Artificial Intelligence for email Messaging (AIM)

Although email has radically changed the way we work, 28% of the average office workers’
time is spent managing, reading and writing emails (McKinsey Global Institute, 2013). 40%
of office workers feel under constant pressure to check email (up to 36times/hr) and 45% feel
pressured to respond immediately, resulting in stress and frustration (Prof. Gloria Mark,
2012). A 2 year study of SMEs, calculated inefficient email use could be costing UK
companies more than £10k per employee per year (Loughborough University, 2011). Yet only
39% of emails are actually essential for work (Mimecast, 2012).
There is 25-30% potential to improve the filtering, prioritising and managing of these emails
(McKinsey, 2013). In addition, businesses face difficulty updating their email systems due to
complexity of migration.
In 2013 Fantoo proposed AIM, a visual business-email platform that uses Artificial
Intelligence (AI) to recognise, analyse and prioritise emails to improve productivity. We now
need to develop a bench prototype of AIM to prove the concept and quantify its ability to
improve productivity.
Many email tech startups cannot effectively engage with the market and compete incumbents.
TSB-funding for this project will allow Fantoo to collaborate with high-level contacts (Mark
and Baer) and established industry players incl Microsoft, Dell and Raackspace, who
recognize the potential value of Fantoo’s technology, and if proven, can provide a route to
market and support exploitation.