Mixing family and business: Student founder optimistic about future of productivity

In the monotonous haze of mundane data entry, Humza Ahmed found inspiration at his engineering co-operative education placement and an opportunity to innovate. His frustration for his work grew into optimism for the future of productivity.

With a vision of creating efficiency, Humza built a software solution using artificial intelligence (AI) that would automate their own data entry process.

“Many businesses don’t know the power of AI to support automation of their own internal processes”

Humza Ahmed, student founder of AutomaxAI.

It wasn’t until a visit with family in the United States that he found a greater calling. During his stay, he discovered the plight of real estate appraisers drowning in day-to-day tasks. “So much of their time was spent on similarly tedious and repetitive tasks like filling in forms or searching through databases,” Humza said.

Determined to make a difference, he developed software to streamline appraisal processes and found a newfound passion for the industry while simultaneously engineering new AI models. “The more I learned, the more opportunities I found.”

With each interaction, appraisers echoed their frustrations, which fuelled his conviction to bring change. “It is the feeling of making a genuine difference that inspires me to do this full time,” Humza said. With his idea refined, Humza entered the Velocity Pitch Competition. His product, Automax AI, aims to revolutionize the industry. It features the Appraisal co-pilot which helps appraisers spend their time on the analytical portion of their job which requires their acute expertise.

Unlike existing solutions, Humza’s software leveraged conversational Large Language Models (LLMs), offering unparalleled automation and insight. “My vision is to bring about a drastic positive change in the lives of existing appraisers,” he said. By relieving appraisers of mundane tasks, he hopes to attract new talent and foster innovation within the field. He anticipates a broader shift towards conversational AI agents in real estate transactions.

Acknowledging the potential disruption caused by AI, Humza said: “Where AI takes jobs, it always creates more opportunities as well in companies like mine.”

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