We’ve all had that moment with online shopping where a website has made a comically poor recommendation. I’ve bought books on Amazon and immediately received emails recommending mens’ hiking wear. But a Cambridge, Massachusetts startup known as Nara are aiming to change all that. They’ve just released a SaaS solution that uses artificial intelligence to personalise recommendations- but their unique selling point, they say, is being more “intelligent” than “artificial”.

“As we continue to build the Nara Neural Network, we’ve discovered the golden trifecta of personalization — a brain-like, breakthrough algorithm; efficient ways to mine extremely large data sets; and a continuously updating, deep learning system,” said Thomas Copeman, chief executive officer and founder of Nara. “We’re excited to provide personalization to businesses of all sizes.”

Nara works by pooling millions of features and attributes which make up every person, place or thing in a company’s database, along with additional information such as reviews and opinions. This ocean of data is fed into a single neural network which clusters the data to find expected and unexpected correlations. This pattern of connections forms what the company is calling the customer’s Digital DNA™, and can be used to make intelligent recommendations.

The system learns why it works, and according to its creators, it’s easy to tune and manage the results of the personalisations. Nara’s website also claims it’s suitable for use with just a small baseline of data: even with a small amount of information, “Nara immediately builds rich online profiles for each individual prospect and customer, learning the unique tastes and preferences that define their Digital DNA™”.

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(Image credit: Nara)