By Tan Wen Qi
AiDA Technologies, formed just three years ago by a team of award-winning data scientists who hailed from various A*STAR research institutes, already has a big feather in its cap.
The startup won the Bronze award for the Most Impactful Innovation at the inaugural SG:Digital (SG:D) Techblazer Awards.
The Awards, organised by IMDA and SGTech, represent Singapore’s highest accolade for tech innovation, awarded to companies and organisations who embody a spirit of innovation in their products or services, or are adopters of technology in achieving operational excellence.
A bit of history: The SG:D Techblazer Awards is a merger of two previous accolades, namely, the National Infocomm Awards and the SiTF Awards.
Winners, also known as Techblazers, are lauded for driving tech innovation in Singapore and beyond, and it is hoped that their trailblazing journeys will inspire others to follow.
Recognition as a Techblazer has spurred AiDA’s team to seek greater heights: their high precision machine learning system for health insurance claims has since been adopted in multiple organisations across cities in Southeast Asia, and the company recently became an SG:D Accreditation company – a status that will open doors to more government projects.
Dr. Tan Geok Leng, CEO of AiDA Technologies, spoke to IMpact about the company’s goals and aspirations for the future.
How would you introduce AiDA Technologies to our readers?
AiDA Technologies uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology with data analytics to develop solutions that is able to address key challenges in automation of knowledge work. Thus, we named the company AiDA to represent what we do – AI driven analytics.
We focus on AI and Machine Learning (ML)-based predictive analytics and intelligent systems to solve problems faced by our clients. This started with our win at the inaugural Singapore Fintech Festival in 2016, where we won in the Hackcelerator with our AI-based solution and was subsequently able to implement AI-driven solutions for customers in the banking and insurance sectors.
AiDA’s Straight Through Process (STP) for Health Claims took home one of the top awards in the inaugural Techblazer Awards 2018. Can you tell us how does the solution work?
Our Straight Through Process (STP) for Health Claims is a product aimed at helping insurance companies rapidly process their health insurance claims. Because of the technology built to enable it, it has the ability to improve the claim process from days to only seconds.
In developing the STP solution, we invented several new technologies along the way. The first was to be able to enable machines to extract data from paper-based hospital invoices and reports, and then to understand and link meaningful information from medical terminologies and regular descriptors through a deep learning module. Finally, we had to augment the data with our proprietary machine-learning (ML) development platform to rapidly build and optimise ML models best suited to the situation at hand. It is the sum total of these technologies that enables AIDA's STP solution to shine.
This solution has produced significant results for our customers. The word spread fast and now we are working with insurance companies in seven countries to rollout this solution.
It sounds like exciting times! Can you share with us what other projects are you working on?
As mentioned, our win at the 2016 Singapore FinTech Festival Hackcelerator gave us a headstart with the banking and insurance sectors.
Deciding to focus on our efforts in these sectors, we now have multiple projects for the insurance and banking industries in many countries. We serve Tier 1 banks, on top of reputed insurance companies across the Asia region.
Some of the projects are full-scale deployments and some are at the pilot stage, or are just getting started towards becoming full-scale projects. This is all very exciting to us, as we are only three years old as a company. We are excited to help businesses digitalise and make forward-looking business decisions through our AI-based solutions.
In your own words, how would you define a Techblazer?
I would define it as someone who develops or brings to market a new solution that is enabled by new technology, with the ability to transform market competitiveness.
As a Techblazer, what do you think are the benefits of winning an award in Singapore’s highest accolade for tech innovation?
The TechBlazer award has given us recognition from an independent, national-level authority. It gives us credibility for the work we do, which is very important to a young company like ours.
At the same time, the Techblazer award recognises companies that are able to innovate and compete not just nationally but also internationally.
Being recognised as a Techblazer with deep expertise in AI/ML definitely motivates us to continuously innovate and develop solutions on the forefront of technology.
What is one tech breakthrough you would like to see become a reality in the near future?
AI and ML have broad applications. We have used it to enable companies to generate more revenue, manage costs by automating standard processes and manage risks or compliance.
At the same time, AiDA has demonstrated that our solutions can work in developed economies like Singapore, and in areas where the infrastructure is less developed like Thailand, Indonesia and India.
Thus, I would like to see AI and ML applied in more uses across industries and economies alike.
SG:D TECHBLAZER AWARDS
SG:D Techblazer Awardsis the nation’s highest accolade for tech innovation and aims to provide recognition and endorsement to Singapore-based organisations and companies that have exemplified the spirit of innovation in their development of tech products and services, or their use of tech to achieve excellence. The Awards also aim to spur greater innovation from the winning companies and propel them to greater heights in the region and internationally, with the hopes that these companies will also blaze the trail for others
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