At Team8, we believe the data wars won’t be won by data scientists and data engineers alone. We need a new kind of data operator. Someone who starts with the business problem that needs to be solved and creates a data solution that has real business impact. Data pragmatists if you will. That’s exactly who Noogata, one of our foundry companies, is empowering, with a radically simple, no-code platform so they can build the tools they need using business-focused “AI blocks” to drive value faster. And it’s also why we are so excited to have led their $12 million seed round venture investment. We believe Noogata’s timing couldn’t be better.
Why now?
Digital transformation has shown us that the most valuable enterprises are those with access to the largest data troves, and more than 75% of 1,300 global business leaders surveyed agree. Data teams are at the center of providing access, enabling enterprises to leverage both their own data and collaborate with partners and customers to drive decision making. Infrastructure that enables flexible and frictionless collaboration will allow enterprises to evolve with constantly changing technology.
Of course, access alone isn’t enough. Businesses also need people who know how to use this valuable, proprietary asset to address problems and seize opportunities. Take cybersecurity as an example, where skilled security analysts use different data sources to find anomalies and vulnerabilities, and determine how to prioritize and respond to mitigate cyber risk. Fueling even more value are the new opportunities data unlocks across the enterprise that drive revenue, increase efficiencies, and reduce costs. In fact, a survey by Forrester finds that data-driven companies are 58% more likely to beat their revenue goals than their non-data driven counterparts.
So, it’s frustrating to see multiple studies report that 60–80% of data is not actually used, leaving tremendous competitive advantage on the table. Noogata is on a mission to fix that.
What’s changed?
Digitization of everything accelerated in 2020 and data is everywhere — in existing systems inside the enterprise, with partners and along the supply chain. It’s also in new and alternative, external sources like social media, news, weather, research reports, and customer buying patterns and profiles. Sometimes data is structured and easily searchable, but more frequently it’s unstructured and needs to be put into a usable format to understand and act on. Enterprises have made great strides in building their data foundations. Now they need to use that foundation to make better, faster decisions.
AI has also matured and is more accessible. Modeling is rarely unfamiliar territory these days. Instead, it’s applying the model in specific contexts for impact that creates bottlenecks. Many times AI projects fail because users need expertise to understand what to do with the data and how to do it. Analysis by McKinsey shows that changing the mix of talent in the AI team by enabling business experts to apply their domain expertise to models can drive efficiencies and effectiveness in using AI. In many cases, business-domain understanding enriches the quality of data models and frees up data-science expertise for high value tasks, like complex modeling that requires statistical training to build in fairness and trust.
The no-code paradigm is also changing how enterprises deploy and build solutions. In the past, enterprises had to either use siloed out-of-the-box solutions or take on an effort of in-house development. No-code frameworks are all about modular building blocks that the enterprise can build around. While this concept started with simple tasks like data entry, document management, and integration tools, data and analytics are now prime for this approach. Data teams can apply best-in-class data science and modeling, without doing any of the modeling, themselves.
Noogata sits squarely at the intersection of this evolution in digital transformation, teams, and technology, which is why I’m so excited about the solution they are unveiling today and their vision. Noogata’s platform democratizes the development of enterprise applications by empowering non-developers with actionable data analytics in the form of modular, pre-set “AI blocks” to customize and create smart apps around the use cases they need. Blocks are engineered to target domain-specific, mission-critical business needs such as managing eCommerce channels and supply chains and enhancing marketing ROI. No-code, AI-powered frameworks unlock valuable data insights to improve decision making. With pre-built apps and dashboards companies can use insights for immediate impact, or data can be integrated with other tools and systems for even broader impact across the enterprise.
What’s the impact?
Colgate-Palmolive Company uses the Noogata platform to help leverage AI across digital commerce channels and touchpoints to understand its consumers better and stay close to them. Anticipating shifts in consumer interests and improving sales and marketing efforts dynamically, they’re driving true competitive advantage.
PepsiCo, Inc. also leverages Noogata with its supply chain, for optimizing the yield of agricultural raw materials for snack foods. They’re collaborating with their network of farmers, extracting data from real-time insights on crops to improve operational efficiencies, anticipate and address shifts in supply, and help meet consumer demand.
Other use cases are only limited by your imagination. Think about leveraging:
- Machine learning to identify cross-sell opportunities for insurance companies
- Anomaly detection to identify priority calls to a call center
- Smarter demand forecasting to predict needed inventory levels and reduce waste and storage space
- Sentiment analysis and natural language processing of product reviews to drive dynamic, targeted ad campaigns
Building and enabling digital infrastructure that supports enduring and continuous digital transformation will be critical for years to come. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to identify and work with companies that provide the cornerstones for this infrastructure — cyber, privacy, data, and deep AI. The natural evolution of the Team8 portfolio represents this continuum of foundational technologies. From a breadth of cybersecurity companies, many of which include deep data capabilities. To Duality and its commitment to privacy and digital trust, that keeps sensitive information secure while it is being used. And now Noogata, that helps enterprises extract value from data through AI blocks that speak the language of business.
With other AI companies aimed at delivering industry-focused solutions on the horizon (think retail analytics), it’s clear. We are at the right time with the right tools and talent to win the data wars. And we’re just getting started.
Originally appeared on Medium
