Data is the fuel that is going to carry companies into the future. In this episode, Melody is joined by Florin Tufan, co-founder and CEO of Soleadify, a platform that mimics the human approach to research on companies at massive scale, using a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. Together they discuss the opportunities that are made possible with AI, what decision makers need to know about AI, and how AI can be leveraged to solve real world problems, especially in the wake of the pandemic. 

SOLVING PROBLEMS WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Florin admits that his initial impression of AI was largely shaped by Hollywood, and he was somewhat disappointed when he realized that these machines with the power to take over the world were not nearly as intimidating as he once assumed. Once he discovered that AI is an evolving process with change happening at a very fundamental level, he recognized the incredible possibilities available with AI.  At Soleadify, they are now stacking models to accomplish their objectives.

INCREASING SELECTIVITY OF STORED DATA 

Nearly 90% of data is considered dark data, which is not only a drain on resources but is also a major liability to the companies that are storing it. Is there really such a thing as too much data? And if so, how can we become more selective about the data we choose to store and how we use models to generate insights from that data? Florin points out that the more data the better only applies when we know the context in which the data was created.

LEVERAGING AI TO SOLVE REAL-WORLD BUSINESS PROBLEMS

At the beginning of the pandemic, Florin and his team decided that, rather than panic about something they didn’t understand, they would focus on something they did understand.  Within a week they built a free resource for finding medical suppliers, which was a major problem at the beginning of the pandemic. Since then, procurement and supply chain has become a major use case at Soleadify. 

AI MYTH BUSTING 

Communicating with non-technical decision makers can be a challenge for any AI technology based company.  Florin reveals what he would do with a magic AI wand - he wishes that  leaders already knew the basic level methodologies as well as more realistic expectations for what is possible with AI. It is harder than most people might expect, but incredible things are possible with AI right now. 

Florin’s Insights

“The more data the better, provided you know the context in which the data was created.” [17:05] 

“A lot of this crisis was a data crisis, of course I see data problems everywhere.” [24:35] 

“I wish the myth of AI was already busted at a larger scale.” [31:55] 

“Everything is right in front of us, and I like to think of data as the fuel.” [44:15] 

Florin’s Bio

Florin Tufan is the CEO and co-founder of Soleadify, a platform helping businesses get accurate and in-depth data on companies of all shapes and sizes with great SMB coverage. Soleadify is a big data startup that leverages advanced scraping and ML technologies to ingest hundreds of billions of webpages every week and perform at scale human-like ML based research to create and maintain a database of 50+ data points on 70M+ companies.

Links

Florin Tufan LinkedIn

Soleadify