Founders have been relentlessly dedicating their time in the past few years to develop practical consumer uses for AI and machine learning. One particular AI startup, Advocate, believes that this technology could greatly assist in simplifying the process of applying for federal government benefits.
The idea for the startup came to founder Emilie Poteat while watching her stepfather struggle to obtain social security benefits for which he was eligible. Facing numerous complications during the application process and months of waiting for a response, Poteat realized that AI could potentially improve this process.
”AI could be the missing piece of infrastructure between the American public and the federal government,” said Poteat during her appearance on TechCrunch’s Found podcast this week.
Poteat further discussed the potential benefits of automating the application process through AI and the feasibility of building an AI model using the vast amount of documentation, policies, and data available within government benefits.
She also shared her experience in communicating with the government regarding a possible third-party add-on to their existing infrastructure, highlighting the government’s openness to working with an outside organization rather than developing the technology themselves.
The podcast delved into the journey of building Advocate as a startup, considering that it has not yet fully launched. Poteat also discussed the challenges she faced while fundraising for the startup, finding more success with firms looking to back “moonshot” endeavors rather than those specifically focused on supporting women and LGBTQ+ founders like herself.
However, Poteat remains optimistic and hopes that Advocate, once launched, will assist all eligible individuals in accessing government benefits and plans to expand into other government benefit verticals in the future.
”It was not the government’s intention to make the application process difficult for people. It was simply a matter of a missing technological infrastructure. We set out to build that infrastructure,” explained Poteat.
