It’s easy to assume that Artificial Intelligence, with its high efficiencies and speed, has the answer to everything. Like other advancements in technology, there are of course pros and cons, questions and concerns, especially for complex decision making. AI needs to analyse data and learn to recognise patterns, from the patterns it can then begin to make predictions and recommendations. The more data it sees, the more accurate it will get.
However, AI doesn’t have the ability to form ideas, opinions or have what we call a “gut feel”. Expert knowledge, experience, and language skills are also invaluable when interacting with online platforms, which have their own culture and intricacies. Cost savings for law firms can often come from dealing directly with the platforms before resorting to more formal, legal processes.
Legal professionals have turned to AI for help with contract reviews, legal research and data checks. It is also extremely helpful with documents in different languages identifying relevant information in a fraction of the time it would take a member of the team to complete. Despite this, there have been incidents where AI included legal cases in its research that had never existed, underscoring the need for legal professionals to double check AI generated reports to verify the accuracy, and relevance of the findings and reports.
Brand Protection is very similar, in that human expertise and knowledge is needed to run due diligence on automated data scraping and reporting to verify the accuracy of the data. Expert analysts are also needed to assess and prioritise AI-identified IP threats, ensuring that any action taken is indeed the right course of action to take.
Understanding the difference between AI and AuI
The artificial intelligence landscape is rapidly evolving from simple task automation to more sophisticated human-machine collaboration.
AI vs AuI: The Key Differences
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Autonomous, pattern-driven, and operates independently: great for handling repetitive tasks.
Augmented Intelligence: (AuI): Collaborative, insight-driven, and supports human decision-making.
While Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems mimic human tasks like learning, problem-solving, and research. The main goal for AI is to operate independently of human intervention. Basically, it’s all about autonomy and replacing humans to complete repetitive tasks.
While AI can do lots of cool things, it’s not always the right fit – especially when nuance and judgment are key. For that, you need human input. And that’s where Augmented Intelligence (AuI) comes in.
"We are firm believers in using the augmented approach – especially when it comes to brand protection. Combining AI-powered systems with human expertise is the best way to do what we do efficiently and effectively."
Instead of replacing people, Augmented Intelligence is built to empower them. It combines the speed and scale of machines with human oversight, expertise, and experience.
These intelligence systems work alongside people, not instead of them – preserving creative thinking, critical and complex decision making and ethical judgement.
Some example technologies enabling augmented intelligence include Natural Language Processing (NLP) which enables intuitive human to AI communication, such as Siri, and Alexa. It tackles complexities such as accents, context and slang using techniques like machine learning, word embedding and transformers to analyse the meaning and intent of the human it is communicating with.
AuI uses pattern recognition that identifies trends and insights in complex datasets, and machine learning systems that continuously improve recommendations based on human feedback. This is why at SnapDragon we are firm believers in using the augmented approach – especially when it comes to brand protection. Combining AI-powered systems with human expertise is the best way to do what we do efficiently and effectively.
Adopting an AI Strategy to Enhance human capability
There are several reasons why we don’t take a “whack-a-mole” approach to brand protection. Firstly, AuI collaboration is not just a technology upgrade – it’s a cultural and strategic transformation for the business. While AI excels at finding and collating data, and processing it at speed, humans are essential for critical thinking, emotional intelligence and ethical judgement. Protecting brands is also about protecting business reputation.
Secondly, flooding marketplaces with takedown requests based on raw AI data outputs might look productive when we look at the volume numbers in isolation, but the huge risks it poses on brand reputations, supply chain relationships, and legal compliance is likely to be less impressive.
Instead, our approach is using AI to discover and surface threats, and human expertise to make smart decisions on what actions to take.
What we do requires a seamless AI-human working model. It’s not just about spotting infringements; it’s about understanding them. So in essence, there is an art to IP infringement action planning; expertise to ensure successful removal, and personalised communication tailored to sellers and platform representatives to minimise reputational damage.
Our Interaction Model looks like this:
- AI tools scrape and score potential Intellectual Property infringements across trademarks, copyrights, designs and patents.
- Curated results are then reviewed by expert analysts. This human oversight ensures accuracy and consistency, as well as feeding back into the AuI results.
- Takedown requests are sent in the right way, at the right time. This increases the success rate, eases transactions and maintains strong relationships with platform representatives.
The Tools Behind the SnapDragon AI-Human Interaction Model
Augmented Intelligence supports our colleagues in their daily operations and provides the necessary data and reporting to enable us to defend our clients’ Intellectual Property.
The technology we use is as follows:
- Logo Detection & Optical Character Recognition (OCR): These tools help us detect potential image-based misuse of IP in a targeted way.
- Reinforcement Learning: Operating at scale, our systems improve over time based on analyst feedback — getting sharper with every case
- Swoop, our proprietary platform, uses machine learning to prioritise relevant listings and eliminate the noise—saving hours of manual analyst reviews.
Machine Learning + Human Insight and Judgment = Faster, Smarter and Effective Brand Protection
The future workplace is rapidly evolving towards “collaborative intelligence”, and as technology advances, so will our approach. We’ll continue to embrace new capabilities centred around human-machine teamwork, and always in a way that protects what matters most: Brand IP and Reputation.
Kieron Smith
SnapDragon | CTO
Want to see how SnapDragon’s AI can protect your clients?
If you would like to explore how SnapDragon can accelerate your online brand protection, get in touch to schedule a demo. We would love to show you what’s possible.
