Square’s Machine Learning Obsession is Paying Off
Investors are excited about the potential for artificial intelligence to enable fully autonomous cars and smarter voice assistants. Until then, the technology is already having a meaningful impact on the more mundane way that companies go about doing business. In a note to clients Friday, Mizuho analyst Thomas McCrohan highlighted how payments companies are making good use of machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence. Square, he wrote, is leading the pack, as the company’s goal “is to approach every business challenge through the lens of machine learning.” He points out that while the company ends up processing about 3 million transactions per day, it only has to manually review fewer than 2,000 of them for fraud, thanks to artificial intelligence. AI also enables the company to send more targeted mailings, which helps Square gain new customers cheaply. Square’s algorithms can also help the company upsell current clients on additional products like loans and payroll management, which have become crucial to growth. “Square’s internal models trigger staff to call or email a client when the data suggests the client would be most receptive to a new value-add service,” McCrohan wrote. He thinks Square recruits very strong engineering talent to begin…
Link to Full Article: Square’s Machine Learning Obsession is Paying Off
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