Artificial intelligence startup Reasoner today launched a new sentiment analysis tool for video calling applications that goes beyond simply taking notes of meetings and analyzing what was said.

According to the company, it uses AI to study the people who are participating and surface insights into their “unspoken reactions,” to understand what they’re really thinking. The new app is called “Mind Reasoner,” and the startup says it has the potential to transform how professionals engage with one another through advanced sentiment analysis.

Mind Reasoner essentially can read people’s thoughts, the company claims, analyzing more than 100 “communication dimensions” — including the tone of someone’s voice and body language to try to understand any unspoken concerns or motivators the person might have.

It’s built on a new AI architecture called the Precision Intelligence Engine, which leverages advanced reasoning to analyze the meta analytical dimensions that allow it to decode all of these hidden sentiments, with full traceability to ensure transparency in the insights it generates. The app can be integrated with any videoconferencing application and immediately start generating comprehensive private reports that detail each meeting participant’s engagement level, any confusion points, hidden concerns and more.

Reasoner founder and Chief Executive Wayne Chang said Mind Reasoner offers two key benefits: It helps team leaders to understand what other participants thought, but didn’t say, and also informs them about how well they were able to influence the meeting. It can also pinpoint group influence dynamics, and deliver personalized recommendations for speakers to increase the impact of what they’re saying in future discussions, he said.

Chang stressed that trust and transparency are at the core of the company’s proprietary Precision Intelligence Engine, which eliminates the risk of hallucinations.

“Business-level trust and traceability have been lost amidst the AI arms race,” Chang said. “We’ve built an entirely new approach to solve for the shortcomings of AI, removing the risk of hallucinations and surface-level responses to make way for contextual understanding and continuous learning.”

Unsettling, but effective

The fact that Mind Reasoner is probably better described as a “mind reader” raises obvious questions regarding the invasive nature of such technology. Any employee that secretly dislikes their boss or other colleagues is likely going to find the whole idea rather unsettling.

Chang didn’t deny this, but he told SiliconANGLE that employees who interact with tools such as Zoom, Gong and Google’s Gemini are already being analyzed, often without their even realizing it. The difference with Mind Reasoner is that they will at least be aware it’s happening.

“Video and sentiment analysis have been around forever,” Chang pointed out. “What we’ve done is simply make these analyses much more accurate, so you can truly understand the other person at a fundamental level. But it’s important to note that we do expect users to abide by laws in their city, state and country.”

Chang was also keen to point out the benefits Mind Reasoner can provide, claiming it can eliminate blind spots and prevent future misunderstandings and strained relationships in professional and personal interactions. He added that users can share the analysis of others, which can be helpful for self-growth.

“It surfaces insights into the user’s own communication style and the impact it has on business-level decisions,” Chang explained. “Take for instance a sales conversation. It’s often difficult to decipher what the next-best step is in order to convert a prospect into a customer. With Mind Reasoner, every conversation it analyzes provides actions that will drive the deal toward closure, such as insights into their motivations and needs that may have been missed.”

Mind Reasoner can be applied to any industry that wants to improve its decision-making processes, but the startup said the most obvious applications include sales, healthcare — where the app can signal early indicators of cognitive decline — the legal industry, where it can be useful for trial and deposition transcripts, and human resources, for interviewing job candidates.

Chang added that Mind Reasoner isn’t meant to replace human intuition, but rather amplify it by removing the mental load that goes into detailed communication analysis.

“It allows users to focus on strategic improvement to build more successful business outcomes, stronger relationships and increased influence with internal and external audiences,” he said.

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