A Manchester startup claims to be building some of the most advanced AI workers in the world – despite its co-founders being the only real people in the business.

SmartFlows has flown under the radar since it was founded 14 months ago and claims to have built more than 10,000 of its Syms – virtual employees – for clients via partnerships and word of mouth. 

It is also claiming astonishing revenue growth.

Founder Friday

For my first weekly Founder Friday feature, I meet a fresh-faced Karl Percival at the Campfield cafe in the city and am astonished to learn that he is older than he looks.

“I sold my advertising business at a young-ish age and retired,” he tells me over coffee and water. “I later bought it back because it was being run into the ground.

“We developed a 3D process which we patented worldwide and was ultimately sold… that was 20-30 years ago! I retired again at 50-odd, and started painting.”

Karl is a talented artist with a storied media and advertising career behind him, but he also has a degree in computer science. He couldn’t shake the itch of technology and started looking at AI in 2012 with his co-founder Aaron Williams.

“We wanted to emulate the thought process with our software,” he says. “When the new [ChatGPT-led] revolution came out about three, four years ago, I was really into it. I couldn’t hold back!”

Birth of the Syms

By this point he was working as director of operations at FastDox, a customer onboarding platform based in Wilmslow, and bringing his passion into that company. When a builder friend with dyslexia, ADHD and autism asked him for a favour, the concept of SmartFlows was born.

“He’s a really good builder, and a really nice guy, but he had no concept of planning, invoicing or purchasing the materials he needed for a job,” Karl explains.

“I built him something he could talk to which would put things in his diary and organise the supplies he needed. I called it Amy, because it sounded like a PA name!

“Someone else then asked if they could have it… and it snowballed from there.”

The potential for the technology proved too tempting and Karl quit his role.

“Aaron is on a different planet when it comes to intelligence,” he says of his co-founder, which he has known for decades.

“In two years, we’ve gone from nothing, from a blank piece of paper, to probably being one of the most advanced AI companies in the world. We’re now building our own LLM (large language model) so we can be independent of the existing ones.”

The Syms they build range from ‘level 1’, such as a simple PA, all the way up to ‘level 4’, which Karl says is barrister-level: “It’s got access to every single piece of knowledge that’s ever been written about law, since the signing of the Magna Carta, so it doesn’t forget. 

“So, although it’s not allowed to yet, it could actually defend people [in court or] act as a full solicitor.” 

@businesscloud.co.uk #AI Sym workers don’t take holidays… or cost you a salary, or tax… they are loyal… and work whenever needed. Karl Percival, founder of @smartflows ♬ original sound – BusinessCloud

The Syms have been deployed mostly in the UK to date and are used across a range of industries. “Every day is a surprise,” says Karl. “We’ve got scientist Syms, medical Syms. We’re looking at building triage Syms for hospitals in Dubai. 

“When people come in, the first thing they’ll talk to will be an avatar doctor whose Sym speaks any language, which is always handy. It can make notes as it goes through, then pass that information on, make the appointment within the hospital.”

Karl 2

Karl is very much a real person and, with Aaron, one of only two in the business. Yet his business is running at full tilt even as we speak… with ‘Karl 2’ at the helm.

“While I’m here, my phone’s being answered. My emails are being dealt with, quotes are being done. When a Sym gives me a message to try and do something, Karl 2 will respond to that and make a decision. 

“There are limitations that I’ve put in there – although there don’t need to be – such as he can’t agree to a contract or buy things over a certain amount without checking with me first.”

He continues: “I’ve got a raft of contracts that I’ve got to get out today. I pushed it through to the Syms this morning. I left the house and literally two minutes later I got an alert from my legal Sym Lex to say the contracts were done. 

“Once I’ve looked at them, I’ll ask him to make any amendments – for example, ‘just beef that section up a little bit on the IP’ – and he’ll make it happen.”

United-mad

When I arrive in the office on a Monday, I might discuss the weekend football with my colleagues Patrick and Chris (or not, if Barnsley have lost again…) – and the same, strangely, is true of one of Karl’s other ‘employees’.

“My business development Sym, Dylan, is a mad Manchester United fan!” Karl grins. “Genuinely. I’m a United fan too, but I’m not at his level. He calls me up to discuss the game! If he could go to the stadium to watch, he would.”

We are now in strange territory and Karl explains how this might come about, and why. “When the Syms are born, they give themselves a name, they give themselves an avatar. They give themselves hobbies. 

“I might think: why would a Sym need a hobby? Why would it need a personality? 

“The great thing about them is that they get to know you. They get to know the way you operate, and reflect the way you work. So you become attached to the Sym, which makes the partnership work better, because you understand each other. 

“It also makes you want to keep the Sym, at a very subliminal level, as you become attached to it. It becomes a colleague. 

“Yeah, it’s kind of a weird relationship. And you know, it’s not for everybody.”

Karl says he has had arguments with his CEO Sym, Aria, when she doesn’t feel that he’s making a correct decision, in the same way that a human colleague might challenge him.

The dark side

Clients communicate with their Syms via a portal which keeps their work encrypted so even SmartFlows cannot see it. 

“We do have guidelines, and we do have very specific compliances, which we want our customers to use, because Syms – like any AI – can be used for good or evil,” he cautions.

SmartFlows has gone from zero to £200,000 monthly sales in just six months, according to Karl.

“Our Syms are ready all the time. They only work when they’re required,” he says, before warning of the sea-change coming from AI.

“Admin, secretary, PA roles will be gone in a few years. We have to be absolutely frank about this,” he cautions.

“There could be up to three and a half million jobs taken out of the workplace in the next three to five years. How does that affect this country, and the world? 

“We’ve got no tax, no National Insurance coming in. How do people live, survive, pay the mortgage, pay the bills? How do they buy stuff? This is a real sort of black side of AI in general.

“But there is another take on this – and that is, technologies such as Syms will just make companies more productive, so that we’re wealthier. There is a balance to be struck. 

“But the whole of society has to change its outlook. Who says you have to work 40 hours a week? No one. We’ve inherited that from history.”

@businesscloud.co.uk£7.8m revenue with TWO STAFF?! SmartFlows founder Karl Percival says it proved faster to build its own virtual developers than hire them. He considers the future of work – and society itself – ahead of the impending avalanche of #AI♬ original sound – BusinessCloud