Ghostwriter AI is the conversation analytics system that provides companies with targeted data for discovering the best elements to attract leads and finalise sales. Ghostwriter AI’s algorithms help companies to identify and utilise data through the analysis of customer conversations from different channels: chat, email, document, even phone conversations, basically all those channels of communication with customers. These conversations between user and company are an invaluable source of information because they contain that huge amount of data that trained artificial intelligence is able to identify and extract to the benefit of their business.

What do you get out of it?

More information, improved business activities and strategies and therefore happier customers and more turnover. Ghostwriter AI specialises in natural language processing and this allows it to optimise those elements found within the text of conversations between company and user. It is aimed mainly at companies that have sales and post-sales activities, including via contact centres, but also text-based assistance services through proprietary systems.

The aim is for contact with the public to become a scalable source of information for all operators who are called upon to provide their services. Its strength is the extraordinary learning speed of our algorithms with respect to the specific vocabulary and needs of our customers.

Ghostwriter AI has been in business for over 7 years and over time has raised 300,000 euros of capital and forged several international partnerships, for example with Intel and Nvidia, in their specific programmes dedicated to artificial intelligence. It is also part of the Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence, strongly supported by the European Community, which has selected only 100 companies across Europe to be part of this very important table.

This fintech is also very active on the open innovation front and the most recent project is with Caixa Bank, in particular with the payment & consumer section. Caixa Bank selected Ghostwriter AI and its technology from more than 5 thousand companies that proposed their solutions to support, integrate and innovate their business processes within the bank. This, and future projects, are carried out by a team of mainly women, each
bringing their own specific skills from marketing to software development to legal skills. Together with Ester Liquori, CEO, GhostwriterAI is also led by CTO Mauro Bennici, co-founder and inventor of all the algorithms.

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MDOTM is the European leader in developing AI-Driven strategies for institutional investors. We work closely with our clients such as Banks, Family Offices, Insurance, Wealth and Asset Management companies to provide them with reliable, robust, and bespoke models that enhance their investment decision processes. We interviewed CEO Tommaso Migliore to find out more about the goals and future plans of this fintech, which uses the advantages of artificial intelligence to change the world of finance.

What is MDOTM’s mission?

Our mission is to bring the scientific method into the world of investments, and we do so by exploiting the latest breakthrough technologies as well as advanced statistical techniques. This allowed us for the creation of rational and unbiased models that are able to build more robust and efficient portfolios. In this context, data is the fuel for our engine: every day we collect and clean the huge volume of noisy market data. Then, we use our proprietary technology called A.L.I.C.E. (i.e. Adaptive Learning in Complex Environments) to detect the signals and patterns hidden within the data, in order to develop actionable investment strategies that exploit changes in market inertia and risk premia.

What are the benefits of investing with AI-based models?

In the last decade, the internet has democratised access to information. As a result, today instead of information scarcity we face the opposite problem: information overload. This trend has been particularly relevant in the financial markets, which have become increasingly complex. To remain competitive, it has become essential to exploit advanced Machine Learning techniques in order to be able to capture signals within huge amounts of data and transform them into effective investment strategies.

Artificial Intelligence supports us in building portfolios that are reliable, unbiased, tailor-made, and able to adapt to the constant changes in the markets. Thanks to their capacity to continuously learn from market data, AI-driven models can adapt to never-seen-before scenarios and update their knowledge as new data becomes available. Furthermore, data collected is transformed into actionable portfolio management insights that do not carry any emotional biases.

How has MDOTM grown since its creation?

MDOTM was founded in London in late 2015 when Tommaso Migliore and Federico Mazzorin – graduates in Finance and Physics respectively – developed their first investment model for financial markets. Starting from personal savings invested in their investment strategy, the company grew exponentially throughout the years.

In 2017, MDOTM was the only European fintech selected to join Google’s acceleration program in Silicon Valley and, nine months later, we closed a €2 million funding round. This allowed us to grow across geographies and hire key industry experts for our team, currently composed of 30 people based between London and Milan. A new office is set to open in New York in 2022, to boost our global expansion.

Our technology is constantly improving, driven by continuous efforts towards Research & Development: overall, roughly 75% of our revenues are invested in that area. Our ability to innovate has been recognised nationally and internationally by institutions like Google, the Italian Financial Innovation Association (AIFiN) and NTT Data.

Are you following any Open Innovation projects?

We strongly believe in the power of synergic collaborations and open innovation, and we embrace it from different perspectives. On the one hand, we partner up with established institutional investors to help them innovate their investment process with our state-of-the-art technology. Using our AI-driven methodology, we are able to provide them with adaptive and unbiased portfolios that best meet their investment constraints. On the other, we collaborate with the major Italian and European universities through our research centre: the MDOTM LAB. Here, university professors, Ph.D.s, and talented students bridge the gap between economic theory and real-world practice by pioneering new strands of research, at the intersections between Behavioural Finance, Portfolio Management and Artificial Intelligence. This allows us to integrate our internal R&D findings with external research insights to stay at the forefront of innovation.

How is your team composed?

Through the years, MDOTM experienced a continuous rapid growth, recently turning into a scale-up after its initial start-up phase. MDOTM’s team faced an analogous expansion trend, and it is expected to double its size by the end of 2021. Our people reflect our approach, which is deeply rooted in science. As such, MDOTM’s team is made of creative innovators, scientists, and industry veterans with backgrounds ranging from finance and statistics to computer science and physics. The different divisions work side by side in an effort to build the best AI technology for investment decisions that major financial institutions can rely on.

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Knowledge, Experience and Networking are the three pillars on which the “Fintech Nights” are based. The first edition of this new format launched by the Fintech District on 7th May was dedicated to artificial intelligence, a theme which is intensely connected with the development of the fintech sector but not only.

Since this is an exclusive initiative, reserved for our partners and those who bought tickets for the entrance, we will not retell everything but will let you peek at a few moments of Fintech Nights #1 through the keyhole. The evening began with an overview of how this technology is impacting many sectors, including the health sector with consequences that up to today we can only guess, which excite and, at the same time, frighten us.

Alessandro Longoni talked about it and remembering the ups and downs actually recorded in the history of artificial intelligence from 1952 when IBM unveiled its first commercially available scientific computer until 2016 when Google DeepMind’s ALPHAGO defeated Lee Sedol on a game of GO. Compared to previous years, the situation today is different. AI can continue to flourish. Indeed, it can do better thanks to the cheap processing power that allows you to process more data, thanks to the growing role of technologists in the development of AI and also to the large investments big tech are doing on it.

Let us take a look at who in practice develops and uses artificial intelligence. In Europe today there are 2,830 companies declaring to be AI Startups. With Antonio la Mura we have gone through the ranking of the countries with the highest number of AI startups: after the USA we find China and Israel. The first European country is the UK and Italy is in 19th position (Source: Artificial Intelligence – A strategy for European startups | Roland Berger, 2018).

In Europe, however, there is no lack of initiatives to support AI, France and Germany are among the most active countries and the European Commission is also working to promote the spread of AI. Thanks to the collaborations that Fintech District has established with international innovation hubs, at the first of our Fintech Nights we were able to tell about the startups in other countries offering interesting AI-based businesses including Feedzai (by Portugal Fintech), Lingua Custodia (by LHoFT), Yields (by B-Hive), 2021Tec.AI (by Copenhagen Fintech) and e-bot ( by Techquartier).

In the Fintech District community there are many startups that use AI. Our community manager Stefania Barbato has identified the 3 emerging trends investigating among the 111 startups – Robo-advisors, Alternative data and Cybersecurity – and has explained them through concrete examples, respectively Moneyfarm, FinScience and Talos.

Obviously, the following wave of AI and automation will transform financial services over the next few years. Mico Curatolo explained that companies using AI to improve business processes will reap clear competitive benefits. There are hundreds of opportunities that could be enabled by the deployment and development of AI in financial institutions.

So, how can I get hold of them and not be left behind? ING, CITI and AXA have done so in three different sectors by opening up and focusing on applied innovation, with excellent results. This can also happen in Italy with our support and it is not only a promise because we have the evidence: the Data Driven Competition.

The evening continued with the evocative and inspirational intervention of Samsung. Antonio Bosio (Product & Solutions Director for Samsung) excited the audience with a video showing how artificial intelligence can be a key factor for digital inclusion. Then he told about its impact on three different areas: languages, services and devices

Raffaele de Lucia (Manager of Watson and Cloud Acceleration Team IBM) introduced “IBM Watson, between false myths and great potential”. As the volume of data, digital transformation, and the pace of technological change accelerates, the ability of organizations and professionals to keep up and capitalize on the opportunities is becoming more challenging” he explained. “AI provides an opportunity to help professionals close this gap and harness the full potential of data by creating new tools to improve their work and outcome”. The use of Al is increasing but there are some difficult challenges concerning regulatory constraints and lack of technological skills to face.

Alessandro Vitale, Member of the Board of Coordination of the Task Force for AI in the PA and CEO of Conversate, explained his point of view. Vitale argues that 2019 is the year for large companies and banks to invest in AI in order to have a clear advantage over competitors in the coming years. AI offers new services and new ways of interacting with customers and initiates a structural change for banks. Those who use it can have many advantages but must face two non-trivial challenges, one organizational one, for setting up the collaboration man-algorithm, and one of the processes, because AI requires rapidity

The evening ended with 5 startups from the community talking about how they actually use AI and how they aim to use it with future partners. We invite you to discover them on our community page and leave them to speak. In the following video pills, they share with us their thoughts on the future of AI

Swascan

Axyon AI

Wavenure

Modefinance

Cardo AI

After so many words, here is a roundup of images of the evening.

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