Eight years ago, Barney placed a huge bet that the future of human computer interaction would be conversational, creating Cleo — the world’s first AI financial assistant. Thus far, he has raised over $137M in venture capital (at half a billion dollar valuation), with Cleo named a Forbes 2023 Next Billion-Dollar Startup. As a data scientist with a Masters of Science in Machine Learning from the University of Bristol, Barney believes that artificial intelligence is currently driving the biggest wave in computing technology on par with the Industrial Revolution.