[Global Finance Awards] Qraft Technologies forays onto Wall Street with AI prowess

South Korean startup Qraft Technologies is one of the companies that has spearheaded the introduction of artificial intelligence in finance here.

Since it was founded in 2016, the Seoul-based startup has proved the efficiency of AI when it comes to executing optimal equity asset allocation.

The SoftBank-backed company operates four exchange-traded funds -- QRFT, AMOM, NVQ and HDIV. These funds are currently trading on, and have exposure to, North American stock bourses including the New York Stock Exchange, giving US investors greater access to AI-powered stock picking mechanisms.

Qraft has upped the ante by providing three US financial services firms, including UX Wealth, with the model portfolios crafted by the company for turnkey asset management programs, beginning this year.

Behind Qraft's use of AI and its foray onto Wall Street lies the philosophy that AI can assist humans with verifying and analyzing a slew of financial data. At Qraft, half of the firm's employees are dedicated to AI research.

Qraft Technologies' fixation with "a useful set of data" has led to a stringent verification process in terms of output and infrastructure, the company said, adding that teaching a machine how to do certain tasks through inputs and outputs without feedback solely cannot improve AI capability.

This has allowed AI to play an essential role, not a discretionary one, in constructing an equity portfolio with above-average returns while averting risk factors, even in a bear market, according to Qraft.

"AI ETFs and model portfolios powered by Qraft's AI engine have shown decent performance, as we are working to use AI engines to develop an investment advisory platform," Qraft Technologies Chief Executive Officer Kim Hyung-sik said in a statement.

"We don't see AI as a master key to all problems, but it is undoubtedly true that AI is capable of analyzing the whopping amount of data beyond human capacity."