London-based Quantexa has reached a £175 million, 10-year deal with HM Revenue and Customs to use AI to overhaul the way it approaches data to improve its ability to catch fraud and administrative errors.
The deal, one of the largest AI deployments in the public sector, is designed to help HMRC bring its fragmented silos of data together as a foundation for more sophisticated fraud detection, chief executive Vishal Marria said.
It is intended to sift through complex webs of shell companies and directors that are used in large-scale VAT and payroll frauds, connecting billions of data points to identify high-probability targets that currently go undetected, the company said.
Data access
The technology is to work within HMRC’s own secure environment, with Quantexa staff who work with the government being kept separate from the rest of the business and HMRC remaining the “data controller” for legal purposes.
