Natural language AI helps enable data protection

Natural language interaction (NLI) specialist Artificial Solutions has announced enhancements to its enterprise NLI platform, Teneo, which have been developed with the EU’s incoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in mind. Teneo’s primary purpose is to enable end users to have meaningful interactions with technology.

According to Artificial Solutions, it will be the first conversational AI platform to feature next-generation data-control options to ensure clients’ compliance with GDPR. These include single incidences of data, and conversations that can be anonymized or "pseudonymized" to comply with the new regulations.

Conversational compliance

With GDPR coming into effect in May, organizations around the world are having to reshape how they handle European customer information. To gain the benefits of applying AI to data sets may demand a difficult balancing act, with all storage and data analysis systems forced to adapt to the regulations’ new parameters. Any company processing the data of EU citizens is obliged to comply with GDPR’s terms, which means that mechanisms to store, retrieve, and—in some instances—permanently delete compliant data will need to be put in place.

"The challenge for enterprises is how to maximize the benefits of deploying advanced AI technologies within their business, while remaining within the requirements of data protection legislation. Regulations are continually being extended to afford data subjects more rights and increased protection," said Andy Peart, chief strategy officer at Artificial Solutions. "With Teneo, these organizations can implement advanced conversational AI applications across all platforms, devices, and operating systems, and benefit from extensive data analysis, without contravening regulations such as GDPR."

Teneo’s compliance measures come in several forms. First of all, the platform can be housed within clients’ own information technology (IT) infrastructures. Second, the way the Teneo platform processes data has been adapted to ensure compliance with GDPR. For example, all customer queries, information, and responses gathered by the platform are stored in a single place. From an operational perspective, this streamlines the process of interpreting conversational data. And from a GDPR standpoint, it means that personal data can be easily identified and deleted if required.

Harnessing anonymous data

An obvious challenge facing companies that rely on customer data to improve business processes or spot new trends is how to do that within the new rules. Using Teneo, clients can pseudonymize their customers’ personal data. This means that conversations can still be used for statistical analysis and gathering insights, long after personal information has been removed in accordance with GDPR.

"Data is at the heart of conversational AI systems. Even when it’s been anonymized it still holds a wealth of information that enterprises can learn from, and can use to add value to the business," Peart said. "Teneo allows enterprises to maintain full ownership of the data, whereas with other providers they get access to the data. In this scenario, businesses are potentially giving away this unique company data and insight to others who, in the future, may well become competitors."

Malek Murison is editor at Internet of Business, a CFE Media content partner. This article originally appeared here. 

Original content can be found at internetofbusiness.com.

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