SAN FRANCISCO – Geospatial intelligence startup Atlas AI announced a collaboration with multinational aircraft manufacturer Airbus SE on August 13.
Airbus relies on Atlas AI’s geospatial platform, which combines satellite imagery with artificial intelligence to gain insights into travel demand, airport catchment areas and infrastructure changes.
“By partnering with Airbus SE, we are leveraging our GeoAI platform to provide hyperlocal demand forecasting in fast-growing travel markets such as the Asia Pacific region,” Tarapani said in a statement. “Our platform’s predictive capabilities enable Airbus to predict market dynamics and infrastructure needs with unprecedented detail. This collaboration demonstrates how AI-powered insights can support strategic decision-making in highly dynamic and diverse markets, enabling Airbus to optimize its planning and resource allocation in these emerging aviation hubs.”
Atlas AI, a 2018 spin-off of Stanford University’s Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence Lab, specializes in applying AI techniques to satellite imagery to measure local socioeconomic conditions in emerging markets.
“The satellite image gives us a significant historical trend and the ability to detect changes in real time,” said Atlas AI CEO Abe Tarapani Space news. “When all of this is combined in our platform, you can predict what is likely to happen in the future.”
Hyperlocal forecasting
Predicting change is more important than ever, Tarapani said, due to current economic and climate changes, as well as conflicts and other events. “We don’t have the systems in place today to track the impacts on 8 billion people around the world,” he added.
Atlas AI works closely with nonprofit organizations such as Nutrition International and large organizations like Airbus.
“It is no longer enough to look at a country and estimate what is likely to be the case tomorrow or in a year, because that country is made up of tens of thousands of individual communities,” said Tarapani. “Each individual community has its own dynamics that influence its development and the risks and opportunities associated with doing business, investing or supporting those places. AI, with the computational power and complexity of these models, allows us to look at millions of individual communities as unique entities.”
Atlas AI’s platform captures “petabytes of satellite imagery, mobility data, demographic trends, infrastructure, land use” and energy market information, the press release states.
Airbus and Atlas AI began working together about a year ago.
“With any major global partner, we usually first demonstrate that the technology actually works and can be deployed at scale,” said Trapani. Atlas AI is now supporting new strategic initiatives from Airbus.
Atlas AI has raised around $11 million to date. Airbus Ventures, which operates independently of Airbus, supports start-ups in the aerospace industry. Airbus Ventures is an investor in Atlas AI.
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