The ai Corporation, University of Southampton Team Up to Research Machine Learning for Tackling Fraud

ai’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the University of Southampton’s Computer Science and Mathematics Departments is funded by Innovate UK grant

London & New York: The ai Corporation (ai), an FCA approved expert in payments, fraud and risk management, and the University of Southampton (UoS), today announced the launch of a groundbreaking research partnership that aims to further improve fraud risk strategy automation through machine learning.

The project will be funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, via a £100,000 grant over 2 years. The project will commence in the Autumn (2018), with a post-doctorate researcher working alongside ai’s research team and Professors from UoS.

ai’s KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) with UoS’s Computer Science and Mathematics Departments will make use of ai’s existing fraud tools, including manual rules and its innovative SmartScore and SmartRule solutions to increase understanding of how fraud detection can be automatically and continually optimized with minimal user interaction. At present, ai’s anti-fraud solutions, using machine learning and artificial intelligence, protect payments for banks, multi-channel merchants and in turn, consumer cardholders, monitoring billions of transactions and authorizations every year.

The joint team will be led by Oliver Tearle – ai’s Head of Research, Professor Mahesan Niranjan – Head of the Information: Signals, Images and Systems Research Group and Professor Jacek Brodzki – Professor of Mathematics, Head of Applied Topology Group at the UoS.

Oliver Tearle, ai’s Head of Research, says. “Our partnership with UoS is a key step in increasing ai’s ability to further innovate and automate for our clients. The joint research team aims to transfer and embed an innovative capability, based on advanced machine learning approaches that will automate the time-consuming task of fraud risk strategy management in the finance sector.

“The results of the research will allow fraud and risk managers to take a step back from the continual task of optimizing fraud strategy. The machine will be able to work continually in the background, enabling human teams to tackle other challenges in areas that at present can’t be automated.”

How ai’s Machine Learning Technology Works

ai’s SmartSuite of machine learning technology gives banks the power to automatically create effective fraud rules, which can be implemented into any fraud platform, including ai’s rules engine RiskNet®. By using machine learning, banks can automate their fraud prevention, mitigating ACH fraud regardless of how it is perpetrated including account takeover, ‘man in the middle’ fraud and / or social engineering.

ai’s SmartScore® and SmartRule® self-service machine learning based fraud detection systems give users the flexibility of creating an effective, high coverage fraud strategy to detect very specific issues, as well as larger problems. SmartScore®, one of six products within ai’s SmartSuite, creates neural models using artificial intelligence and automated machine learning techniques, to recognize patterns and trends in fraud, providing transaction risk scores to be used in conjunction with user-defined rules.

With its unique multi-model capabilities, SmartScore® enables users to create neural models specific to a fraud type, customer segment or payment method, including ACH. By constantly refreshing the data available, SmartScore® provides an up to date and accurate risk score based on current trends, ensuring that RiskNet® or any third-party fraud platform users are not reviewing unnecessary alerts.

Providing solutions to financial and payment institutions and international merchants, ai offers self-service tools that allow customers to take control of their fraud detection requirements, while also using the machine learning technologies for other business processes that require detailed consumer insight for marketing or pricing.

ai, with an eye on the evolution of payments digitization, has enhanced its fraud and analytical capabilities for its payment gateway issuing platform and European Money Licence, and can be the payment facilitator for new alternative payment types to manage omnichannel transactions securely via a cloud-based platform.