A team of young entrepreneurs and software programmers from Australia have taken a bold step by launching what they claim is the world's first artificially intelligent business advisor.
Available globally via an iPhone App named BRiN, early results have been impressive with over 3,000 business owners signing up for the service within the first 7 days.
When asked if they're simply jumping on the ChatBot bandwagon, founder Dale Beaumont was quick to point out they're not technically a start-up.
He explains they have been working with business owners since 2007 and since that time his company has personally trained over 15,000 entrepreneurs.
Then in 2014 Dale decided to take his company global and quickly realised a change in thinking was required.
"Our research uncovered that there are 500 million business owners on the planet. And sadly 1 in 10 (meaning 50 million) fail ever year", says Beaumont.
"Given the scale of the problem we realised conventional business models based on one-to-one coaching, meet-ups or live events wasn't going to cut it. That's when I looked to technology and found Artificial Intelligence (AI)."
As a non-technical founder Beaumont hired a team of developers and in 2015 they began building a ChatBot for helping business owners at scale.
Early prototypes proved successful, however the team quickly discovered the major downside of ChatBots.
"ChatBots are great at holding a conversation, asking questions and finding out what a user needs. However, when it comes to the solution, ChatBots are really bad at dispensing advice - especially for something as complicated as business."
"For example, who wants to learn how to hire staff or read cashflow statements through what would be hundreds of pesky text messages. Nobody."
So in 2015 Beaumont build a TV studio and began producing content, which forms the basis of the App. Currently his team have produced 560 business education videos and by the end of 2016 that number will exceed 1000.
The team have decided to launch their App with their massive library of video content and now they're back to working on BRiN, the AI part of the App.
"For the next 12-months we're building out what will be thousands of business conversations using computer-logic or simulated AI. Then once future tools are developed they plan to roll their content into a cognitive computing system, such as IBM's Watson", explains Beaumont.
When asked if their name has anything to do with Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Beaumont explains the link is purely coincidence.
"We wanted a name that was personal, feminine, short and easy to remember. So quite simply we Googled 'Four Letter Girls Names'. That is when we found BRiN and we loved it."
In terms of business models Beaumont reveals their goal is to get 1,000,000 business owners using BRiN within the next 12-18 months. Then after that they'll begin introducing video ads, in-app purchases and a monthly subscription for premium features and content.
To access BRiN and over 1000 TV quality business videos, go to BRiN.ai and download the App today.