Disrupting centralised structures of digital economy using AI and Blockchain

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(Courtesy of Fetch.ai)

Fetch.ai is a Business Reporter client

Humayun Sheikh, CEO & Founder, Fetch.ai

Access to AI and blockchain technologies has been democratised, but humans still lack full control of their digital interactions. This is now beginning to change.

Technologies such as AI and blockchain are now becoming more commonplace across multiple industries – healthcare, finance, agriculture, construction and more. As a result, increasing numbers of people worldwide – even in economies still in the early stages of technological empowerment – are, knowingly or not, starting to come into contact with them on a near-daily basis.

However, until recently, these technologies had been the domain of large companies in the tech, pharmaceutical or trading worlds, which meant that, on the whole, access to them for the everyday person was either minimal, or indirect. The quickening democratisation of AI and blockchain over the past five to 10 years has somewhat reduced the exclusivity that once characterised their usage.

But the process of democratisation hasn’t been wholesale. Consumers still lack full control over their decision-making, while workers in, say, the gig economy lose significant capital to so-called “middlemen”: companies for whom they work, who take a cut of any earnings. In short, despite all the decentralising trends, the digital economy actually remains largely centralised, and while access to the fruits of new technologies might have improved, there are still many barriers that prevent people from fully controlling the outcome of any transaction.

To take one example, the process of booking a holiday today is a vast improvement on that of 20 years ago. Back then, a trip to a travel agent was usually required, and the holidaymaker would be presented with options chosen by the agent for reasons – namely, commission – that might benefit the agent more than the customer. Now, holidaymakers can browse a range of flight or hotel aggregator websites, key in some details and before long, a trip will be booked.

But still, the level of control is questionable, for there are the in-built preferences of the aggregator to contend with. There is also the rigmarole of having to go through endless search results, payment forms and other inconveniences. In short, the process might be easier, and it might feel more empowering, but it is replete with tasks that take up lots of time and in-built technologies that manipulate users’ own preferences and diminish their power to make truly autonomous decisions.

Another example is public parking. A driver will spend time trawling car parks looking for an empty space, only to then have to go and pay at a machine to secure the spot they’ve found. This is time-consuming and stressful – and, as one company is now showing us, it is ultimately unnecessary.

Fetch.ai, an AI lab founded in Cambridge four years ago, has developed and is rolling out what it calls Autonomous Economic Agents, or “digital twins”, who take the place of these middlemen and aggregators. By using secure blockchain datasets, these agents effectively operate on the behalf of their owners, learning what preferences they seek in any given decision or transaction and making those decisions on their behalf. If a parking space close to a supermarket is required, the driver’s software agent – which is able to integrate with a range of digital platforms – will seek out that space, direct the driver to it, and make the payment, all with minimal human input. The same goes for a holiday booking: it will know what the user wants, and through interaction with software agents in use by the service provider, undertake the searching and booking for the user.

Fetch.ai’s technology is applicable across multiple verticals: from financial trading platforms and ride-hailing apps to smart energy grids and more. In each case, it can improve efficiency and optimise outcomes by providing access to better data at both the consumer and supplier end. It also allows for true peer-to-peer economic interaction. The removal of third parties and their replacement with a digital twin that acts only in the interests of those involved means that peer engagement is direct and not mediated and not subject to manipulation, and that the economic benefit goes only to consumer and supplier.

Supply chains are another concern of Fetch.ai’s. Problems with transparent and reliable data – largely as a result of the size, complexity and opacity of many supply chains – slows the pace and accuracy of decision-making by those involved in supply chains. Insert a software agent, however, and the job becomes much easier. Cue Fetch.ai’s partnership with LiquidChefs, an on-location food beverage services company. LiquidChefs depends on an efficient and speedy supply chain that connects it to local suppliers of sustainable produce. Finding out who these are and procuring from them is time-consuming. By digitising and automating LiquidChef’s supply chain, Fetch.ai is enabling its digital agents to do much of the heavy lifting on behalf of the company: seeking out the suppliers, tracing the sustainability of products, placing orders, and so on.

It is through innovations such as this that advanced technologies are now becoming accessible to the everyday consumer. AI and blockchain had once been the domain of large corporate concerns, but with the kinds of services being developed by Fetch.ai, this is no more. Not only are these technologies no longer so exclusive, but they are providing clear, measurable benefits to humans, from the time they are required to spend on any task to the costs involved in doing so to, finally, the degree of control it hands back to them. Fetch.ai is truly putting both companies and individuals alike at the centre of the decentralised digital economy with its innovative and empowering AI-enabled blockchain solutions.

Build tomorrow’s solution – today. Using Fetch.ai. Visit fetch.ai

Originally published on Business Reporter