TEXT: REBECCA HORNIG
'I had never heard of this company,' Maaike says in a short interview, 'but Textmetrics could have been a client of ours. They fit perfectly into the customer profile I was used to working with as a young technical scale-up. The fact that it is a Dutch company, close to my place of residence, is also a big plus.' Maaike's interest was piqued. Conversations with founders Marcel Leeman and Kyrill Poelmans began, and her enthusiasm for Textmetrics grew. Maaike sees a great future for the company not only within the Netherlands but also beyond. 'With the adoption of AI, we are all facing significant societal changes. It is still unclear where the world is heading. There are opportunities, but also many risks. Ethical guidelines are therefore of utmost importance to prevent societal harm. My goal is to make Textmetrics a world leader in transparent and ethical use in AI-driven text generation and control.
(Maaike Voeten, CEO Textmetrics)
'With the adoption of AI, we are all facing significant societal changes'
'Most companies that have implemented AI do not have their affairs in order by 2025. Only 21% of these companies, for example, have established policies regarding this. AI governance is necessary to identify as many risks as possible, to anticipate any negative effects of AI use, and to maximize its benefits.
Maaike cites obstacles to responsible AI use, including the lack of knowledge, resources, and clear regulations, as well as the reliability of AI output. Moreover, generative AI is developing so rapidly that we cannot yet envision what the societal impact and acceptance will be in the short and long term.
To deploy AI systems safely and responsibly, it is therefore important that the core principles of transparency, fairness, privacy, and human oversight are guaranteed. These ethical frameworks must prevent unintended biases, discrimination, or the loss of human autonomy. Clear rules regarding privacy, transparency in decision-making, and mechanisms to prevent discrimination by AI are necessary for this.
Textmetrics has a significant role to play in supporting companies with their AI Governance. An important aspect of AI governance is the targeted use of generative AI for text generation and control. Currently, only 32% of companies that have implemented AI have taken measures to address bias and incorrect and misleading information in the result texts. Possible measures include validating AI output, establishing human oversight, and improving the training data of the AI models used.
Maaike Voeten's vision on the policy for ethical text generation is to establish clear guidelines for human oversight, to have and continue to develop mechanisms for detecting biases, to ensure transparency in AI decisions, and to keep improving Textmetrics training data sets. For a company's brand identity, it is also important that the generated AI texts align with the company's standards and values, and that the texts reflect an authentic tone of voice that is often lost in general AI use.
Regarding the expansion outside the Netherlands, Maaike states that the software is ready to roll out Textmetrics globally. However, there are still some hurdles to overcome. For instance, Germany and France are technically much more conservative than the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries. Moreover, local sales and customer service are preferred over service in English in countries where this is not the native language. Maaike seems to be the right person to realize all this, given the experience she has gained with various international tech companies at AEXUS.
'By 2030, the AI governance market will reach a value of 1 billion euros'
The market for AI governance is still new but is growing rapidly. By 2030, the AI Governance market will reach a value of 1 billion euros due to the increasing demand for safe and responsible AI solutions, such as frameworks for ethical use, audit systems, and risk management tools. Since there are only a few organizations as of 2024 that play a prominent role in developing governance standards and guiding companies, this offers enormous opportunities for organizations that are pioneering responsible AI applications. Tech scale-ups like Textmetrics will therefore be able to expand rapidly worldwide and position themselves as experts in ethical AI use.
Textmetrics is expanding not only outside the Netherlands but also within it: as unique AI software in natural Dutch, supported by native Dutch speakers.
