Ep17: AI Explored: Project Rising's Innovative Services

Our team are incredibly youthful and are playing with the latest, greatest capabilities to solve customer problems. Makes us all excited and helps get us up in the morning and to very rarely go to sleep at a sensible time. We did an on site conversation, effectively just a one hour presentation on the state of artificial intelligence. I think the best way of saying it is I scared the shit out of them. And the conversations that came off the back of that presentation led them to engage us on a retained basis to help them develop their AI journey. We've loved this journey where we've taken them from. This is a significant risk to our business to how can we benefit from it, to being leaders in their industry.

Hi, I'm Freya. Welcome to the Skynet Chronicles Business in the AI Age, the podcast that dives deep into the world where artificial intelligence meets business. Join us as we explore the latest trends, challenges and opportunities in this ever evolving landscape. From innovative startups to established enterprises, we'll uncover the secrets behind the successful integration of AI technologies. So grab a cup of coffee, sit back and get ready to unlock the mysteries of business in the AI age. What is Project Rising's Explore an Idea service?

Lots of people come to Project Rising and they say, I've got a really good idea for an application or how we could use AI. And the thing we've learned about ideas is having an idea is very easy. Executing on that idea and making it into a usable product that's reliable and will operate at scale is far more challenging. So when somebody talks to us about we've got this idea, we initially sit down with them, either in person or over teams conversation, and we'll have a half an hour to an hour long conversation exploring their idea, getting a feel for how practical it is, the impact it can make to their business in terms of the return on investment or the potential good that it could do for society or a charity, for example. And towards the end of that conversation, we'll have got a good feel as to whether this is something that we can actually help them with and whether it's an idea that has legs, if you like, is practical enough that it's going to make a material difference to that company. At that point we go, okay, we've now reached the point where we think this is a viable product, we think we could build it. But in order to get to the level of detail, to give you a quote, we need to do something called an Explore Exploration milestone, if you like. And this exploration milestone is where we spend three to five days going into the detail of the idea, understanding exactly what's required to implement it, defining what the technical stack, the combination of different technologies and AI solutions will be needed in order to deliver it, determining the return on investment and the cost ultimately to the customer. And then at the end of that exploration milestone, we come back with a fully funded proposal that says, you will get this, it will cost you this much and it will take this long to deliver. So our exploration milestone allows us to make sure that we're delivering a solution which is going to give value to the customer.

How does Project Rising help companies determine if they can benefit from AI?

Our diagnostic service allows us to come into a company and evaluate what the most practical implications are for AI within an organization. To measure the AI maturity, the readiness for this technology, to assess how they are proceeding from a process and organization point of view to make themselves ready for AI. It's effectively a one day assessment where we evaluate how ready a company is and suggest a proposal and timeline of activities to improve that so that a company can understand which processes within their business will have the highest impact by implementing AI. Any potential products or solutions which could be developed to enable a company to be more efficient and to make a recommendation as to sensible next steps that could be delivered in the next 3, 6, 9, 12 months to materially move a company forward. So our diagnostic service is intended to help companies understand their readiness and to help them move forward with that strategy.

What kinds of applications and solutions does Project Rising build?

We build custom AI solutions for our customers that solve a fundamental problem within their business or create a new opportunity for revenue through a new product implementation or introduction. These solutions are hugely varied from light touch process automation where we're effectively removing some of the admin from within a process to make it work more efficiently, to completely new concepts which have never really been tested in that market or anywhere that help use the capabilities of artificial intelligence to create that magic. To solve a problem, to come up with the answer to a question, to remove time slack admin from a process to make things run more efficiently. These build solutions usually take four weeks. We build on a four week sprint basis and during that we will move from understanding the detail of what we actually need to build out to producing a proof of concept or a prototype within a four week sprint. And we'll then evolve that over time so the customers very quickly get a feel for what the benefit within the business can be from this product, come back with feedback and options for improvement and we then build those out into ongoing long term products that support a business's success so that the business can operate more smoothly, so they can generate new opportunities for revenue, so they can hit new markets. But generally they're just automating and using the magic of AI to solve a problem.

How does Project Rising educate people about AI?

One of our key purposes as a business is to educate people on the potential of artificial intelligence. That takes many forms, depending on the needs of an individual or organization or corporation, but generally they follow relatively standardized formats. We're helping people to understand where they are on an adoption journey, the potential of the technologies as they stand now, and where that technology is likely to evolve and the capabilities that are going to come from that. So whether that's on a webinar, presenting a keynote to a national or global organization, working with a small team, consulting on a specific problem, or educating a group of companies from very different industries on the potentials and how it could impact them, we come and talk to your team and explain in simple, plain English the potential of AI and how they can make the most of it.

What is the purpose of the Skynet Chronicles Podcast?

Our podcast aims to demystify artificial intelligence, to show real world examples with our customers and people we like in industry about how AI is making a difference to their day to day, how the applications that we've built are allowing those companies to move forward and to educate on the actual practicalities of what's really involved. How does it work for a business? How does that business benefit from implementing these technologies? Most of all we just get to have a chat with people and get some real content that shows the inside workings of companies and how they've been able to benefit from technology.

Can you tell us about the Project Rising Development team?

So the Project Rising Development team are a highly gifted group of individuals. They are often very early in their career, from those studying a degree Apprentice at age 18 through to data scientists in varying organizations who like to do some work extracurricular work for us. But generally our average age of our developers is about 22 currently and these guys and girls are rock stars. They know their stuff, they've got super high plasticity of mind. We can just set them a challenge and they find inventive and creative ways of solving this challenge quickly. We use these young minds together to deliver high performing projects quickly. They work dynamically, they're always passing ideas. We're able to dedicate a bit of time each week to testing the latest capabilities and seeing, okay, what can we achieve with this model? What can we do now that this capability has been released and we apply those learnings to all of our customer projects to make sure that all of our customers benefit from the latest and greatest capabilities that are coming out. And so that I get to play with cool technology and my development team get to work together to solve problems using these latest and greatest capabilities.

Why would someone want to join Project Rising?

We're a young and dynamic team. I know I don't look it, my forehead lines tell a different story, but our team are incredibly youthful and are playing with the latest, greatest capabilities to solve customer problems. Solving real world problems with the latest AI capabilities makes us all excited and helps to get us up in the morning and to very rarely go to sleep at a sensible time. So we're looking constantly for aspiring developers. We don't mind what stage in your career you are. You can still be at university, you can still be studying a degree, a master's, We've got a business studies apprentice with us anywhere in that early stage journey, fantastic later stage career with some capabilities that you really want to twist and turn into AI. Solid development experience would also be great. We're also looking for data scientists, account managers and sales and marketing specialists. So if you've got skills that you think we should know about and you want to work with our amazing team, I'd love to hear from you.

Why does AI matter to businesses today?

Well, if you've not heard of artificial intelligence over the past year to 18 months, you must have been living under a rock. The amount of news and press that's out every day and the commentary about ChatGPT and other solutions is everywhere in the news and is obviously beginning to have an impact both on businesses, ideas around hiring people, but also the wider society at large in terms of what these impacts are going to be. So if, as a business owner, you've not thought, should I really be looking at how AI can help in my business or where do I start, then that's a real problem. You need to be having a good hard look at yourself and working out what's the approach that's going to work for me. How do we bring in these capabilities to make sure that we're not being left behind by our competition and that our product or service doesn't become irrelevant. These capabilities aren't slowing down. There are new releases of technology every day, week and month, and all of the capabilities as they exist now are as bad as they're ever going to get. So you might have had a little play with the free version of ChatGPT and gone. It's really not Good or you've tried to produce an image and gone. I could have got better if I'd have taken a photo or just searched the Internet and pulled down an old image from Google. But as I say, these are as bad as the capabilities are ever going to get. And the level of intelligence within these models now is breathtaking and improving every day. So we help businesses to understand how they can be applied so that they can make the most out of these capabilities, so that they're not being left behind and you as a business owner can continue to succeed and achieve the profits that you want.

Can you share an example of how Project Rising has helped a major client with their AI journey?

Just under two years ago we did an on site conversation, effectively just a one hour presentation on the state of artificial intelligence to a global leading creative agency of more than 5,000 employees. I think the best way of saying it is I scared the shit out of them. And the conversations that came off the back of that presentation led them to engage us on a retained basis to help them develop their AI journey. So we help them to develop their policies, their frameworks, how they measure the capability that is coming in each of the areas for their business. So they effectively have a technology readiness indicator level. So as a new technology comes along, is it good enough for us yet? We help them explore concepts around potential applications and we've helped them to build a large number of applications to solve specific solutions within their business. We love working with these guys and I'd love to say who they are and hopefully at some point I'll be able to get one of their senior leaders on our podcast. But we've loved this journey where we've taken them from. This is a significant risk to our business, to how can we benefit from it, to being leaders in their industry. So if you'd like to come on that journey with us, just give us a call.