Interview
AI Visionary – Lee Yearsley
Every now and then we meet with a guest who blows us away by the scale and worthiness of their vision. And there’s no doubting this week’s guest is one of those.
Lee Yearsley is an AI veteran and entrepreneur with a unique track record that speaks to her skill of anticipating the future. Raised in Zimbabwe and South Africa, Lee sold her last AI company 10 years ago to IBM. It was the first company in the world to deploy AI in businesses such as banks, insurance companies and health care.
And now Lee’s at it again channelling her philosophy of building a global AI company that the world will need, not today, but in 5 years time. Her vision is big; she wants to reach more than 100 million customers worldwide.
Lee’s business is called Akin and her determination to use technology for good has seen her incorporate as a public benefit corporation (that’s an American legal entity that embeds a business model that benefits both shareholders and society).
Akin is bringing a new and more advanced type of AI to market, called Adaptive Reasoning.
It already has customers ranging from NASA to healthcare companies with disabled clients.
Now despite the fact Lee has a track record of founding and exiting several businesses, she shares with us just how difficult it is to raise funding as a female founder.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- How Lee was positively dissuaded, if not barred, from studying computer science at Uni because she was a woman
- How she says she ignores the accepted wisdom of how to build a successful startup and that others should ignore it too
- How pervasive AI systems already are and how much they’re influencing the decisions we make in a negative way; and
- The creative and unique way Lee goes about envisioning, building and growing her business.
We were lucky to spend time with Lee after she spoke at the Impact Investment Summit in Sydney recently.
Enjoy this episode with the visionary and genuinely pioneering Lee Yearsley.
Useful Links
Credit top left photo – Dion Georgopoulos
