Internal webinar “AI inside Talk”: CEO answers everything (Part 2)
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Following part 1, here are the details of our internal webinar “AI inside Talk”, where our CEO answered various questions from members. Part 2 is about the company’s overall direction, benefits, and work style. During the webinar, members communicated and gave comments through the messages on slack.
Q: How can I receive information on development and research?
We recently held a briefing session regarding our patents and the future of our company, so please check the video of the session. After the briefing, we received a comment from one of the members in development saying, “I was surprised to learn that we had patents for a lot longer than I thought.” The patents are usually obtained long before the product is commercialized, so now we already have the patents for what we will work on in the future. It’s better to hear about the research progress from our AI research unit, but let’s talk about that another time.
Q: What are the company’s strategies, progress, and challenges we are facing?
A: For the company’s strategy, please check the financial results. The pages for the cyclical synergy for business and the platform strategy should tell you everything you need to know.
I’ll explain this in more detail today.
This cyclical synergy starts with an excellent user experience (UX). The origin of everything lies with an excellent UX. It’s not just about the product design but also about the product itself, including backend, sales, customer success, invoice management, and all other touch-points with our customers.
If the UX is excellent enough, our products should be chosen by many users. With this, a large amount of data will be collected, and the AI will become smarter by learning from it. The cycle of (1) to (4) is that this will lead to an even better user experience. When this cycle continues to run smoothly, (5) continuous growth will be promoted. What’s important is after this, we are creating a low-cost structure. This doesn’t mean that we are reducing labor costs. Our average salary is increasing yearly, and we hope to continue raising.
So what exactly is the low-cost structure? Well, thanks to everyone’s efficiency in various aspects of work, we’ve been able to achieve this through corporate effort. With this effort, we are making a profit, which is good for us, but we also want our customers to have a good experience through (7) lower prices. The user experience will become better, and we can offer an even lower price if we continue this cycle. We’re aiming to become №1 globally, so we must beat the competition this way.
Next, the platform strategy shows exactly what kind of business we will do.
Our vision is “AI inside X”, where AI is integrated into every part of the world. By doing so, we will be able to contribute to humanity, and we are determined to realize this vision and become the world’s №1 company. The only way to do this is for us to become a platformer.
Historically, only platformers have become the world’s №1 company. Even if we were to create and sell AI services one by one in the SaaS business, there would be a breaking point somewhere, and it would be difficult to achieve number one.
For us to become the number one company in the world, there are three things we need to accomplish.
First, we need to provide the infrastructure to run AI. We currently have a data center for our use, but it won’t be long before we will be able to offer it to our customers like AWS. What’s important here is how to provide GPU and AI that are affordable and easy to use. We will continue to expand this infrastructure, including the “AI inside Cube” without any boundary between edge and cloud computing, while we make it more affordable.
Next, we will provide the “Learning Center”, a tool that allows anyone to build AI easily. Instead of creating AI by ourselves, we use the Learning Center to have creative people in the world build AI for themselves and share it with the world. I believe that people have the will to make the world a better place, and we will support it and the creativity of those who are trying to make the world a better place.
In order for the Learning Center to be more affordable and used wider, a general-purpose learning model is necessary. It’s challenging for anyone especially non-developers, to be able to create a highly accurate AI model immediately, and this is where we need to overcome.
However on the other hand, if we achieve this, the world will be able to create and increase AI without us having to create and provide it. For this achievement, we need to focus on spreading the concept of building AI through our Learning Center.
We’ll also provide infrastructure and the Learning Center at a reasonable price, but we can’t grow without funds, so we need to secure a source of revenue somewhere.
This part is where the Marketplace comes in. If we have stakeholders on both sides who are the creators and users, we can match them. Then, we’ll distribute the AI applications on something similar to the AppStore, and receive revenue share when sold. The Marketplace will become our main source of revenue, and for that, we want to create this and have this cycle running. It’s important to develop an environment where good AI can be created and used to achieve this. We can envision this future because AI-OCR “DX Suite” is becoming a proper source of revenue.
Q: What’s a good aspect of AI inside from the CEO’s point of view?
A: I think AI inside is a company where people tackle things that seem challenging but can really make them happen while empathizing with what I’ve just discussed such as our platform strategy. I think this is a good aspect of our company. There are some funny ones among us, but many people have something they know they are the best at. I’m fortunate to be with them all.
Q: We want to become number one in the world, but exactly what field do we plan to become number one in?
A: Of course, we’re trying to become the best in the world in the field of AI. We will aim to be the best by market capitalization. But then, I think the main battlefield of business will rapidly change. All companies are currently doing business on earth, but soon they will do business in outer space. Even if that happens, AI will continue to be used, so we want to become the best in this field.
Q: The company’s overall approach to governance and security
A: In the process of becoming the world’s №1 company, strengthening the governance system is of course something that we must take action with.
It’s important to set up the framework of it, and the same goes with security. We want to do this well and firmly, but if you notice there is a catch somewhere, please share with us immediately.
Q: Regarding Bonuses
A: Bonuses are paid if the company performance is good. It’s performance-based, so let’s all work hard to receive as much as we can. I’d like to raise the bonus amount more too.
Q: What are your thoughts on our benefits?
A: Yes, I also want to provide more benefits to the company. The Employee Experience Committee is considering them, but there are a lot of requests, such as having a kitchen or free vending machine, etc.
How we care for employees when they get sick is important, so we implemented the GLTD insurance in which employees can receive compensation when they cannot work. We’re currently prioritizing and putting everything in order for better benefits. The starting of the employee experience team is one of the actions for this, and we’ll continue to work on improving the employee’s experience.
Q: Will the company-wide remote work continues even after COVID-19?
A: Remote work will probably continue, but I also think it’s important to get together every now and then. There isn’t any decision yet, although we may come to the office a few times per week.
In research and development, innovation is sometimes born from discussions, and I’m sure there’s some sort of serendipity too. So I hope we can discuss getting together once COVID-19 settles.
Q: Are there any plans to relocate our office after COVID-19 settles down?
A: We haven’t decided on relocating yet, and one reason is that we can’t tell the situation with COVID-19. Although, I’m hoping that the office will become a place that members will want to come, even if they don’t have to.
It’d be nice to rent a place near the beach and move within the area by bike or something. This is actually a thought I’ve been thinking of for over a year now. Satellite office sounds good too.
Please let us know your opinions or questions!
Since we’re running out of time, that’ll be all for today, but I’ll be answering questions soon that I couldn’t answer today. Let me know your opinions, and please don’t hesitate to speak up. Your opinions may change my mind on something completely!
Please look forward to our next “AI inside Talk”.
Contact for Recruitment :
AI inside Inc.（https://inside.ai/en/career/)
People Relations Unit E-mail：hr@inside.ai