AI superpowers for everyday documents: Microsoft vet and XML co-creator unveils startup DocugamiA new startup led by the former president of Microsoft’s open-source subsidiary plans to uses artificial intelligence to reshape the way documents are created and used inside companies... The company says it's creating new AI techniques using machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing and novel XML approaches. The technology promises to "unlock the power of documents," Paoli said in an interview with GeekWire, describing the approach as a natural evolution of his career in document engineering.[Editor's note: The stakeholders have been copied from Docugami's website: https://www.docugami.com/ The vision statement is from Docugami's open letter to the software industry at https://medium.com/docugami/https-medium-com-docugami-we-created-document-dysfunction-it-is-time-to-fix-it-c8dd2b0b3a39?sk=7b69a321036858e1d7b88719c2bab369]DocugamiDCGM_097868fe-6d41-11e9-abf8-d33eb69d818fBased in Kirkland, Wash., Docugami has 15 AI scientists and engineers on its team. It has been self-funded so far. Docugami is preparing to raise its Series A funding round, with a goal of raising $10 million to $12 million to fund further development and rollout of the technology.Software IndustryWE CREATED DOCUMENT DYSFUNCTION. IT IS TIME TO FIX IT. It is time for some of us building software to take a hard look in the mirror. For years, we promised technology would solve the world's information management problems, but 85% of business information is still "dark data," potentially useful insights lost in a rising tide of disconnected documents, emails, Slack conversations, voice-to-text messages, and myriad other forms. ​As the digital transformation accelerates, the sheer volume and opacity of documents makes it harder to ensure quality, consistency, accountability, and regulatory compliance.Docugami TeamJean PaoliCo-Founder & Chief Executive Officer -- Jean Paoli, a pioneer in the field of document engineering, is one the inventors of XML and, during his time at Microsoft, ​started 4 >$1B businesses for the company: the XML effort, Microsoft InfoPath, the modern Microsoft Office file formats and Microsoft’s open-source subsidiary that enabled today's massive open source usage in Azure. In addition he has created two startups with the renowned Inria. Ecole Des Ponts | Inria Startups | MicrosoftAndrew BegunCo-Founder & Chief Technology Officer -- Andrew was an Engineering Manager at Microsoft​ who co-created Microsoft InfoPath​ and was responsible for shipping critical parts of Windows​. ​Carnegie-Mellon | MicrosoftMartin SawickiCo-Founder & Architecture -- Martin was an Engineering Manager at Microsoft where he co-created the Microsoft Office APIs, played a leadership role in Word ​and led the Java support effort in Azure. At Princeton, he studied CS, with a concentration in AI and cognitive studies. Princeton | MicrosoftMike PalmerCo-Founder & Technology -- Mike was an Engineering Manager at Microsoft​ and co-created Microsoft InfoPath. Mike also co-created the AI Scheduling Assistant currently piloted in Microsoft Outlook. University of Washington | MicrosoftTaqi JaffriCo-Founder & Product -- Taqi was a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft​ responsible for shipping critical parts of Windows​. Taqi also co-created the AI technology driving Microsoft presence in physical stores. Stanford | MicrosoftKaitlyn ZhouIntern, AI PhD Student -- ​ Kaitlyn is starting a PhD in AI and HCI at Stanford after a Masters in CS & AI at UW; At Docugami, she focuses on User Experience, NLP & AI. She completed internships at Bloomberg & Twitter. University of Washington | StanfordKush GuptaIntern, CS BS Student -- ​ Kush is a CS undergrad student and a research assistant at the UW. Kush focuses on Distributed Systems, Databases, Programming Languages and Compilers. Kush also completed an internship at Google. University of WashingtonJerome PaliakkaraIntern, CS BS Student -- ​ Jerome is a Computer Science undergrad student focusing on Data Science at the University of Washington. He has been a research assistant at the University and has also completed an internship at GE. University of Washington Luis MartiChief Science Officer -- ​ Luis is a world-renowned AI-Scientist in machine learning and evolutionary computation who has more than 70 peer-reviewed AI publications​ and 30 R&D collaborations over 20 years in the AI & ML industry. Carlos III de Madrid | Federal Fluminense | InriaSteve DeroseNatural Language Processing -- ​ Steve, PhD Linguistics, with over 50 publications and former Brown University researcher, is a distinguished scientist noted for his contributions to NLP, Computational Linguistics and to key standards related to document processing. Brown University | National Library of MedicineYue ZhangIntern, AI Ph.D. Student ​ Yue is an PhD student in AI and CS at the University of Washington. Yue's research is in computational biology and machine learning. Yue has completed internships at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Google. Brown University | University of WashingtonKevin LiuIntern, AI Ph.D. Student -- ​ Kevin is an AI PhD student and a research assistant at the University of Washington. Kevin's research is in computational statistics, applying Bayesian AI to extract better insights. Kevin also completed an internship at Alibaba. University of WashingtonJoshua FanIntern, AI Ph.D. Student -- ​ Joshua is starting a PhD in AI at Cornell and is finalizing an MS in AI at the University of Washington; he has completed 3 internships at Facebook and done research involving NLP, computer vision, and computational biology. ​University of Washington | CornellZhaofeng WuIntern, AI MS Student -- ​ Zhaofeng is an AI MS student at UW with a double degree in Linguistics (B.A) and Computer Science (B.S). His research is in NLP/ML under the direct supervision of Professor Fei Xia. He has completed an internship at Axon with an upcoming one at FB. University of WashingtonAndrew HoangIntern, AI BS Student -- ​ Andrew is an AI BS student and a research assistant at the University of Washington. Andrew focuses on computer vision using machine learning . Andrew also completed internships at Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). University of Washington Docugami Science AdvisorsUna-May O'ReillySCIENCE ADVISOR -- ​ Una-May is the leader of the ALFA Group at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, focusing on scalable machine learning, evolutionary algorithms, large-scale knowledge mining, prediction and analytics. Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyHannaneh HajishirziSCIENCE ADVISOR -- ​ Hannaneh is an AI/NLP researcher at the University of Washington and leverages two complementary developments in the field of AI - symbolic representation and end-to-end deep learning neural models. University of WashingtonKalyanmoy DebSCIENCE ADVISOR -- ​ Deb holds the Herman E. & Ruth J. Koenig Endowed Chair at Michigan State University and has contributed fundamental advances to the evolutionary computation AI field, with 100,000+ Google Scholar citations. ​Michigan State UniversityMarc SchoenauerSCIENCE ADVISOR -- ​ Marc is the leader at Inria of the TAU AI team that aims to tackle the vagueness of the Big Data purposes. Marc is helping to define an AI strategy for France as one of the few French mathematicians recognized in this field. InriaVincent QuintSCIENCE ADVISOR -- ​ Vincent is a luminary of the Document Engineering field. Vincent led fundamental research in semi-structured documents at Inria and headed the W3C Document Formats Domain. Inria | W3CAlan YatesCHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER -- ​ Alan jump-started and drove Sales & Marketing in 4 successful startups. He also created the Microsoft Worldwide Partner program​, led the Microsoft Office Business Strategy and Worldwide Education Sales & Marketing . Harvard | Stanford | MicrosoftMark MurrayCOMMUNICATIONS -- ​ Mark served as GM, Corporate Communications, at Microsoft and VP of Global Engagement & Communications at global health innovator PATH, driving strategic communications with worldwide impact. Stanford | Microsoft | PATHDavid WatsonDESIGN -- ​ David is a product and brand designer focused on integrating the two into a seamless experience and has worked with numerous startups as well as Microsoft, building health apps and customer/business management platforms. Microsoft | Animas CreativeDocugami Business AdvisorsKevin RiegelsbergerBUSINESS ADVISOR -- ​ Kevin was President of Avalara, Inc., raising over $200M and helping its recent IPO. He founded Epicor, one of the industry’s largest financial ERP providers and managed the 'turn around' of CapitalStream from struggling start-up to industry leader. Epicor | CapitalStream | AvalaraCharles FitzgeraldBUSINESS ADVISOR -- ​ Charles drove the platform strategy for VMWare Cloud Foundry and Microsoft .NET. Charles is a well-known Seattle-area angel investor and a highly regarded strategist for building and nurturing worldwide-level platform ecosystems. Microsoft | VMWare | PlatformonomicsJean-Francois AbramaticBUSINESS ADVISOR -- ​ Jeff co-lead, with Tim-Berners Lee, the W3C as its Chairman, drove ILOG's acquisition by IBM and fostered Inria's all-up relationship with startups & the industry at large. Jeff is on the European Open Science Cloud Executive Board. Ilog | W3C | InriaWe envision a world where documents that are written for humans can, quickly and securely thanks to AI, be understood as data by computers. Even better, we envision a world where AI helps people construct documents that are engineered for maximum data reuse from the start, fostering human creativity and unlocking billions of dollars in increased efficiency, improved compliance, and business insights for companies around the world._09786a02-6d41-11e9-abf8-d33eb69d818fTo apply artificial intelligence to reshape the way documents are created and used_09786aa2-6d41-11e9-abf8-d33eb69d818fPatternsThe startup's name is a combination of document and origami or kirigami, reflecting what Paoli described as the ability to create and find patterns in documents to unlock business insights.InsightsEfficiencyComplianceEfficiency, Insights & ComplianceMake frontline users more efficient while giving executives better insights and helping with compliance._09786b2e-6d41-11e9-abf8-d33eb69d818fCompaniesFrontline UsersExecutives The idea is to make frontline users more efficient while giving executives better insights and helping with compliance.DocumentationHelp companies create documents that can be analyzed and repurposed as if the contents were stored in a structured database. _09786bba-6d41-11e9-abf8-d33eb69d818fCompaniesDocugami says its software-as-a-service product will help companies, as part of their normal workflow, create everyday documents such as contracts and reports that can then be analyzed and repurposed as if the contents were stored in a structured database... One important distinction ... is that Docugami isn't simply helping companies analyze documents, but also assisting in the creation of documents in the first place, using plugins and connectors for existing software and productivity tools. The technology works without intervention or help from an IT department ... "We are not a data mining company," Paoli said. "We have a very holistic view of documents."2019-05-16https://www.geekwire.com/2019/ai-superpowers-everyday-documents-microsoft-vet-xml-co-creator-unveils-startup-docugami/OwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net