Even after dropping in Quarter Billion Dollars:

“All models are bad, some are useful” — George EP Box said that in 1976 — almost half a century later, this statement still rings true. Over last 10 years, VCs and investors have thrown over $250M Dollars on ‘Decision Intelligence’ companies.

The premise was:

With so much data, both internally and externally, you Mr. CXO must be totally lost, so, our AI will ‘tell you’ what to do, suggest actions for sales, marketing, operations — all you have to do is ‘execute’.

Clearly, it has not worked out — was the premise flawed or AI could not deliver? Looks like when it comes to business decisions, humans are still the driving force or perhaps, not quiet ready to give up. ‘Human in the loop’ should therefore be the design philosophy for data solutions. An Operational Query solution may be more appropriate — so it can answer 100s of questions asked in natural language and can be rolled out to 1000s of users, unlike the Decision Intelligence or Business Intelligence tools that require a ‘Developer In the Loop’.

In one sense, it is humbling for mere humans that AI has not replaced us business executives from the burden of decision making. What tho, will be appreciated is AI can actually empower humans with data and information to help them accelerate their decision making.

Here are some examples of companies I am basing my observations on:

Sisu Data: 2021 Gartner Cool Vendor:

This company had some of the smartest people on the planet behind the company. A company that would never hire me, even if I offered to work for free — and I mean that with all sincerity and respect.

• They raised over $128M, through Series C

Promised to ‘tell you’:

• Whats happening in the business
• Why is it happening
• What actions to take to make best business decisions

They were bought by Snowflake without much fanfare in October 2023.

Outlier.ai: 2018 Gartner Cool Vendor:

Really smart, humble and high-performing CEO, whose newsletter I subscribe to.

• Raised over $22.1M, through Series B

Promised:

• Consume the data internal as well as external data
• Send you 4 to 6 emails every morning on, what actions to take to make best business decisions

They closed door in April 2022.

Unscramble: 2022 Gartner Cool Vendor

• Flat growth, employee growth down
• 2 year Employee growth = Negative 51% (LI)

Crux Intelligence:

• Promises to ‘Automate Decision making in real time’
• 2 year Employee growth = Negative 41% (LI)

Merged/bought by Fractal.

Avora:

Company has slowed down significantly

• Raised over 6.5M total through Series A

Promises to:

• Use ML to keep track of your business autonomously
• Alerts of critical events
• So you can take action in hours rather than days/week

2 year Employee growth = Negative 37% (LI)

QuaerisAI is an Operational Query platform that uses AI to enable and empower 1000s of users with 100s of questions being asked every day. We believe AI should make life of humans and business executives richer.