This Cork-based company trains its own GenAI model, EIMEAR, by using ‘emotionally intelligent’ data.
According to the Harvard Division of Continuing Education, emotional intelligence is defined as a “set of skills that help us recognise, understand, and manage our own emotions as well as recognise, understand and influence the emotions of others”.
And for all the wonders that technology, especially artificial intelligence (AI), can achieve, it often proves to be challenging for these programmes when it comes to replicating the emotional intelligence of humans.
One entrepreneur who aims to change this is Marie Toft, the CEO and co-founder of Emotionise AI.
Emotionise creates its own “emotionally intelligent” data in order to train its generative AI (GenAI) system, EIMEAR. It does this by availing of a team of data creators who are tested in both emotional intelligence and language skills.
“We are seeking strategic partnerships to enable us to scale quickly and roll out our revolutionary AI to create more empathy and emotional connection,” she explained. “If we don’t make AI human-more, rather than human-less, people will not engage with it.”
Toft established the Cork-based start-up alongside Tim Pat Dufficy and Siva Sharm in 2018, and it officially became a GenAI tech company in 2021.
Prior to founding Emotionise AI, Toft worked as an executive TV producer for more than two decades with the BBC, SBS Australia and RTÉ, which she said helped her to “learn the language and communication skills to connect emotionally with large audiences”.
“I then trained as a psychotherapist. Emotionise AI is my vision and is a combination of my communication and psychotherapy skills.”
Meanwhile, Dufficy is an experienced tech entrepreneur and angel investor who is originally from Dublin but is now based in London, and Sharma is the company’s CTO who leads the development team with more than 25 years worth of experience.
Emotionally intelligent model
Explaining the purpose of EIMEAR further, Toft said: “We have harnessed the power skill of emotional intelligence through our human-trained AI.
“The first three letters [of EIMEAR] stand for Emotionally Intelligent Model, which is always on and helps users connect emotionally with their target audience.
“We create bespoke communication models for enterprise trained in their tone of voice, brand and values.”
According to research by Travis Bradberry, only 36pc of the global population is emotionally intelligent. Toft says Emotionise aims to democratise this skill. “Emotional intelligence reduces customer churn and increases profitability,” she added.
As for the market Emotionise is targeting, Toft said that the company is gaining “real traction” with customer support.
“At the moment, good customer experience and support are completely reliant on good recruitment and training. But people make mistakes and when customers don’t feel emotionally connected, they go elsewhere.
“EIMEAR is an organisation’s cognitive collaborator, intuitively moving in when it identifies a problem sentence, giving feedback on why the sentence may not connect emotionally with a customer and suggesting a more emotionally intelligent replacement sentence.”
At present, Emotionise has raised €600,000 so far and it is currently raising a further €300,000 to fill out its pre-seed round.
In addition, Toft asserted that the founders are also speaking to several enterprises and will be onboarding customers in 2025: “We have completed two successful trials, and we have an excellent team based in Cork and Sri Lanka where we have our technical team. We are also aiming to recruit more staff in 2025.”
Ireland’s start-up scene
Toft also voiced her view about the “vibrant” Irish start-up scene: “There’s a lot of solidarity amongst start-ups. We completed the NDRC Pre-Accelerator in 2021. Enterprise Ireland has also been a huge help and very supportive.
While the company secured high-potential start-up status in December 2023, Toft said there’s still a “huge gap between what men can raise and what female founders can raise”, which she said needs to be addressed.
Just like any other start-up, Emotionise AI has also experienced challenges as part of its journey.
“We spotted the potential of GPT3 (ChatGPT’s fore-runner) in 2020 and we were one of the first start-ups in Ireland to begin working with OpenAI in 2021, over a year before ChatGPT was released,” Toft explained. “We were ahead of the curve, so a challenge has been that the market has taken longer to catch up with us.
“And raising investment has been challenging, it’s still not easy out there!”
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