In a recent feature, Upwork, the world’s work marketplace, interviewed Guy Pistone, founder of Valere, where he shared his innovative approach to utilizing artificial intelligence in his business. Since its inception in 2019 Valere has been the go-to expert on Upwork helping startups and Fortune 500 clients bring their technological vision to life. Upwork has even recognized Valere as the platform’s top 1% vetted expert. Guy Pitsone, CEO of Valere sat down with the team at Upwork to share some of his thoughts on Artificial intelligence and how his team at Valere has been using it to achieve top-notch results for its clients.
Exploring AI for Real-World Change: Guy Pistone’s Approach
Artificial intelligence (AI) is always on the mind of Guy Pistone. AI technology is driving an increasing number of projects in his business, and he’s finding ways to apply it to his daily tasks. He uses AI to turn data into hiring insights, summarize long articles, write code quickly, and revise contracts. Pistone even uses AI to create positive impacts for causes and groups that are important to him.
Pistone’s interest in AI began while he was studying at Clark University, where he began exploring how to leverage AI and machine learning (ML) in mobile applications. As a longtime basketball player, Pistone developed a way to incorporate AI into his beloved game. The result was two different apps, Elete and Fitivity, both of which used machine learning in innovative ways. Elete gamified basketball training drills, using machine learning, augmented reality, and computer vision to do so. Fitivity, on the other hand, used machine learning to drive its app store optimization campaign by reverse engineering the App Store ranking algorithms as they relate to specific sports and fitness keywords. The result helped Pistone yield 15 million organic users on the Fitivity platform. Pistone built both apps into successful businesses and ultimately sold them — putting him on the right path to lead Valere.
Scaling an International Agency While Making a Positive Impact
Valere is an international technology innovation and software development agency with a team of over 130 people spread across five countries. Much of Pistone’s workday focuses on business development, as well as figuring out how he can continue to satisfy growing client demand for AI applications. He spends a few hours every day meeting with leads from Upwork over Zoom in order to see if Valere will be a good fit for them. Then, he meets with his heads of sales and service. They talk about the projects they’re about to close on and analyze the risk profile or discuss how they’ll move forward.
Along with business development, Pistone also devotes a portion of his time every day to exploring recent developments in AI. He’s particularly interested in how these developments can further improve Valere’s work. In fact, it’s his number one tip for any developer interested in working with AI. “Start with the latest tools and platforms that are coming onto the market so rapidly and spend at least 10% of your time understanding what they do and the value they provide,” he said. “That time investment can yield huge returns for projects or just make you more efficient at work.”
While this drive to use AI for real-world change has manifested in a few ways, one of the most notable examples is his support for Alzheimer’s research. Pistone lost his father to the disease in 2020. By the end of the following year, he’d entered Valere into a partnership with Johns Hopkins University. Valere helped the university develop an app that researchers can use to gather better data on Alzheimer’s patients — and glean further insights as to how Alzheimer’s disease works.
Upskilling in the world of machine learning
Valere’s approach to AI is centered around turning raw data into valuable, actionable insights and applications. The team works with startups, research hospitals, and Fortune 500 companies focused on business operations, healthcare, children’s entertainment, and more. They start by considering what data is available, how it’s stored, what format it’s in, and what the points of friction are. Then, AI developers and strategists can create solutions, and even highlight areas of additional value that clients might not have been expecting.
Pistone anticipates that understanding how to work with AI tools will be an important part of software development careers going forward — but AI won’t fully replace humans. “There’s always going to be a need for highly skilled software developers and project managers, because clients aren’t always sure what they need,” he said. “It’s really skilled project managers and developers who help them get to that point — and I’m confident that AI will never be able to do that.” This type of human guidance is a big part of what Valere provides to its clients, even when they’re leveraging AI tools for more efficient coding.
Taking on new clients and innovative projects
Valere can apply similar processes and insights to client projects in multiple industries. Pistone’s team has worked with startups, research hospitals, and Fortune 500 companies focused on business operations, healthcare, children’s entertainment, and more.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Valere can help your company turn data into valuable, actionable AI solutions, visit our website or reach out directly at contact@valere.io.
You can read the full article and learn more about the revolutionary work Valere and Upwork are doing here!
Valere is an award-winning software development agency that has built over 300 top-rated applications for startups and Fortune 500 companies in all verticals like healthcare, finance, sports, fitness, education, and more. Their apps have been featured by the New York Times, and have been consistently recognized as Apple App Store’s top featured apps, TechRadar, and Google Play Store’s top featured apps! Schedule a call with us today to learn how we can help your team create the perfect software or application that can Accelerate Your Business Goals!
