The Future of Finance: How Cognaize is Revolutionizing AI for the Industry
Artificial intelligence has had a profound impact on the finance sector, transforming the way neobanks personalize services, lenders evaluate loan applications, and digital providers detect fraud and security issues. Yet, much of this work has focused on structured data, leaving a vast amount of unstructured data untapped. This is where Cognaize comes in – a New York startup that’s taking a hybrid approach to processing unstructured data for financial AI applications, complemented by “humans in the loop” to refine the work.
The intersection of AI and finance
With $18 million in fresh funding, Cognaize is poised to expand its business, having already won over big customers, including two of the three largest credit ratings agencies, large insurance companies, and financial services businesses. This investment will go towards hiring, research, product development, and business development, with offices in Germany and Armenia.
Cognaize’s founder, Vahe Andonians, is also the CTO and CPO, and his approach is rooted in the idea that AI may be able to do things that humans cannot, but it cannot replace humans. This philosophy is reflected in the platform’s design, which taps deep learning trained specifically on financial models and a vast array of documents – 1.3 million, to be exact. These documents cover loan applications, SEC filings, ESG documents, presentations, trustee reports, and more.
The complexity of financial data
The platform is used by human workers, typically financial analysts, to correct what is being read and make conclusions and decisions based on the outcomes. As Al Eisaian, Cognaize’s CEO, puts it, “If you are a bank, you have three options: you can try to build AI capabilities in-house, go through the general AI model, or choose us. We enable and educate you.”
The Cognaize team: enabling and educating the finance sector
The growth of startups like Cognaize highlights an important trend in the AI space: while general knowledge graphs and large language models are being developed, there is an equally interesting trend of strong players focusing on specific fields and use cases. These specialists may not be building general-purpose AI, but they are building “large” LLMs that are more focused on being deep than wide in their scope.
Trends in AI: specialization and depth
As investors bet on these specialists, it’s clear that the future of finance is being shaped by innovative startups like Cognaize. With their hybrid approach and focus on unstructured data, they’re poised to revolutionize the industry and unlock new insights for financial institutions.
The future of finance: AI-driven and human-centric
