Scale Insights moves to the UK following investment from Nationwide
Nationwide Building Society is investing in Scaled Insights, a Canadian company that uses behavioural artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse people’s speech in order to communicate with them in language that is most accessible for them.
The firm says that the system analyses over 130 different variables in speech patterns, giving each a rating of between one and a hundred.
The AI system is then able to generate an “impression” of each person’s personality traits, which organisations can then use to offer a more tailored and personalised service.
For example, using traditional demographics, if you had two 70-year-old married men who were millionaires, with grown-up children, you would treat them exactly the same. However, one could be Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and the other Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness; both very different personalities and likely to want a very different approach from a company.
Scaled Insights will move to the Nexus building in Leeds, a facility that supports start-ups owned by Leeds University.
The investment is part of a £50 million Venturing Fund designed to create partnerships in which the Society and the start-ups share knowledge and expertise. As part of the fund, Nationwide is making strategic investments in and partnering with early stage start-ups exploring innovative products and services that could provide real benefits for the Society’s members in the future.
The Society says it is investing a total of £4.1 billion in technology over the next five years.
