There's a new startup on the rise in Columbus, Ohio — and yes, it's in AI.
Layer is building the next generation of AI copilots for enterprises. While companies like Microsoft and iCIMS are launching their own AI-powered copilots, Layer's technology allows enterprises, especially small- and medium-sized companies to build copilots into their own software.
"We believe a copilot should act as a personal assistant that allows users to interact with a software platform through natural language," said Jonah Katz, Layer CEO, in a blog post. "This means the copilot should be able to do anything a user can do on the platform (and often more) ten times faster."
And investors are excited about this.
Layer announced this week a $3 million seed funding round led by Drive Capital. The round included participation from Resolute Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Alumni Ventures, Expansion Venture Capital, and several other funds and angel investors.
While AI investments have been on the rise recently, so has its criticism. And the Layer team is well aware of the limitations of large language models.
"While the capabilities of LLMs are impressive, they cannot become functional copilots on their own. At Layer, we are building a highly interoperable framework that enables rapid testing of different solutions for building copilots, with the driving goal to make the process as easy as possible for developers," said Katz.
It's also making the technology as reliable as possible, and preventing what's called "AI hallucinations," or the generation of inaccurate, harmful or unwanted information.
In this way, Layer seeks to build upon the AI copilot trend and transform its use and how people interact with the software.
"Our mission is to turn the process from a 6+ month engineering project into something any developer can do in a few hours," Katz said in a LinkedIn post.
The company is looking for more folks to join them on their journey. Learn more about the company and their open career opportunities here: https://www.buildwithlayer.com/
