In the coming years – few or many – AI (Artificial Intelligence) will affect us on a daily basis. Just how and to which extent is difficult to say, but areas such as transport, city planning, and decision-making are certain to benefit from artificial intelligence.

By Lars Martin Johannessen, April 29, 2022

In the upcoming future, the green and efficient future, we can no longer afford to be wasteful when it comes to energy. We can no longer afford to be wasteful when it comes to food. We can no longer be wasteful when it comes to nature. We can no longer be wasteful. In this context, we cannot afford any more bad choices. History books will reflect on our time as either a turning point, or a tipping point. What we do in the coming years could be era defining for humanity. Success or failure in the short terms. This obviously will not happen on its own. Research, demanding work, and most important, decisions will generate our outcome.

Decisions to go green, to capture carbon, investment in holistic solutions for a better future for all. Though decisions. So, who will have the guts and the knowledge to firmly stand behind their decision or choice, knowing that it represents either rescue or catastrophe? Because we can no longer afford the wrong answers to our problems. This is where any decision maker would be a lot more comfortable knowing that the choice they are making is the right one, obviously. Artificial intelligence proposes a solution here. Let it do the math, calculate the outcomes, describe the scenarios related to the different options. Here is your blueprint, this is how you save the world, this is how you destroy it.

Democracy or technology?

Perhaps the notion that AI could give us all the answers we need is somewhat utopian in nature. There are several questions related to how something like this would be implemented and put to use. The aspect of relinquishing power and responsibility to software is also highly debatable from a human point of view. Then there is the issue with so called black box AIs. Many would argue that transparency in decisions is a key aspect of any solid democracy. A software that produces answers and solutions without explaining its work and processes may deter people from embracing it.

There are ongoing projects who set out to solve this issue, displaying how artificial intelligence uses data to determine and find the best outcome. Yet, there is still the feeling that technology is evolving faster than our collective comprehension of it. The merging of software and politics will be controversial, and it should be. The percentage of people who fully understand AI and its ramifications are borderline insignificant compared to the overall population. This is in its own a democratic issue of immense importance.

I had to look this up.

He who designs, rules?

There are also questions related to abuse – how are we sure that the AI is programmed to benefit you and me, and not the owners who made it? In today’s volatile misinformation landscape, would we know if someone managed to tamper with the databases used in the decision-making process, or somehow alter the outcome in one way or another? Then again, the democracy we see in civilized societies around the world is not without fault, abuse, or corruption either. The question is most likely how we build an artificial intelligence that is incorruptible, which doesn’t inherit the bias from its creators.

If and when we manage that, the arguments against merging AI and democracy are rapidly decaying. The fact probably is that we can’t afford to let lack of knowledge in the general population hinder us from taking advantage of a tool which potentially could help solve some of our greatest challenges. There is good reason to believe that the future will be supported by artificial intelligence in terms of augmented decision-making. We are pressed on time, we are pressed on getting it right, and this might be the window of opportunity that artificial intelligence needs to merge into our lives.

With revenue that has been increasing for 20 years, Eye-share AS has found the solution on how to meet customer demands.

By Anja Lillerud, April 22, 2022

When being responsible for the daily income and expenses of a company, you depend on having total control of and knowing the causality of the figures presented to you.

Eye-share’s portfolio of three main products is designed to meet economical professionals’ demands for a more efficient way of working without compromising accuracy. The eye-share Capture solution is an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system enabling automatic data extraction by digitizing text from documents from sources such as paper, image and PDF files. Eye-share Workflow solution offers a complete automated Purchase-to-Pay solution giving full overview and control through a user-friendly and cloud-based software platform. The eye-share Portal solution is a supplier portal for better collaboration between the buyer and the supplier through digital interaction in the purchasing process.

20 years of progress

To be able to solve these challenges that unstructured, unavailable data represents to important economy fundtions, Eye-share has since 2001 been working closely with their costumers to improve their products and the technology behind – and succeeded in doing so.

– The company has experienced great growth over the past years with increased revenues and a lot of development potential, and last year we were awarded the Gazelle award for the second time. With more than 100 employees Eye-share has both national and international enterprises in the portfolio which we are very proud of, says Kai-Ronny Mydland, R&D Director at Eye-share.

A significant Eye-share customer is NorgesGruppen, one of Norway’s leading trading houses within retail, with more than 20.000 inbound invoices per day and an automation degree of 90 percent. A perfect example of an enterprise committing to automation and how crucial the accuracy and reliability of technology is when handling many transactions within a short time frame.

There is no room for failure.

From black box to “glass box”

The key factor in developing a reliable AI-software and building a trust-based relationship with the end user, is by enabling explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). XAI brings the traditional AI technology from a black box perspective without the possibility to verify the result, to a transparent level which allows the user to control and validate the results both during and after the process, which instils trust, efficiency, and reliability.

– XAI shows you the connections and choices made along the way, which are the reasoning behind the result. In our experience this enables the enterprises to outline their financial resources in a better way since they adopt to the AI solution much faster. Trust is key, if they do not trust the outcome and the results from the AI processing, they will stick to manually maintaining rules for as long as they can, explains Mydland.

The black box technology is often subject of great debate regarding trust and reliability. The AI process finds all its answers in the data, but how do you know if you can trust the results presented to you? With XAI the user is given insight and control.

– Different opinions regarding AI

The Eye-share software suite is a designed to support the financial business role. Automation has always been important. Despite technological changes and opportunities in new technology, the company experiences that one of the biggest jobs now is to convince the customers of the benefits using artificial intelligence and help them adopt the technology in their company.

– When meeting the market, we encounter different opinions regarding AI. For many, it is difficult to let go of hands-on control and have confidence in technology and the software. By showing them how we use XAI and our results, most companies realize how much they can benefit from the technology, says Mydland.

At the international conference AI+ in Halden 3-4 May, the Eye-share employed advisor and AI enthusiast Jan Erik Gausdal will be talking about XAI and the Eye-share software.

– We find it important to participate on arenas regarding AI and the use of this technology. AI+ is an interesting conference gathering both national and international actors in the industry and we are attending to discuss, learn, inform, and enlighten, says Kai-Ronny Mydland, R&D Director at Eye-share.