Knoema offers a chatbot interface for its data search engine

Knoema is the latest data provider to add a conversational interface.

The McLean, Virginia-based company has launched an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot called Yodatai, which it describes as the first digital assistant for public and corporate data. The name, CEO Vladimir Bougay told me, is a shortening of “your data AI.”

His company provides access to industry, governmental and market data from thousands of providers, including the US Census, the US Department of Energy and other sources around the world. Additionally, Yodatai has been integrated with product analytics platform Amplitude and can access other databases via API. Integrations with other data services are in the works.

Developed for Slack, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Twitter, Skype and email, Yodatai can answer questions like:

• How big is Sweden’s population?
• How many users signed up for our company’s products last week?
• What data do you have on X?

It can also be instructed to “notify me when there is new info on Brazil’s GDP” or similar data updates, and Knoema says it offers context along with the specific answer.

Additionally, the company says that if someone’s statistics-based claim on Twitter is accompanied by @Yodatai, she — Bougay says the chatbot is female — will respond on Twitter with info about that claim. Here’s an example shown on Knoema’s website:

He added that Knoema’s customers are generally governmental or industry consultants and analysts. Users can search the data for free but are charged if they want to export the data or wish to identify the source.

While Yodatai is available for both desktop and mobile, Bougay said it was developed specifically for mobile so that users can get answers on the go without having to read charts and graph on their phones. All interaction is text-based, using natural language.

Although Yodatai is designed to understand a range of questions, he added that the machine learning should improve her understanding over time.

Yodatai is the one of the latest efforts to make data more accessible via chat interfaces that resemble conversations. Marketing/ad data management platform Datorama, for instance, launched an Alexa front-end last December.

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.