The CEO of Edinburgh-based regtech company Aveni, which specializes in AI-driven risk assurance solutions, is Joseph Twigg. We hear about his journey into the AI area, as well as Aveni's past, present, and future, from the founder of the firm, who started it in 2018 and has 15 years of experience in the investing industry.

Give us more details about your business and its goals.
Aveni was created by combining cutting-edge natural language processing (NLP) skills with in-depth knowledge of financial services (FS). In the fintech industry, we think this combination is exceptional.

In 2018, Dr. Lexi Birch, an esteemed multilingual natural language processing (NLP) expert and professor at the University of Edinburgh who is ranked among the world's top 100 NLP engineers, and I decided to launch Aveni and create AI products that would boost FS's productivity, efficiency, and profitability.

With our headquarters located in Edinburgh, we employ over thirty-five people with a variety of backgrounds in financial services, outstanding engineering, and sales and marketing. We have a youthful staff that is eager to create an impact for our clients as artificial intelligence continues to spread throughout society.

Which of your recent accomplishments would you like to highlight?
creation and introduction of our Aveni Assist platform, which is intended to increase financial advisors' productivity by relieving them of administrative duties related to coaching and sales as well as compliance. Automated tasks free up advisers to concentrate on their first priority: their clients.

partnerships with some of the leading asset managers, banks, and advisors in finance. Clients include Age Partnership, Aviva, Schroders, Cavendish Online (a division of Lloyds Banking Group), and 7IM.

How did you enter the financial technology sector?
I had spent 15 years working in the financial services industry in the UK, so I was familiar with the target market for this company and its offerings. It's a sector notorious for underserved demand, outmoded procedures, and frequent regulatory changes.

The business sprang to life with my meeting with Lexi and the conversations that ensued. Together, we came up with the ideas for what was required to change the financial services industry and add something new to fintech.

What impact have your past positions had on your career?
I oversaw strategy as head of a multinational investment company. Growing a firm worldwide from start to finish—from cradle to grave—was my responsibility. That provided me with a ton of useful experience to aid in the launch of my firm.

Which of your mistakes has been the best?
Any trip will inevitably involve mistakes, especially if you're doing something new or challenging. Errors must be promptly acknowledged, comprehended, and fixed. Of course, the goal is to avoid making the same error twice.

What does the future hold for your business?
Over the coming several months, we want to make some exciting announcements to our customers and raise additional funding to support business growth and bolster our team's core expertise in AI and financial services.

From a product standpoint, we are streamlining our platform and introducing some fascinating new features that will help increase productivity even further.

The creation of FinLLM, a fundamental Large Language Model (LLM) trained only on UK Financial Services data, in collaboration with partners aims to address some of the most important obstacles to LLM adoption in a highly regulated environment.

What are the upcoming major issues or difficulties facing your sector as a whole?

There is interest and investment in AI, but it has to overcome legislative obstacles in this sector. How can we make AI more widely accepted and trustworthy?

mastering the creation and refinement of Large Language Models that are industry-specific as opposed to depending too much on generic models that are more prone to error, non-specificity, and regulatory issues. While development is not accelerating, individuals are making decisions because they are afraid of missing out, which is never the correct way to do things.

In the same vein, I would strongly advise companies to seek the counsel of experts or specialists rather than depending on unskilled consultants offering advice on a variety of industries. We have narrowed our focus on financial services in order to provide our clients with far better value, expertise, and guidance. Better product offerings and meaningful solutions will result from this since we truly get their issues.