WITO AI

So, what does the future of work look like for us? Transferable skills, that is those qualities we all have, that we take from one job to another, are going to be pretty important. Many top organisations favor them when finding ‘the right person for the job’. The good thing is we all have them; they are shaped by our experiences in the real world. 

The WITO app lets you create and share short digital stories that can be used to make you more employable. We aim to help you show evidence of your transferable skills from the things you’re passionate about. WITO shows you insights from your stories in order to identify your transferable skills and recommends relevant community based activities. We even encourage you to self-reflect on your stories, to give you the tools you need to confidently communicate your skills to employers, or anyone! 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly prevalent in the organisation and management of everyday life. CNBC (2019) estimates that 25% of U.S. jobs are at risk of automation, whilst McKinsey (2017) predicts the obsolescence of 800 million workers globally. However, there is an increased opportunity for emerging job positions which include roles rooted in creativity and interpersonal interaction.

Those seeking employment, especially young individuals, face unprecedented challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the global response to widespread economic disruption experienced by individuals, businesses and organisations. The nature of work is changing; transferable skills are accepted as essential for prosperity. Unfortunately, the future landscape of work increases the level of uncertainty felt by young people and many others who lack experience and struggle to make decisions that will impact their future. The same individuals are unsure how to create and maximise their opportunities and as a result feel overwhelmed and pressured to shine in a system which does not allow them to do so. WITO aims to foster resilience during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. Collecting human-centred data around self-identified transferable skills, enabling for better support of individuals, communities and organisations as they navigate new-collar work.

The WITO app allows users to create, archive and share digital stories in a variety of media formats. Our storytelling framework allows users to effortlessly create short, engaging personal stories with the purpose of demonstrating their skills, talents and accomplishments. Critical self-reflection is encouraged through an evidence-based method that identifies transferable skills to enhance employability. The platform uses data analytics to visualise users’ transferable skills. These insights enable users to further learn and develop their skills by suggesting relevant ventures and voluntary or community-based activities tailored by AI. Users are able to share auto-generated WITO statements that highlight both professional and personal experience-based evidence. Users’ digital stories translate into opportunities rooted in abilities, passion and evidence, in addition to more traditional academic credentials and social networks. WITO provides a non-traditional channel for users to communicate the value of their own data in personal and professional contexts.  

Everyone has a unique set of skills and experiences that allow them to excel, but they may not be able to find the right opportunities. Educationdata.org (2019) estimates that by 2029 there will be 14.5 million students enrolled in college. However, InsideHigherED (2019) suggests that only 25% of college graduates secure jobs related to their degree. The days of a Journalist who studied Journalism, or the Entrepreneur who studied business, are numbered; these individuals are the exception.  

Market research shows that young people feel pressured to make life-changing decisions about their futures, having little to no relevant experience related to their prospective careers. WITO’s efforts initially targeted recent college graduates seeking entry-level positions and internships. This focus has broadened to include low-skilled workers, individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds and those facing redundancy. All of these groups may benefit from the WITO solution.

WITO empowers individuals to recognise the value of, communicate and develop their transferable skills to bolster employability. Users are connected to opportunities, experiences and voluntary positions that meaningfully contribute to national and international communities.

The WITO solution relates to the Good Jobs & Inclusive Entrepreneurship Challenge. In particular, WITO helps potential workers recognise and develop the durable and transferable skills they need to stay apace with the changing job market. By facilitating self-reflection and self-development and experiential evidence, WITO empowers users to harness and create opportunities suited to their strengths. WITO also suggests ways for users to develop relevant transferable skills by learning through action. This solution’s target population comprises those groups at risk of prolonged unemployment due to educational and social inequalities, and financial pressures .

WITO’s innovation is in the use of digital storytelling to access opportunities in a professional context. WITO facilitates digital storytelling through AI and conversational chatbots. These stories provide a new method to assess the competency of a person’s skills, potentially unlocking a new way to identify talent. As the stories create the opportunity to develop a soft skills CV.

The ‘Skills and Endorsements’ section on LinkedIn profiles allow recruiters to search for candidates by skills they claim to have. However, profiles often contain the same buzzwords for soft skills, which on their own become arbitrary. These skills could become more meaningful if users provided evidence through their unique stories.

Current recruitment technology emphasises talent matching by personality tests and culture fit assessments. For example, Good.Co focuses on ‘culture fit’ by using archetypes, Pymetrics and PrevueHR use games that measure cognitive and emotional attributes based on behavioural research. The methodology of these approaches can be questioned. Rather than categorizing people by ‘personality’ or ‘ability’ (which can have many biases), we want to showcase the relationship between users' skills and experiences, highlighting their unique perspectives and strengths This enables the application of both qualitative and quantitative methods to create unique datasets for extraction of information using AI methods. Our solution is different as we are conveying users competencies through their stories, rather than a test ‘score’ or personality ‘match’.

WITO’s platform uses an Android mobile application where users upload digital stories of their experiences. These consist of both text based answers and multimedia. Users engage in mini-interviews with conversational chatbots to both extract more information out of their stories and help users create their digital stories.

In addition to the mobile app, WITO will develop an education technology version of the app for deployment within schools and educational institutes. Following a Software-as-a-Service model, this will include a web-based analytics service to enable schools to better tailor training of skills to individual students' needs. 

The platform utilises several technologies to facilitate digital storytelling. WITO includes several core technologies:

• Chatbots: to engage users throughout the storytelling process in order to extract more information in a natural conversational manner.

• Artificial Intelligence: information collected through the digital story creation is processed using AI, specifically using Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning and Statistical analysis to identify user skills. WITO has advisory in AI ethics to ensure bias is not introduced to the systems developed and unwanted results are mitigated.

• Cloud-based Solution: Analytics service and mobile backend are hosted in AWS to ensure security and scalability.

• Data visualization: to transform qualitative data into a quantitative format which is intuitive and meaningful for the user. 

• Machine learning: Large training datasets are used to identify parameters of data driven models. After testing, these models are then deployed to make predictions on new incoming data. WITO uses a mixture of supervised and unsupervised learning methods including clustering analysis & semantic analysis to gain further insights into the digital stories and skills identification. Machine Learning: A Probabilistic Approach (Kevin P. Murphy) -

• Deep Learning: Deep Learning is a subset of machine learning methods. When extracting information from the stories, text-based identification is conducted using Natural Language Processing (https://www.tensorflow.org/probability). All models are trained on anonymised data in a separate database to ensure GDPR compliance.

• Statistical analysis: Statistical methods such as Bayesian Analysis are used to update WITO’s knowledge about a user’s skills profile for the web-based analytics service.

• Conversational AI: WITO is using elements of discourse analysis to design conversational chatbots. This will enable improved communication between the app and the user. For further information see: 1) https://dialogflow.com/, 2) Discourse Analysis - Talk: The Science of Communication - Prof. Liz Stokoe, 3) Natural Action Processing (Housley, Albert & Stokoe, Halfway to the Future Symposium 2019).

Through the activities of storytelling, journaling and self-reflection, the user’s outputs are unique stories that capture their experiences. This enables short-term outcomes of skills identification and evidence, which help towards medium-term outcomes of improved self-understanding, improved communication of skills, and improving on or learning new skills. This links to the long-term outcomes of users becoming better suited and more resilient to job market changes, as well as increasing job satisfaction and productivity. This directly works towards our missions which are to help prepare people for the future of work, create fairer access to opportunities, and help enable social mobility. 

The key pain points identified from our primary research demonstrate that people don’t know what skills they have, struggle to evidence these skills, and struggle to communicate transferable skills. We don’t have all of the evidence to confirm our theory of change, but we aim to validate our hypothesis when undertaking pilot studies next year. The evidence backing up our hypotheses are:

• McKinsey (2017) predicts the obsolescence of 800 million workers globally due to automation and artificial intelligence. Consequently, soft skills will be more important for jobs in the future. 

• Lack of public funding has contributed to a new urban class divide within the UK (Mind the Gap, Ferdinand Mount, 2012), which prevents access to further education & social mobility. This fosters a class ceiling, which prevents access to jobs and further impacts later life (The Class Ceiling, Friedman and Laurison). The UK Social Mobility Commission (2019) has identified soft skills as essential to the prosperity of individuals and broader society within the UK. 

• Social capital is typically developed in the third place, i.e. social activities. Putnam (Bowling Alone, 2000) describes how physical locations for social experiences and community building are in decline within the US, as a result, key skills that would have been exchanged are in decline. Communication of experiences plays a large role in our ability to learn and gain confidence. Building compelling stories will improve the user’s ability to communicate and enable community learning. In addition, stories can increase empathy, reduce prejudice and loneliness (BBC 2020).

Current: 0 Users - Currently prototyping the app.

• 1 year: 1000 Daily Active Users (10,000 Monthly Active Users) - Aim to have launched the freemium version of the app, accessible on the Google Play store for students, graduates and job seekers. Aim to have started the pilot phase with schools by offering the edtech version of the app and analytics service, as SaaS for educational institutions.

• 5 years: 1 million Daily Active Users (10 million - Monthly Active Users). - Aim to have both the freemium and edtech version of the app and services launched in domestic and international markets.

Within the next year, we would like to have achieved:

1. Helping 1000 users build a habit of journaling and self reflecting.

2. Having 100 users partaking in voluntary and community-based activities.

3. Increase product awareness & find advocates before they enter the workforce.

We plan to achieve these goals by:

1. Establishing partnerships with local councils and education boards, and conducting pilot studies with 10 schools.

2. Communicating the benefits of regular journaling and self reflecting, conducting workshops and other events to engage with end users.

3. Partnerships with institutions at the age range of 16+, launch the education version of the app.

Within the next 5 years, we would like to have achieved:

1. Build diverse, high performing teams for 100 organisations. 

2. Disrupt the job application process, get 1,000 organisations to replace their traditional CV + cover letter recruitment process. 

3. Helping 1 million users become more resilient in the job market.

4. Expand into regions including North America & Europe.

We plan to achieve these goals by:

1. Talent identification tool. Employer partnerships - focus on industry adoption - workshops & advisory in employment

2. Providing a new communication channels between users and employers.

3. Enabling users to effectively communicate transferable skills, so they are well equipped to work in new sectors.

4. Implementation of the app, services and communications in other languages including French and Spanish. User research outside of the UK to better understand cultural differences. Partnering with foreign Government Education Departments & NGOs.

5. Deployed on IOS Platform

6. Recommendation engine based on user suggested activities. 

Financial

• Economic impact of COVID-19.

• Education funding is reduced.

• Funding to scale.

Cultural

• Younger generations may have a different attitude towards work.

• Loss of the ‘third place’.

• User acceptance, stigma and reduced engagement towards journaling and self-reflection

• Fear of negative outcomes from freely expressing opinions

• Smartphone usage mainly for consumption rather than productivity

Technological

• Access to the internet and mobile devices in the developing world

• AI & NLP capable of supporting multiple languages to access larger markets.

• Relevant recommendations - skills identification, improve skills (volunteer), and jobs

• Personal experiences that asks the right question, at the right time, in the right way

• IOS Platform

Legal

• Data collection and AI Ethics, especially collection of minors/childrens data

• International relations, potential de-globalisation leading to less movement of talent

Market 

• Lack of industry contacts within education and employment etc. 

• Industry acceptance, organizations and educational institutions.

• Acceptance in multiple regions

• Educational contacts in international markets

• Competing in the recruitment technology market.

Financial

• Once we have an MVP and proof of concept, we will look to complete an investment round to start scaling.

• Maintaining steady revenue growth, aiming to reach profitability as soon as possible.

Cultural

• Empathise with younger generations to understand their wants, needs, and pain points.

• Development of a community programme, to bring back the ‘third-place’ that has been lost due mostly to social media.

• Effectively communicate the benefits of journaling and self-reflection by targeted marketing campaigns.

• Workshops and educational programs to change consumer attitude towards skills development and career choice. 

Technological

• Focus on soft skills to prepare people for the jobs of the future.

• Develop a web-based application.

• Cloud based services include automated translation e.g. AWS Amazon translate.

Legal

• Using design for AI and AI ethics advisors, engagement with UK-based AI council

Market Barriers

• Attend EdTech events to acquire contacts and develop partnerships

• Proof of concept and partner with organisations

• Pilot programmes within schools. helps students who may not be considering higher education for financial reasons. 

• Volunteer programs around the UK. - Duke of Edinburgh, Princes’ Trust.

• Presentations in forums - MIT Solve community 

• Proof that our solution can build higher performing teams than competitor recruitment technology

The core team:

1. Rhys Comissiong (PhD Candidate in Automotive Data Science)

2. Robin Hamer (PhD Candidate in Complex Systems and Resilience Engineering)

3. Thierry Wanless (MSci Computer Science, experience in mobile & web development)

4. William Jephcote (User Experience Designer)

WITO is supported by both academic and industrial advisors including:

1. Dr Stuart Cockbill (Service Design, Loughborough University)

2. Dr Val Mitchell (User-Centred Design, Loughborough University)

3. Nicholas Johnson (PhD Candidate in Design & Innovation Management)

4. Dr Leah Henrickson (AI Ethics & Digital Storytelling, University of Leeds)

5. Oronde Saunders (Business Analyst & Project Management, Lloyds Banking Group)

6. Lewis Comissiong (Digital Content Designer)

The WITO team is a tight-knit, cross-functional group of Designers, Engineers and Creatives with an appetite to learn. Our interdisciplinary team makes us well-equipped and well-positioned to implement this AI-driven solution. While not losing sight of the big picture, we use our diverse range of professional and personal experiences to implement feasible and scalable solutions that meaningfully contribute to complex societal issues of employment. We understand the struggle to make informed life decisions, and hope to lead others towards the practices of self-reflection and conscious action that we ourselves have benefited from. We value human connections that push individuals towards interpersonal understanding and problem solving.  We believe in the transferability of the experiences of everyday life. You already have what you need to succeed. WITO helps you recognize the value and applicability of your own lived experiences and perspectives. Although technology is the vehicle, you are the driver. Let’s get to our destination together.

Based in Loughborough, United Kingdom, we are a start-up with a diverse range of backgrounds including design, artificial intelligence, digital storytelling & software development. And what connects us is the drive to challenge traditions with innovation and a deep interest in solving problems for real people.

At present, WITO has no active partnerships with organisations. However, WITO was founded through winning the Ford Fund Smart Mobility Challenge 2019, a service design competition hosted by the Loughborough University. Two co-founders have undertaken industrially-sponsored projects with the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Embedded Intelligence, focusing on the improvement of products, services and processes using smart technologies. Further, the WITO team participated in Business skills training through the Loughborough Enterprise Network.

WITO is a for-profit Software-as-a-Service business that consists of 2 business models. WITO provides a software solution to enable users to communicate the skills developed from unique experiences through digital storytelling. A Freemium service offered to anyone over the age of 18, but with a particular focus on university students and graduates. This includes access to an Android mobile app to log experiences and providing evidence of their skills. Users upload stories which are processed using AI based models and analytics. These can be used during the job application process or uploaded to their LinkedIn profile as a way to demonstrate key skills competencies not traditionally seen to employers and recruiters. 

Impact is delivered by ensuring that anyone who experiences prolonged unemployment has access to the service, providing they have access to a mobile device. Our aim is to increase employability through non-traditional talent identification. We are also using Social Media channels to build a community around experience-based learning through the sharing of stories.

The main revenue generation is through an EdTech subscription based service offered to Schools and further education institutions (i.e. colleges), which includes administrator access to user-based analytics. Schools often face pressure from budget cuts, so activities such as career guidance can be under-resourced. Filling the educational and resource gap with a cost-effective solution. The aim of the analytics service would be to tailor an individual's skills training and provide insights to enable improved guidance for a given student's career path. 

WITO’s aim is to reach profitability as quickly as possible to reduce dependence on external capital. Our focus is on the revenue generating part of the business model. Over $1 billion is spent on EdTech each year within the UK. The EdTech subscription based service provides value to the students through skills development and improved employability, as students consider post-school options. The automated web-based analytics service would enable schools to increase their careers service without an increase to the workload of teachers. This would be beneficial to underperforming schools, where low performing grades lead to further social problems within the community, such as lack of employment. 

The service would cost approximately $5000 per annum, which equates to $2.50 per student per month, given 30% active usage of high school students in an average sized school (600 students ages 14-18). To reach profitability, we’d need to acquire 2% of the UK market, which we aim to do within the next 4 years. Any profits generated would be put back into the growth of the Freemium mobile service for the prolonged unemployed. Our long term aim is to provide services to job seekers, and the older workers who often find it harder to reintegrate into the workforce, as was the case after the 2008 financial crisis.

WITO has used grant funding for product development and initial piloting. Once prototyping is complete WITO will be looking to raise investment capital to cover expenses until profitability is reached. 

Many people are not aware of the issues that will arise from increased automation, especially relating to those groups at risk of prolonged unemployment due to educational, sociocultural, and financial pressures and inequalities. As such, we would like to use the MIT Solve as a platform to generate awareness to contribute to solving these complex, social issues, which we believe we have a solution which can help. We feel we can work with MIT Solve to support and generate opportunities to grow our network and utilise the resources of the MIT Solve competition. The prestige of the competition alone will enable us to gain traction on our mission. The funding, if successful, will be instrumental in developing an app for IOS. Up to now, we are a small in-house team of designers, engineers and business developers, but more importantly, friends. The journey has been fun and rewarding, however, we know we have to start building a network and a presence in online communities so we are ready for piloting when our app has been tested and validated. 

• Product/Service Distribution - The team’s background is not in education or employment, therefore we need to develop industry contacts and advisors 

• Solution Technology - We do not currently have an IOS developer and our AI development could be improved with a specific NLP expert.

• Funding and revenue model - For the launch and growth of our business we will be seeking equity-based funding. We do not currently have access to investors or venture capitalists.

• Legal or regulatory matters - The employment and education sectors have extensive regulation regarding distribution of products and services. We want to ensure compliance, but require expertise within different markets.

• Marketing, Media, and exposure - We would like to build a community that prioritises learning from experience and sharing this knowledge. Further public exposure would help.

• Century Tech - We would like to engage with them to learn more about launching edtech solutions in the UK schools and the challenges around UK regulation. We would also be interested to learn more about their partnerships with Capita and Whole Education, as we’ll be considering distribution next year.

• General Motors - We understand that General Motors is offering an opportunity for advice from developers and engineers for how to scale a solution.This would enable us to better identify resource needs in the future. Also, jobs in the automotive industry are being severely affected by the COVID recession as well as automation. We believe our solution could help those affected in this community.

• Strada Education Network - access an extensive education network within the US to set up pilot programs.

• MIT NLP Group CSAIL - Advice on development and enhancement of our NLP methods as part of our product development. Our AI engineer has a background in uncertainty quantification, so we are currently learning the specific NLP methods.

We understand that General Motors is offering an opportunity for advice from developers and engineers for how to scale a solution. This would enable us to better identify resource needs in the future. 

Also, jobs in the automotive industry are being severely affected by the COVID recession as well as automation. We believe our solution could help those affected in this community. Large communities within the US are dependent on manufacturing jobs and the sales of cars, we hope our solution would enable their workers to be more resilient during the technological transition. 

We believe that people provide solutions to the problems of the future and that technology should be used as an enabler to solve humanity's greatest problems. Our solution is an attempt to use AI to help people get employed, rather than be seen solely as a source of disruption. The only disruption we want to cause is better access to jobs across socio-economic barriers, in an ever changing job market.

With the GM Prize, we would look to develop the IOS version of the app and expand the range of web-based services offered so that we could deliver the value of AI to job seekers and students in a scalable format.

We believe that people provide solutions to the problems of the future and that technology should be used as an enabler to solve humanity's greatest problems. Our solution is an attempt to use AI to help people get employed, rather than be seen solely as a source of disruption. The only disruption we want to cause is better access to jobs across socio-economic barriers, in an ever changing job market.

We've embedded AI and new technologies into each part of our user journey, including the development of conversational AI to ensure simplified creation of stories. With the AI for Humanity Prize, we would look to develop the IOS version of the app and expand the range of web-based services offered so that we could deliver the value of AI to job seekers and students in a scalable format.