Unnatural Language Processing with Emily Foges (Luminance) and Sofie Quidenus-Wahlforss (omni:us)

Luminance

• Luminance is an AI platform that helps lawyers read and understand legal documentation, enabling them to work faster and more efficiently.
• It integrates with various systems, including legacy systems, to facilitate seamless data processing.
• Luminance uses pattern recognition and unsupervised machine learning to analyze language in a similar way to humans, simplifying complex legal documents.

Omnis

• Omnis helps insurance companies automate core processes, such as claim handling, to improve customer service.
• Omnis focuses on working with insurance companies that are ready to adopt AI, rather than those that are just experimenting with the technology.
• Omnis provides fast, transparent, and empathetic service by using technology to access and understand data quickly, and by responding to customers as soon as possible.

AI in the Legal and Insurance Industries

• The legal profession was slower to adopt AI than the insurance industry because lawyers were not as ready to accept the use of technology.
• Some people in the insurance industry are resistant to change and prefer to do things the way they have always been done.
• Verticalization, or focusing on a specific industry, is essential for AI success, as it allows for domain-specific customization and understanding.

NLP and Machine Learning

• Natural language processing (NLP) is crucial for understanding specialized and strangely formatted legal documents.
• Open-source NLP advancements and collaboration with experts contribute to the development of robust NLP systems.
• The company's machine learning technology improves with each project, leading to better results over time.

Funding and Market Potential

• Convincing investors in high-risk AI investments requires demonstrating the potential for significant returns and the ability to transform legacy industries.
• The company demonstrated a 100% acceleration in due diligence work on their first project with a London Law Firm in June 2016.
• The addressable market for the company's technology is global.
• The company prefers VC money over grants for fast growth, having raised $30 million in total funding with $1.2 million coming from grants.