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Amsterdam-based artificial intelligence (AI) company Unith (UNT) is carving out its place in the rapidly growing global AI service market with its innovative Talking Head platform.
The company rebranded from Crowd Media back on November 30, 2022, as it continues to streamline its “clean, commercial and agile” Talking Head technology, which combines AI-based conversation technology with computer-generated avatars for a new type of business-customer interaction.
Unith CEO Idan Schmorak said the company underwent a complete restructuring, refreshed its team, strengthened the balance sheet, and optimised cash flow.
Since appointing Mr Schmorak as CEO in September 2021, the company has benefited from his guidance, and it’s reflected on Unith’s balance sheet.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, the company saw a $1 million improvement in its underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), with a reported figure of -$53,000, compared to the -$1.05 million posted in the previous year.
Mr Schmorak’s focus on streamlining operations and cost optimisation has driven the company’s upswing in earnings, resulting in $5.4 million in revenue for FY22 and a debt-free balance sheet.
This has enabled the company to develop its cutting-edge technology that is changing the way businesses interact with clients online.
The Talking Head can transform the way businesses communicate with customers by allowing for real-time conversations, in multiple languages and through a full-stack platform, all powered by AI.
The platform uses facial movement deep learning, audio machine learning, and conversational design to generate the first, customisable, interactive avatar of its kind.
The innovative technology addresses challenges posed by labour shortages, language barriers, and time zones, and it has the potential to improve customer experience and satisfaction.
Mr Schmorak said the transformation to become a new “digital human brand” reflects the company’s refreshed vision and focus on clean, technological and sharp solutions. Unith believes its well-positioned to take advantage of a growing global AI service market.
Talking Head attracts global interest
In the 2022 December quarter, Unith reported a significant milestone, having onboarded one of the Big-5-Tech companies as a client. Although the partner cannot be revealed due to confidentiality reasons, the Big-5-Tech companies include Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google.
The company agreed to supply its digital avatars in collaboration with the client, programmed to carry out conversational AI services to support the organisation’s daily operations.
The acquisition of such a major client is a testament to the growing demand for digital solutions to help address labour shortages becoming more prevalent in today’s society.
“Conversational AI has the potential to transform workplaces, delivering better experiences for both employees and customers,” Mr Schmorak said.
“We are delighted to be working with such a forward-thinking company that has employees located around the world, and millions of customers.”
In addition to its partnership with such a major client, Unith has also formed partnerships with NVISO in Japan and SrcFlare.
The company entered a binding agreement with NVISO Japan KK to integrate its behavioural analytics into digital humans in conversational settings for deployment into digital kiosks in Japan. The collaboration was bolstered by support from the BonsAPPs innovation program in the form of a $117,000 grant.
Unith aims to deploy the interactive digital avatars to kiosks in Japan before expanding globally.
Meanwhile, the company’s partnership with SrcFlare has proven to be a success thus far, generating $258,000 in revenue for Unith in just four months since signing its head of agreement in May of 2022.
More recently in February 2023, Unith successfully tapped private investors for $4.5 million to integrate ChatGPT conversation AI into its Talking Head.
The company also completed a $500,000 share purchase plan at the same plan as the placement.
Unith received strong demand from investors, which included a “prominent Australian family office” which “cornerstoned” the raise.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot received mass interest across the globe during its 2023 launch, becoming the fastest company ever to register 0 to 100 million users, in just 60 days.
The previous fastest was TikTok, which took 9 months, followed by Instagram which took more than two years.
Unith said integrating ChatGPT conversation AI into its Talking Head would improve its software efficiency on the end-user side and alleviate friction from the client side, allowing for easier onboarding on the platform.
The booming global AI service market
The global AI as a service market is booming and attracting attention from companies around the world.
Currently valued at more than US$5.6 billion (A$8.5 billion), the market is predicted to reach US$52.8 billion (A$76 billion) by 2028, according to Vantage Market Research.
With the Asia Pacific region being the fastest-growing market in the world, Unith has seized the opportunity to grow its presence in this region through its collaboration with NVISO.
Mr Schmorak said the NVISO partnership aligned with a savvy distribution strategy to scale the reach of Unith’s Talking Head technology while also developing the platform.
APAC nations such as China, Japan and South Korea sit at the forefront of AI growth and have all announced multi-million-dollar national AI strategies in recent years.
In the US, large companies are taking the lead in AI adoption, with 25.5 per cent of “very large” companies with more than 5000 employees using AI as a production technology.
Unith aims to take advantage of this growing market by continuing to scale its technology.
“We are excited about scaling our cutting-edge technology,” Mr Schmorak said.
Unith is well-funded, having ended 2023 with $1.91 million in cash and net operating cash outflows of $344,000.
With Mr Schmorak at the helm driving Unith’s fresh vision, the company continues to attract the attention of tech investors around the world.
