Gradient Valley founder Keith Bourne presenting about machine learning development on Google Cloud Platform at DevFest conference in November 2018.

There's a new tech company hiring in Ann Arbor, and its biggest challenge is keeping up with growth. Gradient Valley is "Southeast Michigan's premiere provider of machine learning solutions," a machine learning and artificial intelligence consultancy built out of a partnership between owner Keith Bourne and Arbormoon Software owner Dave Koziol. Keith Bourne tells us he started this company in 2018 after doing similar work for 3 years because the cost of working with machine learning and AI is dropping and a lot of companies are interested.

"AI is still in its infancy," Bourne says, "so when we talk to clients we can immediately think of 10 things AI could do for their business but it's still new for people to understand." We need an example as well, since AI is such a broad topic. Bourne points to Gradient Valley's recent partnership with Limnotech to use AI technology to predict the toxicity of algae blooms on the Great Lakes by analyzing the blooms, beyond what is visible to the naked eye.

Bourne says that machine learning and AI can be customized to all kinds of applications, so they have been overwhelmed by all the requests coming in. Gradient Valley's biggest growth challenge right now is tracking sales and keeping up with all the clients while they hire new people. Gradient Valley is hiring developers, data scientists, and people with experience in computer vision and image processing.

Gradient Valley is hiring developers, data scientists, and people with experience in computer vision and image processing.

Bourne says it has been invaluable to tap into the resources of Arbormoon, and he already met company partner Jennifer Marsman of Microsoft at the Mobile Mondays Ann Arbor meetup, where he asked her to work with Gradient Valley on their AI for Earth project, an AI initiative funded by Microsoft to support environmental innovation. "I'm passionate about meeting new people and working with nonprofits in particular," Bourne says. "I would love to meet more people in Ann Arbor in machine learning. My experience with doing projects like the one for the Great Lakes make me feel like there's a lot of support for helping the planet using AI. I feel like you can change the world with a small group of people. There are lots of grants for AI in that space of doing good [for the planet]."

You can follow Gradient Valley's growth on their website through news on partnerships, or on Twitter through @gradientvalley and @keithbourne. If you'd like to connect with Gradient Valley to meet people on the team, they host occasional events with Ann Arbor SPARK. You can follow upcoming events on their website here. Let us know if you connect with Gradient Valley for a new job or partnership for your company building AI applications.