Artificial Intelligence has created tremendous value for businesses via automation and deep insights from data. Businesses today are combining the best of RPA, AI and ML to create a real-time intelligence workforce. 

In this context, we have seen the rise of intelligent platforms used by several companies, and one of them is ANTstein from AntWorks, an AI and intelligent automation company co-founded by Asheesh Mehra in 2015. Mehra had formerly been the Head of information of Infosys’ BPO operations in the Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East regions.

ANTstein is the industry’s first Integrated Automation Platform (IAP), powered by Fractal Science. The multitenancy solution allows for maximum bot utilization, understands all types of data, and provides businesses with a one-stop solution for data curation and building, deploying and managing an AI-enabled smart digital workforce.

The company received $15 million in investments from SBI Holdings in 2018, after which, it became a subsidiary of SBI Holdings, headquartered in Singapore. To know more, Analytics India Magazine got in touch with Asheesh Mehra to understand how his company is leveraging various automation tools for clients all over the globe. Here are edited excerpts from the interaction:

AIM: What are the various AI technologies that your company leverages?

Asheesh Mehra: AntWorks ANTstein SQUARE is the industry’s first Integrated Automation Platform (IAP) that gives enterprises the capability to process all types of data. This all-in-one solution can be used for data curation, in the process, creating, deploying and managing an AI-powered digital workforce. 

Businesses, across many sectors that are reliant on repeatable processes can benefit greatly from implementing intelligent automation and AI. IAP leverages the potential of fractal science technology, which helps companies solve the unstructured data challenge. Organisations will benefit from this because smaller data sets mean higher accuracy, less infrastructure and quicker training time. With unstructured data slated to make up 80% of the world’s data by 2025, we will witness a paradigm shift towards automation tools, like integrated automation platforms (IAP), backed by fractal science, for business processes in organisations for dealing with vast unstructured data. 

AIM: Can you elaborate on Fractal Science- technology that empowers AntWorks products?

Asheesh Mehra: We have developed our own data ingestion engine using a fundamentally different science called fractal science. Our mission, from the very beginning, was that enterprises should be able to deal with all types of data in the back office. For example, the OCR technology cannot read a KYC document because it contains a signature, handwriting and a photograph, and hence, RPA solutions backed by OCR are not allowing business to achieve the scalability options they desired. AntWorks’ Integrated Automation Platform ANTstein can understand structured and unstructured data for processes.

The ANTstein platform is not only unique from a capability perspective, but also from the science that has been used to develop it. Fractal science is a science of patterns and self-similarity, whereas neural science is about absolute character recognition. For example, if one had to train the neural science engine to recognise an apple, it would need to be trained on recognising a small apple, a medium apple, a large apple, and an extra-large apple for the neural engine to recognise an apple. On the other hand, the fractal science that AntWorks has used allows one to train the engine on one apple only. Fractal science uses the principle of pattern recognition, and the pattern of an extra small apple and the pattern of an extra-large apple is the same.

AIM: Please elaborate on the current solutions and tech stack that AntWorks is offering?

Asheesh Mehra: AntWorks’ portfolio of plug-and-play solutions and hosted services enables organisations to maximise their automation opportunities across the enterprise. Our current solutions encompass a Process Discovery, which helps identify high-value automation opportunities, analyse user productivity gaps and optimise every process to maximise business efficiency.

Then we have Image Enhancer which detects, auto corrects and enhances the quality of any image document to increase and throughput for digital transformation. After that, we have Queenbot – the RPA component of ANTstein – that helps enterprises build, operate and manage their digital workforce effectively and with ease. AntWorks’s full-stack, Integrated automation platform (IAP) is helping enterprises address the most complex automation opportunities and scale across the enterprise. 

AIM: What are the innovative features of ANTstein SQUARE that can help enterprises in their processes?

Asheesh Mehra: The ANTstein SQUARE platform uses machine learning simultaneously to help enterprises take the seamless automation journey. The platform addresses all data types, including unstructured data, which today, only ANTstein can do. ANTstein SQUARE brings in features which helps organisations realise the true power of a seamless automation journey. With ANTstein SQUARE solution, the focus has now shifted from digitisation to automated data curation. 

AIM: What is the company’s expansion plans and road map in the coming years?

Asheesh Mehra: We have increased our global presence across Australia, Canada, Dubai, France, India (Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai), Japan, Philippines, Singapore, the UK and the US. Our global headcount is now more than 500 people – nearly triple from 2018. Our research and development is being done out of India. We also have plans to open development centres in countries like Israel, Amsterdam and Latin America region. We will continue to support organisations by leveraging AI for enhancing customer satisfaction and for uncovering the large unstructured data challenge existing across enterprises.