“We Aim to Elevate the Scope of AI with Intelligent Cameras” Says Shreeram Iyer

Making sense of visual data, which invariably involves subjective interpretation, has largely remained unreachable to computers. With computer vision fast making its forays into data analytics, computing with visual data, ie., analyzing imagery, particularly for AI applications depending on facial recognition, body behavioral analysis, and sentiment analysis, it has now become possible to develop visually intelligent cameras. Prisma AI, a visual artificial intelligence company is well on its way to making cameras think like human beings. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Dr. Shreeram Iyer, Chairman, and Group Chief Executive Officer, Prisma AI.

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

Prisma AI is a pioneer in Visual Artificial Intelligence-based solutions. With its headquarters in Singapore and branches across the globe, Prisma AI specializes in interactive information technologies, particularly Visual based Artificial Intelligence platforms, Gryphos, for image, video, object, and face verification along with body behavioral analysis and sentiment analysis.

Prisma AI has been striving for pragmatic, visual-based AI solutions using Gryphos for companies to implement practical applications. Gryphos uses Machine Learning and Convolutional Neural Networks to create a deep learning system.

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

Originally, Prisma AI was established as Prisma GmbH in 1981, by ex-IBMers in Germany. At the beginning of the millennium, the focus on image recognition increased and it started working on projects for the German Government and Interpol. In 2003, Prisma entered a partnership with Patni Computer Systems. The year 2005 was when things really started to pick up for Prisma AI and it rose to recognition with the acquisition of a major project for the reconstruction of letters shredded by the East-German police-which came to be known as the Stasi puzzle. Later that year, Prisma also onboarded another project to track down stolen artwork being sold at auctions with the help of video recognition technologies. In 2008, Prisma went on to develop its patented algorithm, Gryphos, with a mission to standardize an image recognition operating system platform.

In 2017, Prisma AI Corporation Pvt Ltd. was incorporated with its Asian headquarter, set up in Singapore. Significant advances followed in AI and ML-enabled expansion of visual recognition solutions along with more qualified training of AI models and accuracy. Before we knew it, by 2019, Prisma AI was experiencing significant contract growth and had acquired many notable clients.

In 2021, Prisma AI extended its capabilities to the US. Prisma AI's technologies and innovations have grown over the years, being fortunate to set up nuances in technology for clients and customers.

3. What does your technology and business roadmap look like for the rest of the year?

Prisma AI has never stopped innovating since the time of its inception. Back then it evolved from text-based recognition to image-based recognition and now, it is progressing to body behavioral analysis along with emotions & sentiment analysis. We're now expecting to go public in the USA, being mindful of the fact that it is one of the prime locations, ripe for expansion.  We plan on expanding by hiring a USA sales team to source deals and projects. Additionally, Prisma AI aims to work with its investors for further business leads and acquire international AI cameras. However, this is not the last stop for Prisma AI. We further to expand internationally in key countries in the coming years.

4. How are disruptive technologies like IoT/Big Data analysis/AI/Machine learning/Cloud Computing impacting today's innovation?

Technology knows no bounds, as proven multiple times by the daily innovations. With the help of these disruptive technologies, the day is not far when we would have smart cities, powered by Internet of Things (IoT) automation.

A few instances of how AI and computer vision could be used to improve public and private security:

•Illegal object detection

•Suspicious behavior alert

•Providing assistance to special individuals

•Access control

•Identification of lost bag

•Toll collection through licensed plate

•Alert on accident

•Ticketing for red light or speeding violations

•Face-as-boarding pass for access

•Incident detection in a crowd

•Crowd sentiment analysis

•Hazardous object detection

•VIP/Banned person alert

•Financial Automated systems

With AI, today nothing seems impossible, and it is only going to get savvier.

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

Prisma AI has its own proprietary patented platform – Gryphos, which enables the development of its products and solutions. The Gryphos exemplary deep learning system is utilized to make recognition and analysis for objects, videos, images, body movements, and faces as well as predictive analysis using cognitive intelligence.

Prisma AI has developed technologies such as license plate recognition, facial recognition, as well as body behavioral analysis engines that employ decision science in their functioning to detect objects and persons of interest. Prisma AI has provided various solutions with great results to many large sectors including finance, aviation, retail, education, infrastructure, and many more.

For instance, one of the leading kitchens in the airline industry approached Prisma AI in late 2019 to help them with kitchen surveillance, wherein, there were instances of adulterating the food being served in the airline, due to some labor issues. Prisma AI's technology, Gryphos acted as a vigilance for quality control in this case.

Prisma AI uses the already existing CCTV and camera infrastructure, creating ease of use and functionality, thus saving revenues. All of Prisma AI's products and solutions can be customized uniquely for each of our clients, and are easy, and fast to deploy, making them unique and the first choice of customers for visual AI solutions.

6. Where do you see growth coming in for the sector?

Artificial Intelligence has the potential to grow indefinitely in the coming years. With no limits to AI's capabilities, the field is likely to bloom in every possible direction. Computers are already excelling in terms of performing repetitive and complex calculation tasks better than humans. However, our objective is to make every camera intelligent and elevate the scope of AI and make it capable enough to recognize, perceive, and make decisions similar to a human brain. Even if 50% of this is achieved, we would see a surge in growth across industries. We can already see multiple industries recognize and accept the applicability of AI and it is only going to get bigger and better with time. We already have self-driving cars, which are only reserved for certain classes of people. Eventually, we would have different types of self-driving cars that would be more widely accessible to the population.

According to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, it is speculated that AI has the potential to add up to 16% or about $13 trillion to the global economy by the year 2030. Additionally, it could boost the global GDP by up to 26%. Further reports state that by the next few years, at least 70% of companies are expected to have adopted a minimum of one form of AI technology- visual-based, machine learning, robotic process automation, or virtual assistants.

We can expect accurate automation of traditional human workflows, leading to machinery eventually supplementing manual labor. In the near future, we could get to see actual humanoid robots, smart technology that instantly scans a person's face for their details to enable seamless and instantaneous payments, alongside a face-as-a-ticket to enter public spaces. Computer vision technologies will be capable of detecting and analyzing all elements in real-time footage at high speed and accuracy. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more this sector can possibly achieve.

7. Which industry verticals are you currently focusing on? And what is your go-to-market strategy for the same?

Prisma AI is making its place in the field of technology across aviation, infrastructure, security, banking & finance, education, manufacturing, events, and many more industries. The latest addition to our gamete of products is the body behavioral analysis, which has enabled the development of several more subsequent technologies that have proven to be a huge boon across industries. This system detects and analyses the movements made by any individual to determine their action. The system has utility in multiple domains. At locations with large public gatherings, the tool can be used to identify suspicious individuals from crowds, and in the service sector, it can be used to monitor employee behavior to gain organizational insights regarding their performance.

As far as the market strategy is concerned, Prisma AI has been generating awareness about its products and solutions to its target audience through digital ad campaigns, the media articles elaborating on the solutions through social media publishing and interaction. Additionally, for each new client, Prisma AI prepares presentations, flyers, and documents detailing the process and functioning of the solutions and products to help the client gain a better idea about what is being offered to them and allowing them the space to come up with their requirements or queries for the same. Lastly, with the quality that Prisma AI has delivered, a lot of our marketing also happens through word-of-mouth from clients.

8. What is your Leadership Mantra?

Leadership at Prisma AI has its roots in integrity. I truly believe that people identify with the leader's persona first and the vision second. Hence, at Prisma AI, we focus on maintaining integrity through open communication and long-term relationship building through mutual respect and trust.

We've always believed that being a patient listener is the most important quality and work relentlessly to achieve that. Every stakeholder associated with Prisma AI has a comfortable space to share their opinions and ideas. Personal development is given just as much importance as professional development. It is of utmost importance for us at Prisma AI to maintain absolute transparency and honesty, both-ways, to make sure that the trust is mutual.