Appen’s ASX 200 leap: Artificial intelligence, powered by humans

Artificial intelligence firm Appen is the ASX 200’s best performing stock over the past 12 months.

Appen chief executive Mark Brayan.

Artificial intelligence firm Appen is the S&P/ASX 200’s best performing stock over the past 12 months, up a whopping 230 per cent year-on-year.

It is growth that chief executive Mark Brayan said showed the enormous rise in demand for artificial intelligence data. His company powers some of the world’s largest technology groups, helping social media companies surface recommendations for their users, for example, or e-commerce sites offer AI-based support to their customers.

“There is extraordinary demand behind what we’re doing,” Mr Brayan told The Weekend Australian.

“Our plan is to continue to support the demand, and to support our customers and keep growing that customer base, adding as many as we can.

“We’ve got the tailwind, so it’s about putting as much sail in the air as possible.”

It’s a mission that shareholders are buying into: Appen is up more than 2000 per cent since it listed at 63c a share in January 2015. The stock today is worth $13.38.

“I’ve run a few listed companies — Appen is my third — and what I’ve learned is the share price really comes down to strong financial performance,” Mr Brayan said.

“As long as a company does well, and the market understands what you do, you’ll do well.

“We’ve been growing very strongly and profitably, and that’s good for shareholders and it’s good for us.”

Appen’s secret sauce is its crowdsourced model.

It farms out tasks to between 30,000 and 40,000 people every month, who each get rewarded for helping train the company’s machine learning capabilities.

“If there is any challenge for us, it’s finding the right amount of ­humans to do the work,” Mr Brayan said.

“The artificial intelligence that we provide data for is generally AI that mimics a human function. So speech, sight or some sort of complex decision.

“Consequently, we use humans to build those data sets.

“We’re providing working opportunities to 30,000 to 40,000 people every month. And they get rewarded for it.

“We’re providing job opportunities for people who can’t get a job, or can only work at home.

“That’s a really positive side ­effect of our business, supporting these people.”

The CEO said he was in a privileged position to be able to work for a company like Appen, and said the results were thanks to the entire team, including employees and crowdsourced workers.

He said: “They’re the ones who deserve the credit.

“We wouldn’t be where we are without them and I’m sure our shareholders are thankful to them, too.”