Interview: Faculty, AI & Machine Learning Awards finalist

"AI should be safe and ethical and can be beneficial across the whole of society"

Although artificial intelligence is still very much the new kid on the block in terms of enterprise technology, its use is growing at a rapid rate. From basic data entry to high-value IT estate protection, AI now lives at the heart of the business.

The Computing AI & Machine Learning Awards honour the companies and individuals who are supporting and driving innovation and development in all areas of artificial intelligence.

This year, winners were announced via an exclusive awards eBook on Wednesday 18 May.

Among the finalists was Faculty AI, who had been shortlisted for the Best Use of AI in Healthcare category.

We talked to Chris Whittleston, Deployment Lead at Faculty, about how their company has used AI and machine learning for success.

Whittleston describes Faculty as one of Europe's leading applied AI companies, which believes that "AI should be safe and ethical and can be beneficial across the whole of society."

"It's those beliefs that have really driven our work with over 250 organisations to leverage AI, to help understand their problems more deeply and take better decisions and to act more quickly."

According to Whittleston, Faculty is currently working to expand the rollout of their COVID-19 Early Warning System - an AI and machine learning-backed tool that has been co-developed in partnership with NHS England.

"That tool has been used in different ways throughout the whole pandemic, but most recently it has been rolled out more to support recovery and support the kind of the move to living with Covid, allowing hospital operators to maximise their use of resources."

Whittleston considers the success of Faculty's COVID-19 Early Warning System as the single company achievement he is most proud of from the last 12 months.

"When we started working on this, it was very scrappy. You know, with the mid of the pandemic, we were fighting to understand how we could support the NHS."

However, the time since March 2020, especially the last year, has been really inspiring, according to Whittleston.

About upcoming plans, Whittleston says they are working on an expansion of Faculty's forecasting technology, which involves working with NHS England and NHS providers to give them insight into the demand coming from A&E over the next few weeks.

"And this is taking external data sources alongside hospital data, so things like Covid rates, insights for our public holidays and big events to help provide accurate predictions of demand and make best use of resources; they have to reduce waiting lists and boost the efficiency," he says.

To find out more Faculty and what they are working on this year, watch our video interview with Whittleston now.