Will Ashford, founder and CEO of TrueState. Source: Provided.
The new AI startup claims to enable businesses to develop AI applications in days instead of months, and its launch coincides with $1.5 million in funding from Airtree, Side Stage Ventures, Galileo Ventures, and Imprint Capital Partners.
Founded by former McKinsey QuantumBlack consultant Will Ashford, TrueState offers a platform with AI application templates for enterprises that, when integrated with customers' operational data, support use cases like predicting machine failures and recommending actions to prevent customer churn.
TrueState aims to bridge the gap between rising expectations and the ability to deliver on AI: Enterprises are under pressure to adopt AI, but many small and medium-sized businesses lack the ability to do so due to a lack of expertise, time, and resources.
“Every industry is being reshaped by AI. The winners will be those who can leverage the right AI tools to stay ahead of their competitors and deliver real commercial value,” said Will Ashford, founder and CEO of TrueState. Smart company.
“But today, most companies find themselves in one of two scenarios: They either invest in a vast tangle of third-party AI tools that rely more on hype than effectiveness, or they spend months, or even years, building their own AI tools, often while relying on expensive external consulting firms.”
TrueState aims to address these challenges by providing a platform that combines advanced AI technology with an intuitive interface to empower non-technical teams to create and configure AI use cases.
The platform's library of pre-built, customizable AI solutions includes secure AI model training and storage to ensure data privacy and security.
“Our templates are pre-built solutions that companies can customize with their own data to create AI impact faster than any other platform,” Ashford said.
“A workflow can be built in less than a day. From there, it all depends on how quickly the people building the solution can get feedback on the results and iterate on them. To accelerate this iterative process, we have AI data scientists in our platform advising customers on how to best improve their workflows, which is critical for scaling the product.”
TrueState's platform can be used by a wide variety of businesses, from direct-to-consumer companies that want to create AI apps for upselling, to manufacturers that forecast supply and demand to optimize inventory and cash flow. Additional uses include sales recommendations, investment management, pricing strategy, customer support, recruiting, staff retention, workplace safety and relationship management.
“One of our clients is a Sydney-based investment firm that is implementing a system that helps them better find companies to invest in,” Ashford said.
“We have also been working with an Australian consumer retail brand to provide competitive intelligence to help it establish pricing capabilities.”
Ashford said some of his formative experience in the field came from working at McKinsey & Company’s AI division, QuantumBlack, advising clients around the world on their AI strategies, which included building bespoke software from the ground up to help execute those strategies.
“Across countless clients and portfolio companies, the story was always the same: building high-impact AI solutions was complex and beyond the reach of most companies, so they had to outsource the initial build of the solution to AI experts, which could be cost-prohibitive,” says Ashford.
With its latest funding round, TrueState will continue building out its technology infrastructure and plans to expand into the US and UK markets later this year.
“Our priority is to continue building out the platform's technology infrastructure, with plans to expand into the US and UK markets later this year,” Ashford said.
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