Gary is implementing AI concepts from his Aerospace industry background onto use cases in retail and insurance. Sramana Mitra: Let's start by introducing you and Daisy Intelligence. Gary Saarenvirta: I'm the Founder and CEO of Daisy Intelligence. Daisy Intelligence is an AI platform. We help our clients make smarter operating decisions. Our mission is to empower human beings to do what humans are very good at by letting machines do what machines are good at. We have a couple of uses cases we address today in retail. It's a large segment of our business. We help retailers make smarter merchandise planning decisions. We help them to decide what products to promote, what prices to charge, and how much inventory to allocate. Our system delivers the decision. It's an autonomous decision-making system with no human in the loop. We deliver the answer to our clients. In the long run, our mission is to change the role of the human and let the machines do some of these beyond

"I think we're the first company [in this space] to really have a vision about autonomous decision-making, which means no human in the loop," Saarenvirta said. "Our vision is to help insurance companies autonomously detect fraud and automate claims as much as possible…. We want to be the market leader in bringing autonomous decision-making to insurance around fraud detection, claims automation - as well as underwriting, which is something we're looking to get into as well." The phrase autonomous is often used too liberally. It is generally the case that when companies refer to'AI' what they really mean is predictive analytics, which is just statistical analysis.

Artificial intelligence can make it nearly impossible for fraudsters to make a false claim appear real, the founder of an A.I. vendor suggests. If an auto insurance claim is fraudulent, A.I. software could pick up on that as long as it has enough data about other fraudulent – and legitimate – claims, said Gary Saarenvirta, founder and CEO of Toronto-based Daisy Intelligence. Daisy's software is designed to detect "outliers," or things that are out of the ordinary. Insurers tend not to share their full definition of a "normal" claim. As a result, it is actually impossible for someone to manufacture a claim that also sits in the middle of what the insurer says is normal in every way, Saarenvirta told Canadian Underwriter in an interview.

TORONTO, ONTARIO – According to a new research report by the market research and strategy consulting firm, Global Market Insights, Inc, penetration of AI technologies in the retail market will exceed 8 billion USD by 2024. The AI in retail market is driven by increasing investments across the globe. This growing interest can be attributed to the wide applications of machine learning, predictive analytics, and deep learning. Furthermore, AI is set to unleash the next phase of the digital disruption in retail – and the major players in the sector are ramping up their digitalization efforts as a result. With a storied history in the AI and data analytics space, the founder and CEO of Daisy Intelligence, Gary Saarenvirta, is today working at the forefront of the disruption taking place globally in retail.

It's just before 9 a.m. on a sunny morning in late July 2015, and a dozen police officers are gathered near the Healthy Fit chiropractic and pain management clinic in north Toronto. They have a search warrant, and they're about to seize evidence in what will eventually become one of the largest health insurance benefits fraud cases in the country. Together, they take the elevator to the fifth floor of a nondescript six-storey office building just off Highway 401 and enter through the glass door of unit 502. Detective Constable Kevin Williams is among the first to go in, followed by the rest of the officers, some in full uniform, others in plain clothes. He approaches the desk and explains their plans to the receptionist, who is quiet, if unhelpful. Williams is looking for something specific. He searches the clinic's office and an examining room, but doesn't find much. Then he decides to check the closet. Opening the door, Williams traces his eyes over shelves, boxes and bags full of orthotics, orthopedic shoes and braces for treating sore backs, knees and arms. "I think there was also one or two of those tension machines, like the Dr-Ho's kind of machine," Williams recalls, referring to the electrical muscle and pain therapy device made famous by infomercials.