LEADERSHIP This is called the LEAF evolutionary AI framework. We’re a product company and currently support two products. Sentient has clearly evolved rapidly but where do your roots lie and where is the business moving? Sentient started off building a hedge fund that is AI-powered by LEAF core technology. It launched back in 2016 and established a pretty good life track record – and it’s growing. It’s now open for investments into the fund. For the past two years or so, Sentient has been focused on digital marketing and full-funnel AI enablement. When we think of the digital marketing industry, consumers are coming in through ads and outreached to a journey typically online or on mobile. That journey is a mix of exploration and exploitation. These customers want to know what services are available, or they might have in mind a particular product they’re looking for, and then that leads to some form of conversion. For example, buying a product or signing up for a service. Or not. At this point, the business might want to remarket back to them to get them back. That whole journey is orchestrated
by the LEAF core platform. The first product we have in that area is web and mobile optimization, a fullfunnel, multi-variant CRO product called Sentient Ascend. It’s a fast product to get up and running, with only a couple of lines of javascript required to be inserted in a website’s header, and it’s AI-enabled. That product is growing at a fast pace. We have a large community of companies using it and the principle of the product is that we’re not only brokering the relationship between consumer and service or product and enabling that exploration and exploitation but, at the same time, we are optimizing and maximizing the KPIs of the business that provides that relationship. The centerpiece is the AI. What are the key challenges of running an AI-focused business, specifically regarding expectations versus reality and the hype that tends to surround AI systems and products? It’s a difficult one, and there are many, but typically it’s around posing a problem and expecting AI to come up with a solution. Within that, there are challenges around actually posing the problem correctly and how to use the technology, which is quite complex in itself. There’s also a challenge regarding how you 33