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RESEAU Expands its Community Circle™ with Indigenous Conversational AI provider Kama.AI

RESEAU has pioneered an award-wining methodology for discovering, innovating and implementing clean water solutions called Community Circle™. Through this approach, RESEAU engages with rural and Indigenous communities to develop bespoke solutions, addressing water-health challenges on each community’s unique terms. However, scaling such a high-engagement community problem-solving process can be resource and schedule intensive on all parties, ultimately limiting the ability for community-based subject matter experts, or solution providers, to enter rural markets. In the summer of 2022, the not-for-profit, did an extensive survey of solutions on the market that could help RESEAU scale its efforts to deliver quality, culturally appropriate, water- health solutions to rural and Indigenous communities. This market review led to discussions with the Indigenous AI company, Kama.AI.

“Water solutions are not a one-size-fits-all problem. Communities have differing issues, resources, cultural values and other factors that can dramatically change the applicability of one solution versus another. Collaboration and knowledge-sharing is key, but also challenging to achieve at scale. We are optimistic about how emerging technologies can allow water operators to effectively engage with communities, governments, regulatory agencies and industry” said Jonathan Riberdy of Zhiibaahaasing First Nation, and recipient of the 2021 National First Nations Water Leadership Award.

RESEAU Executive Director, Keyvan Maleki, reflected, “When it comes to innovation, Rural and Urban are analogous to ice and water; the economies associated with ways each are produced, traded, transported, stored, used and sustained are just different. Global innovation bandwidth is preoccupied with opportunities in urban markets, powered by big data. Industry narrowly understands the diverse challenges of the rural settings. Hence there is an unmet need for generating and capturing contextual data and translating it into insights augmented by communities’ principles and decisions adopted in the innovation cycle for Indigenous communities. We knew AI was the path forward for us to scale, we just had to find the right partner with a responsible AI technology. We were searching for an approach that focused on inclusive solutions for diverse populations, that can help contextualize ethnographic data, and deliver culturally appropriate outcomes. I’m grateful to our strategic market research partner, Gartner, for recommending Kama.ai. It is one thing to be affiliated with a company that has a patented, ethical, conversational problem-solving approach guided by human values, but it is another to have an Indigenous owned AI company as partner.”

Brian Ritchie, a member of Northern Ontario’s Chapleau Cree First Nation and the founder and CEO of Kama.AI, said they were delighted to receive the call. “Being approached by the RESEAU team was really a serendipitous experience. When they explained their mission of helping resolve remote and Indigenous community water-boil advisories through consultation, innovation and collaboration, we knew we were stepping into something very special.”

As a global leader for mobilizing innovation, RESEAU has developed a reputation that takes time to build, and is often as difficult, or even harder, to maintain. “There is such comfort knowing Kama.AI is willing to go out of their way to supply us with engaging, tailored AI offerings, and they do so with incredible efficiency and professionalism. We are looking forward to our partnership to building out and scaling the Community Circle™,” said Maleki.

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About Kama.AI

Kama.AI’s Designed Experiential Intelligence® platform, Kama DEI, is a transparent and ethical natural language conversational intelligence that lets brands and other organizations educate and support their clientele with automated, personalized service. Guided by consumer or client values like “culture”, “effectiveness”, “health”, and over 150 other universal societal values, kama DEI brings real human meaning to computer understanding. End- users can access the platform through any medium including chatbots, Messenger®, Alexa® or mobile phone apps. Kama DEI’s zero-code administrative system allows subject matter experts, and other knowledge holders to curate relevant information to support frequently asked questions or more complex inquiries or conversations. The result is anytime-access to automated, personalized product and service information while live customer service agents focus on higher level, value-added client engagement. Visit: https://kama.ai/

About RESEAU Centre for Mobilizing Innovation

RESEAU Centre for Mobilizing Innovation is a non-profit center of excellence dedicated to the design and implementation of innovative solutions for drinking water quality and community health in Indigenous and rural communities. Through rigorous proprietary, multi-award-winning, problem-solving methodology, The Community Circle™, it allies with rural and Indigenous communities to develop innovative solutions for their water-health challenges. Success is defined on the community’s unique terms, ensuring all actionable insights are independent, objective, and tailored to the communities’ goals and priorities, building grassroots trust and confidence in driving the product development cycle from concept to execution and beyond. Visit https://www.reseaucmi.org

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