AI automation FinTech startup, Presagen, has secured its first round of funding as part of the South Australian Early Commercialisation Fund (SAECF).
SAECF is a new government grant funding scheme for companies with innovative technologies that have potential for global markets and large revenues.
Presagen has been awarded the first of three possible phases of funding. Companies that are awarded all three phases can receive up to $500,000 in funding to support global commercialisation initiatives. Presagen will use the funding to bolster its growing technical team.
Presagen uses a behavioral AI technique that emerged from the defense industry to automate complex human-centric tasks using software.
“Vendors such as BluePrism and Automation Anywhere offer Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which are suited to automating simple or repetitive IT administration tasks,” said Presagen co-founder Dr Michelle Perugini. “However, these techniques are not well suited to more complex business administration and operational tasks where there is still a human in the loop making decisions.”
“Mainstream AI technologies such as IBM’s Watson and Google’s DeepMind primarily use machine learning, which in the Department of Defense we found was limited in automating human centric tasks – even tasks that seem quite simple,” said Co-founder and managing director Dr Don Perugini. “Our technique is able to translate complex human cognitive processes and reasoning into software, to allow people to delegate mundane administrative tasks to software so they can focus on more productive and creative tasks.”