Artificial intelligence company UNITH (ASX: UNT) has turned heads this morning with the appointment of leading tech innovationist Justin Baird who is best known for his work in senior R&D positions with global players that include Google, Microsoft, Accenture and Dentsu. 

Now based in Singapore after stints in Silicon Valley and around the world, Baird has been appointed as a Non-Executive Director by UNITH, which has developed a Digital Humans platform that deploys AI-powered digital humans that can converse with customers, akin to a real customer service agent. 

The appointment of Baird comes at a time when UNITH is accelerating its commercial pipeline having signed a small range of contracts for their digital humans, including one with an unnamed Big Five tech company in Europe. Although UNITH is unable to disclose the name of the Big Five client for confidentiality reasons, Google and Microsoft, where Baird previously held the roles of Innovationist and CTO Microsoft for Startups APAC respectively, are both members of the Big Five. 

“On behalf of the board, I am delighted to welcome Justin to Unith and look forward to working with him,” said UNITH Chairman, Sytze Voulon. 

“Justin’s extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of our industry provides a unique skillset for our organisation as we continue to progress on our journey to revolutionise digital conversations through our Digital Human platform. 

“Justin’s appointment expands the complementary skill set of the board and reflects the Company’s commitment to maintaining the highest standards of leadership and governance.” 

One of Justin’s better-known projects came during his time at Google where he launched YouTube across The Asia Pacific and brought the first Android devices to market. 

As a creative technologist he has delivered multiple projects incorporating artificial intelligence, robotics, and next-generation interactive experiences including work with Hanson Robotics to create an AI singing voice for Sophia, the humanoid robot. The culmination of this project was a duet that Sophia sang live with Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show.

Being an innovator and global leader in the digital engineering and multimedia processing space, Baird holds two US patents and has a further four pending, where he is a well-known researcher in the space with several technical papers published. 

Justin’s addition to the UNITH Board of Directors is a welcome addition, joining with the strongest tech background amongst the Board where he will be able to offer strategic and technical direction to CEO Idan Schmorak and the development team. 

Strengthening the Board comes at a busy time for UNITH which earlier in the month announced a deal with AZBillions to deploy eLottery agents throughout Latin America while expanding their service in Europe for the Big Five Tech client.