There's a good chance the answer that an employee needs to do their job effectively is available within the company, but it can often be difficult to surface. Research suggests that around three hours per day are spent searching for information. Even more frustratingly, around 44 percent of all searches end in failure. In total, around $1 million per month is lost for every 1,000 employees in a business. Starmind believes that it doesn't have to be this way and is using AI to power a customisable real-time knowledge network that gives teams on-demand access to the answers they need.

Marc is yet another techie who has made a successful transition to being an entrepreneur. In this interview, he discusses his journey, as well as a lot of the nuances of positioning his venture, Starmind, for success. Sramana Mitra: Let's start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to Starmind. Marc Vontobel: I'm the Co-Founder and CEO of Starmind. I have a background in Computer Science specializing in AI. That's also the origin of Starmind. I met my co-founder at the artificial intelligence laboratory in Zurich. We were supposed to work on humanoid robots, and we were totally lost. The initial idea of Starmind came up to build an eBay for knowledge. Instead of learning all the different disciplines ourselves, we envisioned having a platform where we can ask any question and put a price tag on it. That's how Starmind started. The problem was it was a one-sided market. No one really wanted to pay a colleague for their knowledge. It took us some time to

One of the most straightforward ways to think about artificial intelligence is to define it as a machine's ability to understand or perform in a way that would normally need human intelligence. A lot of what we see called AI in software and cloud services is closer to automation. Automation is based on input and response: an input of X equals a response of Y. With the growing complexity of algorithms, the calculations undertaken to decide how to respond to a given input can be extremely complicated and so automated responses created in this way can give the impression of intelligence. But in reality they are predetermined.

Psychology and neuroscience have played a key role in the history of AI and this is central to Starmind's activities. The new desktop app consolidates and improves upon Starmind's features, allowing ease of access without a web portal, pop-up notifications when an expert answers a question, and a more seamless UI. Starmind facilitates collaboration throughout large companies by using AI to learn who in a given company is an expert on a given topic, then matching employees with questions/problems to the relevant experts. To understand the basics of neuroscientific artificial intelligence and the Starmind application, Digital Journal caught up with Peter Wasser, the company's CEO. Digital Journal: How important is artificial intelligence to the modern company?

Global reinsurance giant Munich Re is working with Starmind to transform and improve the reinsurer's knowledge management through advanced technology and artificial intelligence (AI). Starmind's technology is designed to expand human ingenuity by applying neuroscientific principles to AI, and reinsurer Munich Re is looking to transform its knowledge management via a new application called OneMind. OneMind aims to enable Munich Re to engage and cultivate the expertise of its employees, improving the company's knowledge management via the leverage of internal knowledge and expertise as a competitive advantage. The application of self-learning algorithms based on neuroscientific principles enables Starmind to build a firm's'corporate brain,' which in turn enables employees to better identify and connect with the most appropriate internal expert for almost any query, as well as having access to internal knowledge quickly and efficiently. "Many of our clients face increasingly complex and ever evolving new risks. To provide them with best in class solutions in a swift and efficient way we need to have a profound understanding of how trends and developments drive clients' needs and interests. "We have implemented OneMind because it enables us to easily use our worldwide know-how for either quickly identifying possible solutions that matched similar client needs or for designing new tailor made solutions.

Artificial intelligence is stuck today because companies are likening the human brain to a computer, according to Swiss neuroscientist and co-founder of Starmind Pascal Kaufmann. However, the brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge, or store memories like a computer does. When companies claim to be using AI to power "the next generation" of their products, what they are unknowingly referring to is the intersection of big data, analytics, and automation, Kaufmann told ZDNet. "Today, so called AI is often just the human intelligence of programmers condensed into source code," said Kaufmann, who worked on cyborgs previously at DARPA. "We shouldn't need 300 million pictures of cats to be able to say whether something is a cat, cow, or dog. Intelligence is not related to big data; it's related to small data. If you can look at a cat, extract the principles of a cat like children do, then forever understand what a cat is, that's intelligence."

Artificial intelligence that can understand and answer any work-related question it is asked has been made available in the UK for the first time. The computer software, called Starmind, uses machine learning to understand queries, then source answers from previous staff conversations on a subject or track down experts within the company who are able to help. Its creators refer to it as'brain technology', adding its aim is to become a central knowledge bank within any company, an instant database of information that can be accessed by anyone. AI software which understands and answers work-related questions has been made available in the UK. Starmind is an artificial intelligence software for the workplace, designed in Switzerland.

Artificial intelligence that can understand and answer any work-related question it is asked has been made available in the UK for the first time. The computer software, called Starmind, uses machine learning to understand queries, then source answers from previous staff conversations on a subject or track down experts within the company who are able to help. Its creators refer to it as'brain technology', adding its aim is to become a central knowledge bank within any company, an instant database of information that can be accessed by anyone. AI software which understands and answers work-related questions has been made available in the UK. Starmind is an artificial intelligence software for the workplace, designed in Switzerland.

Artificial intelligence (AI) that can understand and answer any work-related question it is asked has been made available in the UK for the first time. The computer software, called Starmind, uses machine learning to understand queries, then finds answers from previous staff conversations on a subject or tracks down experts in the company who are able to help. Its creators refer to it as "brain technology", adding its aim is to become a central knowledge bank within any company, an instant database of information that can be accessed by anyone. Starmind co-founder Pascal Kaufmann said of the technology: "Thousands of human brains connected can outsmart any machine today. "But if you can find ways for humans and AI-inspired technologies to autonomously collaborate rather than focusing on ways for them to compete, you can bring out the best in both." The algorithm within the system, which was developed in Switzerland, becomes more powerful the more it is used and is able to build a map of the people in a business and the areas in which all of them are experts, or are able to provide relevant information. "Starmind acts like an artificial hyperbrain that seamlessly exists at the core of a company," Mr Kaufmann added. "The algorithm is then fuelled by the know-how stored inside the brains of everyone that engages with the system." Several major companies in Europe, including UBS and Bayer, are using the system. A new version of the software - called Starmind NOW - has also been launched. It enables the software to be accessed outside a company intranet for the first time. Starmind says that makes the technology more "intuitive and seamless" to use. Former Microsoft executive Peter Waser has also joined the company as CEO. "It's a new technology that has never been available on the market in this form," he said. "Brain technology is the latest technology in the megatrend of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Picture the scenario: you've been asked to prepare an analysis on whether you have the best people in the right roles in your company and identify where there may be knowledge gaps within the organisation. If your company has offices in New York, London, Berlin and Singapore, that's a huge HR challenge. But what if an artificial intelligence tool can produce in minutes a detailed "knowledge map" based on analysis of employee skills and interests to pinpoint gaps where new hires are needed to fill those holes. British companies are now being offered such "brain technology". Computer software, called Starmind, uses machine learning to understand queries – even anonymously – then source answers from previous staff conversations on a subject or track down experts within the company who are able to help.