“Explainability and Trust are Extremely Important Areas for AI Co.s” Says Akshaya Bhargava

Artificial intelligence has proven to be a game changer in the business domain in terms of achieving accurate results. But the AI models the businesses are designed around depend heavily on data. Unless the developers have humongous data sets that are relevant to the specific use case, AI models do not prove to be of any significance. What if a new business idea can be conceived based on the existing AI model without having to scout for data? Sounds like a complex proposition, but there are companies like Bridgeweave that help startups, particularly in the fin-tech industry with end-to-end business cycle management to reach their goals with least effort. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Akshaya Bhargava, Founder & Executive Chairman, of Bridgeweave.

1. Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization, and the services that your company offers.

Bridgeweave is a UK-based fintech firm that uses AI models to provide institutional-quality research signals and investment ideas to investors to make better investment decisions. We make use of sophisticated technology to produce tangible outcomes and we believe that this kind of customer-centric approach will enable autonomous wealth management, transforming the wealth management industry in the future.

InvestorAi is an AI-powered personal investment analyst for retail investors, that uses AI algorithms that have been trained for global equity markets. It is based on a subscription model and provides a variety of amazing features. Our 'Follow the Machine' portfolios are machine-generated portfolios that rebalance automatically and are open for subscription by individual investors.

2. With what mission and objectives, the company was set up? In short, tell us about your journey since the inception of the company.

The Bridgeweave story started when I was the CEO of Barclays Wealth and Investments. I saw a lot of potential in artificial intelligence and thought the new technology can play an important role in creating a better wealth management model that could help people make better financial decisions through the intelligent use of personalized information.

The journey so far has been promising. Following the launch of InvestorAi in India in July last year, we announced it in the UK. Today we have over 23,000+ users and have some impressive logos like IIFL, and Paytm Money as partners. We already had an operation and R&D center in Bangalore and have added a second lab in Hyderabad to incubate and foster new ideas. We have our own FtM (follow the machine) portfolios that are listed on Wealthdesk and Smallcase, making it even easier for investors. We have just launched InvestorAi Crypto, which is one of its kind product, that will transform the experience for anyone who makes crypto investments.

3. What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors?

Our USP is to help our customers in making better investment decisions based on predictive signals along with sophisticated and high-quality information.

4. Please brief us about the products and services you provide to your customers and how they get value out of it.

Ans: We offer the below-listed products

InvestorAi is a uniquely personalized product built using proprietary AI tech that gives insights and signals for equity investors.

Our Follow the Machine (FTM) portfolio (listed on Wealthdesk and Smallcase) provide machine-driven investment ideas and auto-rebalancing of assets for our investors.

We recently launched the InvestorAi Crypto app that allows users to make investments in crypto strategies and execute them automatically.

5. Tell us how your company is contributing to the artificial intelligence industry of the nation and how the company is benefiting the clients.

Ans:  AI is powerful technology but for a large part, it has stayed within operations, back office, and risk management as far as the financial services industry is concerned. We are one of the early companies bringing AI into the front office in a way that directly impacts user capabilities and experience. We believe that more such companies need to provide similar services for AI to become ubiquitous and customer friendly.

6. How is artificial intelligence evolving today in the industry as a whole? What are the most important AI trends that you see emerging across the globe?

InvestorAi started off as simple machine learning models that used stochastic modeling. Newer techniques like computer vision (that we use in all our products) have brought deep learning to the forefront. However, the downside of deep learning is that it is not very explainable.

This needs to change because unless we are able to explain how the machine has arrived at a certain conclusion, it will never be fully trusted. We believe that explainability and trust are two extremely important areas for AI companies like us to focus on.

7. How are disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence impacting today's innovation?

We believe that no technology is inherently disruptive. It is only when human imagination comes up with a new use for that technology to solve a problem or to remove customer friction that the technology use becomes disruptive. In the same way, we do not see AI as a disruptive technology. However, there will always be innovative companies who use technology cleverly to solve customer problems or to come up with new products.

8. What are your growth plans for the next 12 months?

This year is important for us as we will have a new product and new customers using our products and solutions in India and as well as globally. We have launched a product for investors and asset managers for the crypto markets, to make their crypto investing easy.