Lynk tackles knowledge management during an era of data explosion

There’s undoubtedly more information available now than at any other point in human history. In 2015, it was reported that more data has been created in the prior two years than in the past two decades. Now it’s 2022 and data continues to explode across industries.

And while that should logically mean that anyone can access whatever information they’re looking for at any point with just a few scrolls of the mouse, the opposite tends to be true. Knowledge and insights are often buried in a deluge of increasingly amassed data and information.

This has led to the massive growth of knowledge management. The process involves organizing, creating, using and sharing collective information within an organization to parse data, cull insights and guide decision-making.

“The more we need insights, the more we need something that we trust that guides us in the next step,” said Peggy Choi, founder and CEO of AI-driven knowledge management platform Lynk. “We need that next layer – credible insights.”

Knowledge management’s rampant growth

Knowledge management is the fastest-growing area of AI spend globally, according to Gartner. The market is predicted to grow by more than 30% in 2022, overtaking virtual assistants as the top AI use case, according to the firm. Furthermore, Reportlinker indicates it will continue to snowball and gain significant traction:  the market will reach an estimated $1.1 trillion by 2026, up from $381.5 billion in 2020.

The “upheaval” of traditional workplaces as the result of the pandemic demands more sophisticated knowledge management. Hybrid or fully remote models are likely to continue, geographically fragmenting people. This adds to the hurdle that many organizations face when it comes to gathering people’s knowledge and insights — both internally among employees and externally among partners and customers.

“Knowledge is evolving,” said Choi. “How we solve it has to evolve with time.”

Lynk is offering its answer to the “age-old unresolved problem” with Lynk Circle. The company today announced the availability of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool that helps organizations identify the right people with the proper knowledge in their networks.

As Choi noted, it’s not just measuring knowledge in “that title, that company.” “Being able to know who knows what helps you discover the right opportunity,” she said.

The platform’s underlying AI collects and maps all known data about a given worker, partner or customer. A data feedback loop helps to create graphs to help search and perform other functions.

“It’s mapping out what the person knows,” Choi said. Ultimately, “this helps people do better work.”

Organizing strong knowledge networks not only captures important institutional information, she noted; it promotes knowledge sharing and unlocks knowledge to increase productivity.

“We’re creating a platform of knowledge networks for organizations to work more efficiently, easily find out ‘who knows what,’ get smarter and focus on what is important,” she said.

The Lynk Circle white-label SaaS solution is highly configurable and secure, hosting a private ISO 27001-certified network. It features an intuitive interface and flexible interaction with advanced search and formats including Q&As, 1:1 calls, project work, articles and documents. It also has add-on capabilities around compliance checks and payment processing.

Choi explained that Lynk Circle has been used by private equity and venture capital firms, membership organizations and industry associations to establish advisor networks, promote engagement, power knowledge hubs and rapidly onboard new employees and ramp up their work. Choi pointed to one use case with the Australia Chamber of Commerce, which leveraged the platform to bring a mentoring program online when it could no longer offer them in person amidst the pandemic.

The RegTech Association, meanwhile, used the platform for its RegTech Circle, which connects financial institutions, experts and vendors, “allowing all parties to engage in the sharing of intelligence on regulatory technologies and their applications to facilitate commercial discussions and opportunities,” explained board director Alex Oxford. “With Lynk Circle, we can exchange knowledge, network and connect, driving collaboration across the industry.”

AI-powered knowledge management at scale

Since its founding in 2015, Lynk has used its platform to scale a network of more than 840,000 experts across 80 countries. The company has facilitated interactions with more than 300 enterprise customers, including PwC, UBS Group, The Mass Transit Railway in Hong Kong, cosmetics company Shiseido, beverage company Pernod Ricard, as well as several industry organizations, Choi said.

She explained that the company is driven by what is known as the DIKW pyramid. This hierarchy represents the relationships between data, information, knowledge and wisdom, with each creating a building block that establishes a step toward the next higher level.

“I’ve always thought that there’s something here about this human insights part,” Choi said. “The platform’s applicability is proving that thesis out. Everyone needs it.”