In large scale ML programs, every piece of code, the algorithms, and data processing tasks must be engineered for production. This process, when at scale, can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per model. We see this effort and cost as a large driver of the toolchain that has developed around machine learning work.
Many of the companies and products that have come out of the space to date have focused on AutoML, model development, or data generation + labeling. Yet, there continues to be an inefficient feedback loop and layer between model developer (data scientists + data engineers) and end users (analysts) to improve models and data in live product applications. With a mature BI landscape and growth of ML, we see this new segment as an extremely attractive investment space.
Today, we’re excited to announce our partnership with Ben Harvey and the team at AI Squared. The AI Squared product will provide seamless model integration into web applications with feedback loops back to the data scientist. We see their capability (connective tissue between model development and model deployment) as being a key product in a new segment in MLOps.
The long term vision for the product is to make each element of model development—including collection, preparation, training, and serving the model up—production ready. This will enable a model to run repeatedly and in production with minimal intervention from the model developer.
The most exciting aspect of the AI Squared vision is that it could serve any application that sits in the browser or analysts’ workbook. This covers a massive market that as of now is larger than where pure play ML companies sit. This could make AI Squared a valuable partner of not just Databricks, Snowflake, and Datarobot but also products like Tableau Power BI.
As with every investment at this stage, we are backing a team with the right vision and understanding of the market timing. When we were evaluating AI Squared, one thing came up again and again: Ben, Lloyd, Ian, Jacob, John, and Alvin are an incredibly talented team and the right people to execute the vision.
We’re also excited to partner with Pete Sonsini and Greg Popadopolus at NEA on this investment and have huge expectations for the AI Squared team.