This Bengaluru startup uses AI to read consumer minds

What are your views on the ongoing debate on generative AI and the related controls on the technology?

Technology is an enabler, so is artificial intelligence (AI). It is an enabler to solve any business problem, to bring in efficiency and related aspects. So, what you use AI for is super critical. The boundaries and ethics have to be defined. It has to be very clear.

Emotion AI firm, Entropik operates in the market research space. Can you highlight the key differentiators of Entropik with respect to its competitors?

Brands historically has been using services of various market research firms to understand consumers. They do it by two methods. One is survey and the second is through asking questions to customers through direct interviews. These are two ways, which are called qualitative and quantitative ways of understanding customers. Inputs from these interactions go to the brand as insights. The problem with these methods is that if I ask a consumer how do you feel about a product in the scale of 1 to 10, he or she will always answer it as 8 or 8.5. This is a very biased kind of input. Very few people truly share their views. Our view is that customer should be understood from his/her behaviour or emotion than what they say. Because people usually say what look good. That is the correct consumer behaviour. If you are doing an advertisement, say for IPL; you will ask questions to consumers or do a survey about the advertisement to know the response. Instead of that, what we are saying is as a consumer, you watch the advertisement, I track your eye movement, track your facial expression, and I give insights on which part of the advertisement, your attention is high; in which part, your attention is low; whether you are looking at the brand ambassador or looking at the product. This is a very true user behaviour. We are not asking any questions. We are getting people watch the advertisement and give you the insights on his/her expression. This is how we are different because technology is used to get behavioural insights and not just people are saying.

Globally, we are the only company with 17 patents on the subject now. As 95 per cent of our decision making is sub-conscious, the insight on a product shouldn’t be based on 5 per cent of what a consumer saying.

Facial coding, eye tracking, voice AI are these technology applications that Entropik uses. Can you give us some sense of what goes into making these algorithms?

We use webcam and mobile cam to track the facial expressions. That is what facial coding is. We analyse the face expression into 58 facial action units or 58 expressions. These expressions represent attention, engagement and emotions. If my blink rates very high, then I know that I am not very attentive. If I have a grin or eyebrow raise, it means certain emotions. Face expresses our emotions even when we are not consciously doing so. This is what the technology of facial coding is. So, through our platform, we can know what is the attention of a consumer watching the advertisement all through. It can be pointed out when the consumer is feeling happy or excited.

In eye tracking, we track the pupils. Through our platform, where exactly the pupil movement is happening can be tracked. So, where a consumer is looking at in the advertisement, can be known through eye tracking. In Voice AI, what a consumer is saying along with voice tonality analysis. As far industry focus is concerned, we are very much focused on consumer brands and market research as a space. Our platform is getting used by market research firms, consumer brands, media and entertainment players, and digital first brands. Many consumer brands are also using our platform to understand the right packaging to attract the customer. Brands are using it for gauging digital experience.

What are the futuristic technology areas Entropik working on? Can you throw some light into this aspect?

Over the last seven years, we have the largest depository of data of human behaviour, emotions. We have tested our platform in 50,000 advertisements across geographies. What we are working on is creating a predictive version of it. It will tell how people are going to behave. That is the predictive AI, we are working on. Moreover, we are using generative AI to extract information from data, which we are piloting. The other product we have is for qualitative interviews. We have an audio-video platform that stores the interview, transcribes it and analyses the face expression which are part of conversation. So, from any audio-video conversation, you can draw insight on what is one’s confidence level, and related things.

What is the accuracy level that your platform provides with respect to insights?

On technology level, we are the most accurate facial coding company with 96 per cent accuracy. We provide world’s first mobile-based eye tracking. We are more than 90 per cent accurate on the eye tracking. On Voice AI, we are about 88 per cent accurate on gauging emotions. These are the technology accuracy parts.

The company has recently raised $25 million from a clutch of investors. What kind of investments are you planning to make?

We are present in the US, Europe, South East Asia and India. We are planning to expand our operations in the US and Europe substantially in coming time. On the product side, we have almost everything that a brand requires in terms of consumer research side. We are planning to consolidate our offerings under a single platform. From the technology perspective, we are focusing on predictive AI. On the business side, we are launching more offices in the US and Europe. As far as growth is concerned, we grew 8x in last 18 months. We are expecting 3x growth in the current year. Brands are using more technology in the consumer research side and we provide a substantial cost savings to brands.

Ranjan Kumar, Founder & CEO, Entropik

Market research is an essential part of any consumer facing brand for understanding the needs and sentiments of consumers. Traditionally, this has been done through consumer surveys and direct interviews by established market research firms. However, this space has been disrupted by AI-powered solutions of late. Many technology firms have come up with several AI-powered solution to understand the consumer better, providing substantial cost savings with better insights to consumer brands. Bengaluru-headquartered Entropik is a leading market research platform provider that has integrated AI to come up with several emotion-gauging AI solutions. The company, which counts Tata, Nestle, ITC, KFC, P&G, Sony Pictures and many more as its clients, is one of the fastest growing companies in the emotion AI space.

In a conversation with the Bizz Buzz, Founder & CEO of Entropik, Ranjan Kumar said the company is working on several predictive AI products to enable brands to predict reactions of consumers better. The company is also integrating generative AI into its several products. After raising $25 million in Series B funding in February this year, the company is expanding its operations in key markets such as the US and Europe apart from expanding its product portfolio