THREE Scottish companies have been named amongst 32 selected to join Tech Nation’s Applied AI Growth programme.
Designed to champion and support the UK’s deep tech scale-ups via peer-to-peer learning and mentoring sessions, the programme forms part of the Government’s AI (artificial intelligence) sector deal.
The programme received 179 applications from across the UK, with a competitive and rigorous judging process narrowing it down to the 32 selected firms.
One of the three Scots companies, Glasgow-based Talking Medicines, uses conversational AI to provide data-driven market intelligence on the usage of medicines for drug companies. The real-time insights allow for the replacement of traditional methods such as focus groups for pharmaceutical companies to obtain information on who is using their medicines and what users think of their brands.
Elizabeth Fairley, Talking Medicines COO, said: “We are so excited about this opportunity – the timing is perfect for us to take our disruptive and scalable data intelligence product to the next level.”
Edinburgh’s Continuum Industries helps engineering professionals to design complex infrastructure projects in a more efficient way.
Its product, Optioneer, automates the design process and uses AI to explore and find the best design option out of millions, saving the user more time. Co-founder and CCO Matt Blythe said: “We’re really excited to learn from other founders, take advantage of their networks and raise awareness within the UK Government of our technology.”
Fellow Edinburgh firm Machine Labs offers an automated email marketing solution for e-commerce stores. It implements AI to improve email communications, helping store owners to develop quality relationships with customers. Data scientist Dr Thomas Gambino said: “We’re extremely pleased to be selected for the Tech Nation Applied AI 2.0 programme; the upcoming months will provide invaluable support for us as we scale our business.”
Harry Rhys Davies of Tech Nation said: “The UK must take every opportunity to nurture scalable, globally-competitive, homegrown AI companies that solve real problems and have far-reaching impacts on the productivity potential of the economy.”
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