AI-enabled medical documentation startup Abridge announced Thursday it had scooped up $12.5 million in Series A-1 funding. The round was led by Wittington Ventures with participation from existing investors including Union Square Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Pillar Venture Capital and UPMC Enterprises. New investors Canadian computer scientist and AI expert Yoshua Bengio and Whistler Capital also joined the raise. Abridge said the latest round brings the company's funding pot to $27 million. The startup offers an AI tool that records and transcribes conversations between providers and patients.

Multiple times over the last decade, this column has covered the issue of the importance of data quality in decision making, both by executives as well as machines. Back in 2014, when the "big data" craze was mesmerizing the C-Suite, the warning was issued in Big Data and the Madness of Crowds. More recently in How Bad Data Is Undermining Big Data Analytics from December 2020. Since then, more and more news has emerged regarding the failures of AI and Machine Learning initiatives with the blame given to faulty data as the reason. The recent demise of IBM Watson Health is the latest example.

AI is one of the hottest sectors, with its technology promising to revolutionize and automate every industry imaginable. Even AI-enabled applications can bring the next major disruption within enterprise software. While AI is still in its early stage, people across the globe are interacting with it either directly or indirectly on a daily basis via virtual assistants, facial-recognition technology, gaming platforms, chatbots, mapping applications, and a host of other software. As developments in AI accelerate, companies are looking to expand their offerings by attracting investments or series funding. Hence, this makes a perfect time for startups to find investors to further their projects and plans.