Imagine deploying an AI chatbot that suddenly starts spewing nonsense, or an AI-powered financial model that inexplicably shifts its predictions overnight. In today's AI-driven world, these aren't just hypothetical scenarios – they're very real risks that keep tech leaders awake at night. Enter Distributional, the groundbreaking startup that's revolutionizing how enterprises test and trust their AI applications.
Traditional software testing doesn’t work for AI because it’s non-deterministic by its nature, meaning it will generate different results for the same input. AI testing needs to be done consistently and adaptively over time on a meaningful amount of data. When we introduced Distributional to our Operator LPs during our diligence process, they confirmed AI testing is a pervasive problem not suited to the previous generation of testing tools. Among other things, we uncovered some had pieced together AI testing teams as large as 25 people focused just on AI testing. It’s clear this is an important area where Distributional can make an impact as the industry’s first enterprise-grade AI testing platform. We’re excited to share more on our latest investment, which today announced its $19M Series A.
The Company
Distributional offers the industry's first enterprise-grade AI testing platform. Their mission is to make AI applications safe, reliable, and secure for businesses across various sectors.
Why You Should Pay Attention
As AI becomes increasingly integrated into business operations, the need for robust testing mechanisms has never been more critical. Distributional addresses this urgent need by:
- Solving the unique challenges of AI testing, which differ significantly from traditional software testing
- Helping enterprises mitigate operational, financial, and reputational risks associated with faulty AI applications
- Enabling companies to confidently deploy and maintain AI solutions, particularly in the rapidly evolving field of generative AI
The Details
Distributional's platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to streamline the AI testing process, allowing AI product teams to proactively and continuously identify, understand, and address AI risk before customer impact:
- Extensible Test Framework: This allows teams to collect and augment data, run tests, set up alerts, triage results, and resolve issues through adaptive calibration or debugging. It's designed to integrate seamlessly with existing systems and can be self-managed within a customer's VPC.
- Configurable Test Dashboard: A collaborative space where teams can manage test repositories, analyze results, calibrate tests, and generate audit trails. This feature facilitates cross-team cooperation throughout an AI application's lifecycle.
- Intelligent Test Automation: Leveraging advanced algorithms, Distributional automates data augmentation, test selection, and calibration. This intelligent system adapts to each AI application, ensuring thorough and efficient testing at scale.
By focusing on the consistency of AI/ML applications, Distributional's platform is particularly well-suited for testing generative AI, which is prone to non-determinism and non-stationarity.
Why We’re Invested
Co-Founded by CEO Scott Clark, who previously co-founded SigOpt (acquired by Intel), the Distributional team brings deep expertise in AI optimization and testing. Their background includes experience from tech giants like Google, Meta, and Uber. As AI applications become more prevalent, the demand for robust testing solutions will only increase, and Distributional’s early traction with enterprise customers demonstrates real-world applicability and value. Distributional is well-positioned to become a leader in this emerging category.
In an era where AI is transforming businesses across industries, Distributional offers a crucial tool for ensuring these powerful technologies are deployed responsibly and effectively. By enabling companies to test, validate, and maintain their AI applications with confidence, Distributional is not just riding the wave of AI adoption – it's helping to shape a more reliable and trustworthy AI-driven future.
Get Involved
Find out more and join the waitlist here: https://distributional.com/sign-up/
