SA startup Pickstar is incorporating AI to improve matchmaking

The Australian Institute for Machine Learning is providing startup hiring company Pickstar the tools it needs to drive its business with data, proving a valuable link between university research and commercial application.

The Australian Institute of Machine Learning (AIML) focuses on the creation and application of machine learning, a branch of AI related to applications that autonomously learn from data. 

Founded in 2018 and funded by the South Australian government and the University of Adelaide, the AIML has been involved in many projects in the fields of medicine and health, environmental sustainability, mining and resources, and agriculture and food.

The AIML was asked by Pickstar — a South Australian business that allows customers to pick from a range of celebrities to be guest speakers or brand ambassadors — to improve their matchmaking process for both their customers and stars.

Grant Osborne, the lead machine learning engineer at AIML, said Pickstar could see how important data is and how it can be applied to improve the experience for everyone involved.

“The guys at Pickstar are really on it when it comes to seeing that data is important, and knowing if we have this kind of opportunity available for a talent these are the most appropriate jobs,” Osborne said.

Osborne said they try to make the process simple and understandable for companies like Pickstar.

“We build demonstrators that we can put straight in front of the clients, they’ve got a demo app where they can see all the data and see what the predictions and recommendations type engines will be able to do for them,” Osborne said.

“We’ve been working with Pickstar to essentially help them build a more data-driven business. We’ve been looking at data sets, helping to identify the most important element of the data, building dashboards as well as doing machine learning around prediction and the kinds of talent they will be recommending for certain jobs. Data is king.”

Chief executive and co-founder of Pickstar James Begley said AIML has been helpful in providing a service that will be able to effectively pair up customers with the right stars within the client’s budget.

“The question that we answer as a business is, who can I get for my budget?” Begley said.

“The work that the AIML does allows us as a Pickstar platform to serve up and recommend the best available talent for someone’s brief and budget and that can only happen with heavy investment into machine learning and data analyticsto underpin the recommendation engine.” 

Begley said machine learning will help Pickstar to achieve faster and better results for their customers. 

“The main aspect is that they have provided us a road map but also a prototype, an actual tangible early-stage product that we are going to use and commercialise, this is taking university smarts and bringing it into the real world for commercial application.” he said.

“For us the investment into machine learning and data analytics is only going to increase so if we can maintain that relationship with the institute, we will be very pleased to follow on.”

This article was first published by The Lead South Australia.