The “Trade Heroes” series highlights Edmonton Region companies who have ‘exportitude’ — the mindset and commitment to think globally when it comes to their business.
Siamak Akhlaghi started Correct-Ai in 2020 to see if artificial intelligence (AI) could boost safety on industrial work sites. Today, the company’s products are helping to keep people safe around the world.
Correct-Ai’s PROX-EYE™ system provides real-time proximity awareness and terrain hazard notifications to operators of industrial heavy equipment.
“The whole concept is using AI for earth-moving applications,” he said, “so it’s quite broad.” The initial goal, however, was to make sure that as computers take over the operations of heavy-duty equipment, they do so safely. The company’s two main products, PROX-EYE™ and FIELD-EYE™, do this in a variety of heavy industry scenarios. PROX-EYE™ uses a combination of cameras, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), and AI to detect what’s around a vehicle to assist operators, while FIELD-EYE™ helps to map entire worksites.
The first buyers of Correct-Ai’s product were in Fort McMurray. The company’s success there got the attention of people around the world, and now Correct-Ai has buyers in the United States, South America, South Africa, Australia, and Europe. Akhlaghi said the company’s customers include “some of the largest mines in the world.”
When mine operators buy the product there is a ripple effect, as vehicle manufacturers and dealers in the area follow the operators and in turn also adopt the technology. “Everyone started to see the benefit of that and people contacted us, and they wanted to learn more,” Akhlaghi said. The company’s technology also caught the eye of several distributors, which chose to work with Correct-Ai and resell its products rather than trying to develop their own. “This is basically how we became a more international company instead of just selling to companies in the Edmonton Region.”
When it comes to the company’s success doing business around the world, Akhlaghi emphasized the importance of setting the correct price for what’s being sold. Akhlaghi said the company was eager to learn from early adopters, and worked hard to use their input and price sensitivity to guide the product’s development. “You work back to say, how should I develop the product to bring it to that cost level?” he said. Offering high performance at an affordable price led to a turning point in having customers adopt Correct-Ai’s technology.
The need to build a robust product that could work in the harsh Fort McMurray conditions also helped the company build something that offered the capabilities customers were looking for. “When you build a product that works for this environment, it survives everywhere,” he said. Building to U.S. regulations also meant that once global buyers came calling, Correct-Ai was prepared.
Though the company now has global reach, its investors are all in the Edmonton Region. “They believed in us from day one,” Akhlaghi said. The company’s staff is local too, with about 30 people employed in the Region. The business ecosystem, funding agencies, customers, and talent from post-secondaries are key reasons why Correct-Ai has decided to build from here.
Akhlaghi got his start in autonomous vehicles, specifically passenger cars, and wondering about bringing that technology to heavy-duty equipment led to Correct-Ai. Now, he may be returning to his roots.
“One of the areas that we are eyeing is taking our product from the construction and mining industries to passenger cars,” Akhlaghi said. The company recently signed a substantial contract with a large vehicle manufacturer. “We’re excited,” Akhlaghi said, noting the shift is a big one, with higher risks but potentially higher rewards.
Competition will be fierce, as big companies like Google and Tesla currently dominate the space. “At the same time, there’s opportunity,” Akhlaghi said. “It would make us a unicorn, for sure.”
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