Five Questions with Niraj Bhargava, Co-Founder and CEO of NuEnergy.AI

NuEnergy.AI is an Ottawa-based technology company focused on AI governance and AI trust — providing third-party assessments, custom education, and a software platform that help organizations practically govern AI activities.

Co-Founder and CEO Niraj Bhargava recently sat down with CCI President Benjamin Bergen to talk about AI governance in today’s evolving landscape, and the unique challenges of a young company that is also a globally-recognized thought leader working with the Canadian government.

Cette transcription a été éditée pour des raisons de longueur et de clarté.

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Benjamin Bergen: Niraj, thanks for joining me today. Could you give us a background on NuEnergy.AI? What’s the main problem you’re trying to solve?

Niraj Bhargava: We formed NuEnergy.AI six and a half years ago. At the time, people questioned the importance of AI governance, wondering if it was a big enough market to serve. Instead of taking our deep AI expertise and focusing on building algorithms and models like many others, we chose to concentrate on managing, governing, and overseeing AI activity. We focused on measuring the trust of the AI.  

We knew there were significant risks, as well as huge opportunities, with AI so we established the company with a focus on practical AI governance and guardrails. We committed to be a pure-play company, providing third-party assessments via a configurable platform to build trust in AI, rather than just claiming that our own AI is responsible. Our key message is that AI can be trusted, and we have the methods and experiences to show that it’s possible.

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BB: That’s a great way of framing it. It sounds like many people rushed to the AI component itself but weren’t thinking about the mechanisms that keep it safe. Six years ago, we didn’t have ChatGPT or the hype that we do around AI, what has that meant for you over this six-year journey?

NB: We're pioneers in this space. We have proven methods to measure the trustworthiness of AI - like with our patented Machine Trust Index.

Clearly, a lot has changed, so we're staying on top of the technology and the trends. There are more waves to come, but I think the wake-up call has already happened, so we no longer have to explain why this is important. Now, the focus is on the 'how' and 'what,' and we have those ingredients in our R&D. We have the tested and approved Machine Trust Platform that can oversee AI activity, providing guardrails and governance dashboards so you can monitor it effectively.

When we talk about trust in AI, the risks now go beyond AI bias, privacy, and ethics; there's also the risk of not doing it at all. I believe not leveraging this technology is the worst thing we could do.

I was recently doing a session with the United Nations on the Sustainable Development Goals, and we discussed the significant challenges our world faces—huge challenges. AI presents a tremendous opportunity in areas like healthcare, climate change, and within the mandates of many of our companies and boards. We need to leverage AI, because if we don't, someone else will—whether it's a competitor or individuals with nefarious intentions.

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BB: Yeah, so where would you say you've seen the biggest uptake in terms of the guardrails and tools you've created? Has it been primarily from industry, or has the government shown more interest? Where is the traction happening most quickly?

NB: We have a great team at NuEnergy.AI, and we've also leveraged a number of mentors throughout the course of our company’s development. We found that when it comes to trust in AI, the public sector is rightfully especially sensitive to this issue. As a team of purpose driven innovators, we can relate to public demands— but government isn't always the easiest market to serve, given the challenges for a young company to penetrate that space.

However, we decided to prioritize the public sector because we recognized the significant opportunity to leverage AI technology to make government more efficient and effective. Public trust is crucial across all segments of the economy, but it's particularly vital for the government, so we made it a priority.  We are serving other sectors, mostly driven from the urgent needs and learnings from their board.  

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BB: That's interesting. Building on that, could you dive a little deeper into how we're seeing AI increasingly being adopted in professional spaces, like accounting or even law, where it's being used for tasks like drafting contracts?

NB: AI is clearly a transformational technology, and the world will look very different five years from now. It's a huge opportunity to ride that wave and see how you can effectively leverage the technology to strengthen your contributions and your organization's impact in every capacity. There's no territory that won't be affected by this change, so the key is to start leveraging AI today—learn about it and apply it where it makes sense.

Every role and profession is evolving, and as you mentioned, awareness and knowledge are crucial, not just to take advantage of AI but also to understand the risks that need to be monitored. We help address many risks like generative AI hallucinations, misinformation, and support the productivity improvements that come from leveraging this technology. It's important to have a transparent understanding of what's happening with AI activities, and we're encouraging the implementation of measures to monitor it. It's not just about deciding whether AI is good or bad; it's about having metrics to assess things like bias in the technology, acceptable performance levels, and privacy protection.

Clearly, we all have an opportunity to leverage AI in any profession, and I encourage that we do so—but with the necessary checks and balances to build confidence.

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BB: In terms of your experience working with the government, what's that been like as a nimble firm trying to help and collaborate within the civil service?

NB: There are definitely lessons to be learned and areas for improvement. It’s not easy for a young company to work with the government. Whether it's security approvals or the built-in preference for big brands that are perceived as lower risk, there are many challenges. There are significant opportunities for improvement in how procurement is handled within the Government of Canada. We've learned lessons on how we can do better as an industry, but there are also things the government can improve.

We've persevered and found ways to support the government market, and we will continue to do so because we're not looking for government handouts at NuEnergy.AI—we're looking to help the government tackle this important task. We are a young company that stands as best in class alongside any of the big companies globally, and as a Canadian company, we're proud to provide an important service to the government.

After a competitive process and rigorous testing with Innovative Solutions Canada, NuEnergy.AI became an approved direct-buy vendor for Government of Canada departments - a milestone that took over three years to achieve.  After another twelve months of effort, NuEnergy.ai is now contracted as the third-party reviewer of AI for the largest digital transformation project ever undertaken by the Government of Canada.  We are eager to expand our support to other Government departments and crown corporations, helping them leverage trustworthy AI to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.  

Additionally, we’re pleased to offer CCI members and Canadian tech companies access to our specialized metrics and assessments to make their AI solutions more attractive to the public sector and global markets for responsible AI.

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À propos du Conseil

Le Conseil des innovateurs canadiens est un conseil d'affaires national regroupant plus de 150 entreprises technologiques à grande échelle dont le siège social se trouve au Canada. Nos membres sont des créateurs d'emplois, des philanthropes et des experts en commercialisation dans l'économie numérique du 21e siècle.