AnalogFolk encourages women to 'big up' language with AI app

AnalogFolk is encouraging women to avoid using passive language that inadvertently puts themselves down and instead adopt a more emphatic tone of voice with an app called BigUp.AI.

The app is going live for a beta phase, initially aimed at women in the creative industry. BigUp.AI uses natural language processing and machine-learning technology to analyse bodies of text and suggests enhanced alternatives for single words. The aim is that it will ultimately be able to augment entire sentences and paragraphs.

AnalogFolk hopes that BigUp.AI will eventually become a go-to app for women to assess text in an array of documents and writings.

The tool was built on the back of research from Dr Judith Baxter, published in The Language of Female Leadership, that found women are four times more likely to downplay their successes and use language that undermines them.

Another study cited by AnalogFolk, by recruitment company Major Players, revealed that a lack of self-promotion and confidence in the way women present themselves have led to lower pay, under-representative performance reviews and a reluctance among colleagues to accept their creative ideas.

AnalogFolk has spent the past year doubling its R&D investment as it seeks to help businesses by developing innovations.

Sara Pouri, AnalogFolk’s associate creative director, said: "Our vision for BigUp.AI is that in the future it will be the go-to tool for women to power up their cover letters, performance reviews and CVs. To do this, we need help from women to train the tool with text about themselves. That’s why we’re putting out a call to arms for women from all walks of the creative industry to help us train BigUp.AI so we can scale its development and impact."

Anna-Louise Gladwell, AnalogFolk London’s managing director, added: "BigUp.AI is another great example of bringing AnalogFolk’s mission to use digital to make the analogue world better to live. I’m immensely proud of the end result and of all the folk involved for creating such an innovative solution to a very real-world problem."

BigUp.AI's launch was timed to coincide with International Women's Day Sunday.