Previse signs the Scottish Business Pledge

Previse, the AI supplier payments decision making company, today announced a new partnership with social enterprise, Auticon UK, to create tech jobs for autistic adults. Auticon is a unique IT consultancy, which exclusively employs autistic adults as IT consultants and will ensure its market-leading autistic consultants are fully supported in autism-friendly work environments at Previse.

The partnership is a key part of Previse’s commitments under the Scottish Business Pledge, which it has now signed. The pledge is a values-led, voluntary code of business practice organized by the Scottish government. More than 470 of Scotland’s top businesses have signed the pledge.

Previse secured a £800,000 Research & Development grant from Scottish Enterprise in January 2018, to set up its first office in Scotland – a new development centre in Glasgow, creating 37 new data science jobs. As part of the partnership with Auticon, Previse will work with a number of autistic consultants on several different projects, including security and test automation..

David Brown, Chief Product Officer at Previse, said: “The future of our economy will be built by people with new skills in uncovering the value in data. We came to Scotland because we think it has the perfect combination of world class universities, technologists and finance to become a global hub for these skills. Through our partnership with Auticon, and signing the pledge, Previse is investing in Scotland to create new jobs and share those skills, in a way which puts ethics and sustainability at the center of our work.”

Previse’s technology uses artificial intelligence to enable large businesses to pay their suppliers the day they receive an invoice. Using hundreds of millions of data points, it creates an independent score of a multinational buyer’s likelihood to pay an invoice. The technology uses this to make a decision about which invoices will be paid, so funding can be extended to SME suppliers instantly.

 Ray Coyle, CEO at Auticon UK, said: “Previse is the first company Auticon has partnered with in Scotland, and we hope to work with many more. Unemployment among autistic adults is a major issue across the UK. Our consultants at Auticon offer market-leading services in tech and IT, yet many found it incredibly hard to secure long term employment. We provide our autistic staff with the support they need to thrive in the workplace.”

In the UK, only 16% of autistic adults are in full time employment, despite 77% of people with autism on out of work benefits wanting to work [1].  90% of Auticon’s UK consultants were unemployed before joining the UK office, with half of those unemployed for more than five years, despite being highly skilled. 95% of Auticon consultants have a STEM degree and 20% are educated to PhD level.

Auticon is unique in directly employing autistic IT consultants, and offering full support in the form of professional job coaches and IT project managers. These job coaches advise clients on creating autism-friendly work environments and support consultants, as needed, to ensure they feel comfortable and are able to fulfil their potential. Auticon IT project managers guide consultants from a technical angle and advance professional development trajectories that match the individual strengths and interests of consultants.