AUI

Augmented Intelligence (AUI), established in September 2017 by co-founders Ohad Elhelo (CEO) and Ori Cohen (CPO), operates at the intersection of generative and symbolic AI. After a seven-year period of development in stealth, the company has emerged with a clear focus on enterprise-grade AI agents. Headquartered in New York City, with additional offices in Tel Aviv and Ramallah, AUI has secured approximately $44 million in total funding, culminating in a September 2024 round that valued the company at $350 million.

The core of AUI's business is its proprietary language model, Apollo-1, designed for conversational agents that act on behalf of businesses rather than users. The company's business model appears to be B2B SaaS, providing its advanced AI platform to clients in sectors such as retail, healthcare, insurance, and government. A strategic partnership with Google Cloud aims to accelerate the deployment of its AI agents, making the Apollo model available to Google Cloud customers and integrating with products like BigQuery for enhanced analytics.

AUI's flagship product, the Apollo-1 model, distinguishes itself by employing a neuro-symbolic architecture. This approach combines the conversational fluency of large language models (LLMs) with the predictability and control of rule-based systems. This hybrid system allows for what AUI terms "steerability," giving businesses fine-grained control over agent behavior to ensure compliance with brand voice, policies, and industry regulations. Key features include a transparent, "white-box" view into the agent's decision-making process, the ability to activate tools and APIs with high accuracy, and a continuous learning loop that incorporates human feedback to refine performance. The platform provides environments for clients to pre-integrate APIs, simulate conversations for training, and review customer interactions to drive improvements, thus bridging the gap between the potential of AI and its reliable application in real-world operations.

Keywords: neuro-symbolic AI, agentic AI, conversational agents, enterprise AI, Apollo-1 model, AI language model, AI safety, controllable AI, steerable AI, enterprise software, B2B SaaS, AI for retail, AI for healthcare, AI compliance, human-in-the-loop AI, Ohad Elhelo, Ori Cohen, Google Cloud AI partner, AI-powered sales, business productivity software, explainable AI, responsible AI, AI model fine-tuning, task automation AI