As the trade war escalates, Hence launches an AI ‘advisor’ to help companies manage risk

President Donald Trump’s rates have underlined the increasing geopolitical risk with which almost all companies are now confronted. As the situation continues to shift with Trump’s unpredictable deal, it also becomes clear how challenging it is for companies, non-profit organizations, consultants and lawyers to keep track of the rapid daily changes.

“We drown every day of every day in trade updates,” said Matthew Oresman, London Managing Partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, a global law firm, to WAN.

The company, whose customers include multinationals and Hoognet-worthy individuals, as well as companies in technology, energy and AI, is one of the first customers for the startup based in London Hence aiThe new software product, hence worldwide. That is why Global AI uses to help organizations follow the geopolitical and business risk.

The tool does two things. Firstly, it helps companies to follow every size of the risk and it advises them on actions they can take to reduce that risk. Secondly, it helps service providers, such as advice and law firms, to generate a meaningful analysis of the world for their customers.

Sean West, CEO and co-founder of Hence AI (formerly hence technologies), said that they consider it worldwide as “an AI-drive business adviser who drives next to you.” For only $ 1500 a year for the basic product, is therefore much more affordable than your typical consultant, West argued.

“We want to democratize access to this information,” West told WAN in an exclusive interview and noted that organizations such as startups and NGOs cannot afford to call their lawyers every time they have a question about exposure or spend half a million dollars on an advisory contract.

“Large companies know how to buy expensive advice, and the richest people will always talk to the smartest people, and they will pay for them,” West continued. “But the majority of the market can actually be operated by technology.”

West previously served as a global deputy CEO of Geopolitical Advisory Firm Eurasia Group and recently published a book, “”Unmanageable: fighting back when politics, AI and rights improve the business rules.‘One of his co-founders, Steve Heitkamp, ​​is a Palantir-Aluin with a background in political risk and terrorism.

That is why Global is built on the Foundry and artificial intelligence platform of Palantir, so that the startup can mix different AI models to understand, summarize and analyze relevant information based on the specific needs and industry of a customer. The system gets data from Nieuwskoppen (and only the headlines, with a link to the source, says West), Wikipedia, Securities and Exchange Commission archives, press releases and other public data such as sanction lists or information from the World Bank.

West led me through how the product works to show its potential impact. Customers start making a persona. For the purposes of the demo we told the system that we were a cross-border cryptocurrency infrastructure company that offers stablecoin payments, crypto guardianship and regulatory information. We also told Global that we wanted “a continuous, future -oriented analysis of geopolitical developments that can influence our operational environment”, and gave it a handful of topics to keep track of.

The idea is that Global will generate a daily update every day with relevant news and information. In the case of the fictional Crypto company, one of the stories that marked the software that caused Trump’s trade war caused market volatility that led to Bitcoin and other crypto shares fell.

“In short, it does the work that a Middle Level analyst would have done in my organization,” said West. He added that it would have taken all day all day to produce a memo that will be released worldwide within a minute.

That is why the daily briefing from Global is great for companies that want to understand their own geopolitical and business risk, but it is also useful for service companies that follow this information for their customers.

It is crucial that when a customer asks worldwide to check a company, the system asks if that company is a customer, a competitor or a supplier, so that the platform will think about how it offers information and analyzes differently.

“We were desperately looking for this type of tool that can synthesize [information]Help us write the customer warnings, give us that great core of information that we can increase and place our legal knowledge, “said Oresman.” There is just a fire hose of information that is there. Having something like this actually brings it to a water fountain, so that we can actually do something useful with it. “

That is why Global has not been live for more than a few months, but Trump’s tariff situation has already begun to bring in new customers on top of existing customers such as Travelperk, Diversifi Capital and three crowns.

Rohitesh Dhawan, CEO of the International Council on Metals and Mining, TechCrunch said that he uses worldwide to control market sentiment and policy.

“We try to show the world that it is possible to produce mining in a responsible way,” said Dhawan. “But to do that, you really have to be well connected to the wrist of society and what people care about and the problems that are top of mind, and that is why we turn as a way to help us do that, because things just move in the world in general so quickly.”

Dhawan was compared, so worldwide for Uber Eats – a product that you didn’t know you needed until it turned up and made your life easier. He said that companies in resources based on industries, such as agriculture or oil and gas, and companies that are highly regulated or are strongly exposed to public sentiment, such as technical startups, would therefore benefit the most to use worldwide.

“This was always the kind of monitoring that we just didn’t do before,” said Dhawan. “That is why helping if CEO is to do if CEO is to come quickly,” So what? “

That is why Global is the second product of the startup, then legally, a “solution for external management, matter management and process management”, per West. That is why AI, whose team is spread over the VK, Rwanda, the US and the Netherlands, so far raised around $ 5.2 million and is actively looking for more for this product of investors who match his mission.

When asked whether AI would therefore be open to taken over by larger research houses, consultancy firms or law firms, West said that he and his team are less interested in going home of an organization.

“We try to do big things,” he added. “And I think the big chance here is to make the market of people who are worldwide, but do not have access to advice. And I don’t think that is necessarily what a large business service provider would do with this.”