With popularity growing for ChatGPT, OpenAI and other AI-driven tech tools, more companies are leveraging artificial intelligence — including Charlotte firm Kingsmen Software.
The software development company is gearing up to launch its new AI incubator, also named the Kingsmen Incub(AI)tor. The program will serve as a resource for local startups, helping businesses navigate AI to drive innovation, growth and success.
The company plans to debut the incubator this week. That comes after Kingsmen unveiled its upgraded Charlotte headquarters space at Camp North End last month.
"We really started to leverage more and more of the AI tools from OpenAI and other vendors to improve the speed at which we can generate new projects," said Frank Wanicka, partner and chief technology officer at Kingsmen Software. "So, we feel it's a great fit for the Charlotte-area startup community."
Some key benefits of the incubator include its ability to provide startups an accelerated speed to market and proof of concept. Greg Hart, managing partner and chief financial officer at Kingsmen, told CBJ the program could prototype new applications for businesses within weeks versus months. That not only cuts down the time it takes to bring an application to market, but it trims costs as well, he said.
"We think it's going to lower the barrier for startups as far as funding, because as Greg said, in addition to speed to market, there's also a reduction in the costs it will take to get something created," Wanicka said. "So companies that had good ideas that just couldn't get the funding previously, maybe they make it now."
Hart said the incubator could provide a secure place for local leaders in the AI community to test their products and applications.
"For existing clients on the larger side — maybe those that want a sandbox to play in from an AI perspective to test out some additional functionality in a nice, safe environment — we can help them cultivate some ideas and try some things out in an incubator sandbox type of environment," Hart said.
Additionally, the Kingsmen IncubAItor will provide custom AI solution development, technical guidance and mentorship, access to advanced AI tools and resources, collaborative projects with AI experts and strategic partnerships and networking opportunities, according to the company's website.
If a startup seeks to leverage an existing or new AI tool to help excel their business, Kingsmen's team and incubator program can provide assistance with that.
"I'm assuming over the next couple of years, there'll be a lot of startups where their main focus is machine learning or AI — some new idea to try to improve things, and we can definitely help with that as well," Wanicka said. "But (the incubator) won't be exclusive to that. The tooling we're building will allow us to build anything more quickly."
