
Ethan Ding, CEO and co-founder of TextQL, shared his insights on the current state of self-service analytics:
“Every conversation about self-service analytics with data practitioners starts with an eye roll. They’ve been sold disappointing self-service products for the past 15 years that are always ready tomorrow, after another new BI tool or a bit more data modeling.”
He elaborated on TextQL’s approach, saying, “TextQL is built to mimic the hierarchy of responses a human analyst goes through – operating across your data stack without any migration. It browses your BI tools, queries your semantic layer, reads your dbt documents, and asks for help when it doesn’t know what to do. This is the hardest unsolved problem at the intersection of enterprise data, AI and user experience – but the difficulty of the problem has attracted a ton of really incredible people to our team.”
Despite the inherent challenges, TextQL has already forged partnerships with organizations that boast tens of thousands of employees across various industries, including media, bio and life sciences, manufacturing, and financial services. Notably, TextQL has recently announced its participation in the NBA Launchpad program, which serves as an accelerated means to transition the NBA’s data platform onto an AI-native trajectory.
The latest round of funding is earmarked for expanding the TextQL team, with a current focus on recruiting software engineers and forward-deployed engineers to join their team of ex-founders. These new hires will contribute to data engineering and language model training. With the bolstered team, TextQL anticipates the capacity to onboard an additional ten companies in the upcoming quarter.
Ali Partovi, CEO of Neo, praised TextQL’s ambitious vision and Ethan’s technical leadership, stating, “The world of data is at the brink of a seismic shift as AI relieves us from manually organizing database tables and writing SQL. TextQL will unlock a massive surge in data usage where anybody in an org can access data and get insights just by asking questions instead of waiting for the engineers to construct queries.”
TextQL’s Ana platform is set to introduce a dynamic Metadata engine capable of indexing from Notion, Confluence, Google Drive, and Microsoft Office; compatibility with business intelligence tools like Tableau, Looker, and PowerBI; an AI-enhanced semantic layer for dbt, Cube, and LookML; a Python-proficient language model that complies with HIPAA and SOC 2; and a Slack integration for streamlined team communication.
In the near future, TextQL is poised to announce key technology partnerships with their preferred semantic layer, business intelligence platform, and data catalogs.
About TextQL
TextQL’s mission is to democratize and automate data analysis by building generative AI-powered data discovery and analytics for the modern data stack. By automating the day-to-day job of a data analyst, TextQL is replacing the tasks of human analysts, from pulling dashboards to answering data questions straight from a company’s data warehouse, in order to get business teams answers about their company’s data in seconds instead of days. To learn more about their innovative approach to data analysis, visit TextQL’s website.
In the competitive arena of business, parallels are often drawn with the world of sports, where the formulation of a winning strategy and the ability to adapt to the unexpected are key to success. As the legendary football manager Sir Alex Ferguson once said, “part of the pursuit of excellence involves eliminating as many surprises as possible because life is full of the unexpected.” This philosophy is increasingly relevant in today’s business landscape, where adaptability and agility are not just buzzwords but essential traits for survival and growth.
The past few years have been a testament to the unpredictable nature of the global market, with businesses facing a relentless onslaught of challenges and crises. In this environment, the ability to pivot and seize new opportunities has become critical. Reflecting on and improving how businesses respond to change is an ongoing necessity.
In the sports world, adjustments might mean tactical shifts or player substitutions. In business, it revolves around making informed decisions based on available data. With the technological underpinnings of modern enterprises, the volume of data is expanding at an unprecedented rate. From approximately 4.4 zettabytes of data in 2013, estimates suggest a staggering increase to 181 zettabytes by 2025.
This burgeoning data mountain presents a formidable challenge for companies aiming for enterprise agility. The question arises: How can businesses maintain operational flexibility and informed decision-making without effectively managing this data?
The Rise of Big Data and AI-Powered Analytics
The relentless growth of data underscores the urgent need for businesses to adapt their data storage, protection, and utilization strategies. A key aspect of this adaptation is enabling employees to access and interpret vast datasets seamlessly. Given the sheer scale of data, manual processing is no longer feasible, making automated analytics an indispensable tool for unlocking data’s value.
While analytics is not a novel concept, the scalability required today is unprecedented. The velocity at which new data volumes and types are generated necessitates tools designed for inherent elasticity and growth.
Different types of analytics tools, such as descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive methods, are crucial. However, AI-powered analytics tools are particularly noteworthy, as they are set to become faster, more intelligent, and more accurate as they process larger training datasets. These tools are not just a future consideration but a present necessity.
For instance, the manufacturing industry has integrated AI with analytics to gain comprehensive insights from all data types, whether structured or unstructured, historical, or real-time. These insights drive advanced manufacturing processes like smart factories, digital twins, and autonomous supply chains.
Manufacturers can use digital twins to simulate various scenarios and adapt their plans based on simulation outcomes, thus mitigating the impact of unforeseen events.
Other industries stand to benefit similarly. AI-powered analytics can optimize risk management in finance or tailor customer offerings in retail, among numerous other applications. As we delve deeper into the era of big data, powerful analytics will increasingly become a business mainstay.
Making Agility Central to Business Strategy
AI-powered analytics should be a cornerstone of any business’s agility strategy, aiming to place the company on a future-proof trajectory. By delivering actionable insights at the right time, AI analytics may not predict the future with absolute certainty, but it is vital for long-term success as data continues to proliferate.
Businesses, akin to sports teams, must be tactically agile, knowing when to attack or defend. The most successful managers and players appear to possess an almost mystical ability to triumph, but in reality, their success is grounded in informed tactical analysis and the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances.
For businesses to avoid being outpaced, agility must be at the core of all priorities, from securing data against cyber-attacks to enhancing customer experiences. The current moment is ripe for a tangible shift in how we approach the future, with AI-powered analytics playing a central role.
In conclusion, as businesses navigate the complexities of the modern data landscape, the integration of AI-powered analytics into their strategic framework is not just an option but a necessity. By harnessing the power of AI, companies can transform data into actionable insights, fostering the agility needed to thrive in an ever-changing market.
ORLANDO, Fl., Jan. 30, 2024 — In a significant move that underscores the burgeoning potential of conversational and generative AI, Kore.ai, a frontrunner in enterprise AI platform technology, has announced a colossal $150 million in funding. The strategic investment aimed at growth is spearheaded by FTV Capital, a seasoned growth equity investor with a commendable track record spanning over 25 years in enterprise technology investments. The funding round also saw contributions from tech giant NVIDIA and a cohort of existing investors, including Vistara Growth, Sweetwater PE, NextEquity, Nicola, and Beedie.
The injection of capital is set to accelerate Kore.ai’s market expansion and foster continuous innovation in AI, with the goal of delivering substantial business and human value on a global scale. The company’s announcement comes at a time when the AI market is experiencing rapid growth and disruption, driven by technological advancements and evolving user expectations. According to Gartner, the conversational AI market is projected to skyrocket to $377 billion in revenue by 2032, a significant leap from $66 billion in 2023. This growth trajectory reflects an exponential demand for enhanced customer experiences, streamlined business operations, and innovative GenAI applications that address specific business tasks.
Kore.ai stands out in the AI landscape with its enterprise-grade, no-code platform designed to empower companies of all sizes to harness AI in a safe and responsible manner, while simultaneously driving significant revenue and cost savings. The platform’s offerings range from conversational virtual assistants to generative AI (Gen AI) applications, featuring purpose-built workflows, highly configurable tools, and a flexible, open architecture. This combination is celebrated by customers and analysts alike as a leading approach in the industry, enabling teams to craft custom solutions or deploy pre-built, domain-trained virtual assistants across multiple industries such as banking, healthcare, and retail, and across various functional roles including IT, HR, and more, thereby accelerating time-to-value.
Raj Koneru, founder and CEO of Kore.ai, emphasized the company’s deep-rooted expertise in AI, stating, “We have been working with advanced AI for a decade now – our deep technology expertise and market understanding put us in a prime position to take advantage of the momentum and to do AI right in order to meet growing customer needs.” He further highlighted the company’s strategic position above the infrastructure layer and LLM chaos, offering businesses freedom of choice with built-in guardrails for effective AI implementation.
Kore.ai’s growth is not just theoretical; it’s evidenced by its impressive track record. The company has consistently shown triple-digit year-over-year growth in revenues and automates 450 million interactions a day for about 200 million consumers and two million enterprise users worldwide. Kore.ai’s expansion has been bolstered by rising demand from emerging markets in Asia Pacific, Europe, LatAm, and the Middle East, leading to the addition of new Global 2000 enterprise customers across major verticals.
The company’s success has not gone unnoticed in the industry. Kore.ai has been recognized as a leader and an innovator by top analysts, including being named a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Conversational AI Platforms twice in a row.
Kapil Venkatachalam, partner at FTV Capital, expressed his firm’s enthusiasm for the partnership, saying, “We’ve spent significant time examining the landscape and evaluating advanced-AI platforms, and Kore.ai clearly stood out with its proven enterprise-grade platform capabilities, visionary leadership, strong R&D focus, established global customer base and clear path to profitability.” He also noted FTV Capital’s intent to leverage their deep knowledge and network to catalyze Kore.ai’s success.
Kore.ai’s market understanding and expertise across diverse use cases have earned it a clientele that includes several Fortune 2000 companies across various industry verticals. Notable customers include PNC Bank, AT&T, Cigna, Coca-Cola, Airbus, and Roche.
With a decade of experience in helping enterprises realize business value through AI, Kore.ai’s innovative platform, no-code tools, and solutions are used to deliver end-to-end customer and employee experiences from automated to human-assisted, and to build generative AI-enabled applications. The company’s open approach allows companies to choose the LLMs and infrastructure that best meet their business needs.
Trusted by over 200 partners and 400 Fortune 2000 companies, Kore.ai helps them navigate their AI strategy. The company has a strong patent portfolio in the AI space and has been recognized as a leader and an innovator by top analysts. Headquartered in Orlando, Kore.ai has a network of offices to support customers, including in India, the UK, Middle East, Japan, South Korea, and Europe.