West Michigan sees AI innovations take shape

There’s nothing artificial about the region’s intelligence-driven technology capabilities.
West Michigan sees AI innovations take shape
Grand Rapids Community College was awarded a grant in August 2022 to help enhance AI programming for higher education. <strong> Courtesy Grand Rapids Community College </strong>

With the rapid growth of artificial intelligence worldwide, companies and individuals here in West Michigan have embraced the technology’s potential.

AI, which centers around intelligence demonstrated by machines through tasks such as speech recognition or computer vision, is expected to grow from $387.5 billion globally in 2022 to $1.4 trillion by 2029, according to a report from Fortune Business Insights. The rising demand and interest in AI capabilities has prompted businesses worldwide to consider how to make use of the technology.

The greater Grand Rapids region has witnessed several recent breakthroughs in AI innovations, such as Iris Technology’s newly launched platform for developing computer vision models. WebAI uses less data with faster deployment through a user-friendly interface, allowing all developers — not just AI experts — to build accurate computer vision models.

Iris has been in stealth mode for a few years as the team has worked to develop webAI. Currently, the platform is open for early access but eventually will open to more customers at an unspecified date.

For Iris co-CEOs James Meeks and David Stout, the ultimate goal is to build critical infrastructure for democratized and decentralized AI. They also want to make AI technology more accessible and easier to accommodate into workflows, according to Meeks.

“A commitment that we have is to solve real world problems with technology that is so easy to use that it floats into the background, and then individuals and businesses can optimize their current activities without having to change how they do things to accommodate some sort of technological solution that doesn’t work with how they do their business,” Meeks said.

With AI capabilities developing at a rapid pace today, Stout said the impact has been undeniable.

“I think in the early days of AI, people viewed it as vaporware and that it wasn’t actually going to change the world,” Stout said. “I think the one thing that is uniformly recognized today is that AI is here to stay and it’s going make an impact. I’m excited for AI to be in the hands of more people. I’m excited to see more people creating AI solutions in large and small businesses.”

Throughout this process, the Iris team remains committed to developing webAI here in the West Michigan region and firmly believes in Grand Rapids’ capabilities as a hub for innovation.

“We believe in Grand Rapids with everything we’ve got, and that’s why we decided to build this company here,” Meeks said. “We believe strongly that Grand Rapids has what it takes, and we hope that we can help spur a lot of that innovation through accessibility to our platform.”

Finance

Like Iris’ AI technology that has been in the works for years, AI developments in the Grand Rapids area indeed have existed before 2022. In several instances, these developments have transcended beyond the technological sector and into other industries.

Local fintech leader Acrisure, for example, acquired Tulco LLC’s AI-based insurance practice in 2020 to bring new tech capabilities to the insurance brokerage industry.

Following the deal, Tulco’s insurance practice transitioned to Acrisure Technology Group, which is based out of Austin, Texas. The division is led by Thomas Tull, the entrepreneur and film producer who founded Tulco and now is a significant minority shareholder in Acrisure.

The 2020 acquisition built on a yearlong partnership between Acrisure and Tulco as the two companies already had formed Altway Insurance, a fully AI-backed brokerage platform initially focused on individual health benefits, in 2019.

Not long after its launch, Altway began to see success with 24 weeks of 10% or greater week-over-week growth.

For Acrisure, the transition to AI capabilities has been a key strategy in helping meet client needs and transform the nearly $4 billion company.

“Businesses that succeed in the medium to long term must be nimble, data-rich and digitally oriented,” said Greg Williams, co-founder, president and CEO of Acrisure, at the time of the acquisition.

Food

If a nimble, digitally oriented approach truly is critical for success, companies in West Michigan have started to catch on. In December, SpartanNash announced a partnership with Afresh Technologies to use AI in support of its fresh food departments.

The partnership enables the Byron Center-based retailer to pilot the Afresh platform, an ordering and inventory solution powered by AI, at 10 of the retailer’s Family Fare grocery stores in the Grand Rapids area.

Afresh’s platform helps reduce food waste by ensuring appropriate inventory levels based on customers’ shopping habits.

“Our partnership with Afresh will help SpartanNash deliver fresh produce to our store guests while also minimizing food waste, which is a key focus area for our company’s ESG efforts,” said Bennett Morgan, chief merchandising officer for SpartanNash. “Leveraging the strength of artificial intelligence and digital workflow will provide our associates with insights to create solutions that benefit our corporate retail store guests.”

Afresh can equip SpartanNash’s managers in the fresh produce department with tools powered by real-time insights to help make ordering decisions.

Education

Other institutions in the region also have started to harness AI capabilities. In August 2022, Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) was awarded a grant to help enhance AI programming for higher education.

The $40,000 in grant funding from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), Dell Technologies and Intel will be used to expand computer labs and create a new hybrid laboratory with increased access to AI computing power.

As part of the grant program, GRCC also was asked to join the Artificial Intelligence Incubator Network to connect with other community colleges nationwide. The network aims to give the colleges an outlet to participate in discussions and strategize on AI programs and best practices for student engagement.

The AI Incubator Network along with Intel’s AI for Workforce program includes more than 70 community colleges in 32 states.

For GRCC, this has been a key opportunity to equip students to learn new technology.

“GRCC works to provide our students with the most up-to-date training in emerging and rapidly expanding fields,” Julie Parks, dean of GRCC’s Workforce Training, said in August. “Doing that effectively means partnering with experts in these fields. With Dell Technologies and Intel, we know our students will have the right resources.”

Humanity

AI also can be used to equip people in perhaps unexpected ways.

Charles Elwood, a Holland resident who started his own data analytics company about three years ago, recently became involved in Microsoft’s AI technology. After completing some AI work for Microsoft, Elwood received the corporation’s Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award and gained access to all the AI data.

“I’m one of a few in the Midwest that has an MVP award for AI, which is really cool,” Elwood said.

Based on his experience with AI’s capabilities, Elwood has been able to develop unique AI technology that recreates a person’s voice. He helped a former radio DJ who lost his voice to throat cancer by using samples from some old VHS tapes to recreate the DJ’s voice and enable him to communicate.

As the community began to catch wind of the project, Elwood started to make connections with others working in the AI space within West Michigan, like Iris Technology. He said he’s been inspired to see AI capabilities unfold.

“It’s so new and we’re all discovering it together,” Elwood said. “You can see the curiosity and awe when people are testing with AI and they see something new — like, ‘Oh, we hadn’t thought of that.’ … Things we thought were impossible even a year ago are possible with all this technology now.”

For his own project, Elwood has been in the process of contacting speech pathologists and throat and neck cancer specialists to make them aware of his available technology.

Despite some areas of concern surrounding AI, such as privacy or bias, Elwood sees it as an opportunity for positive impact.

“I’m partnering with other companies now to kind of push the limits of what’s possible with AI and apply them, especially to do good in the world,” Elwood said. “There’s so much fear around AI, but I’ve found that there’s also so much good.”

This story can be found in the Feb. 6 issue of the Grand Rapids Business Journal. To get more stories like this delivered to your mailbox, subscribe here.