UK-founded contract review assistant Robin AI has appointed Carina Negreanu PhD as its vice president of artificial intelligence, joining from Microsoft, where she was principal research manager. Negreanu has been at Microsoft for almost six years, prior to which she was at the University of Cambridge taking a PhD in Theoretical Cosmology, looking at alternative theories of gravity to Einstein’s General Relativity.
Negreanu will be responsible for heading up Robin AI’s R&D activities and ensuring alignment between the company’s research activities – in fields such as machine learning and generative AI – and its product roadmap and commercial objectives.
She said that Robin AI is “one of the few AI companies truly walking the walk, building real products to solve real customer problems, and doing so in a sector where the entry bar for AI products is very high, with no margin for error.”
She added: “AI has the power to transform how we all work and drive a step-change in productivity, but it’s vital that the products coming to market are accessible, intuitive and deliver genuine value. This is my core focus as a researcher, and I’m looking forward to applying my knowledge to the legal sector and helping further develop Robin AI’s product roadmap.”
Negreanu has been involved in the R&D for Microsoft Excel Copilot. James Clough, CTO and co-founder of Robin AI said, “Carina has made a name for herself as one of the leading thinkers around the application of AI to everyday technology. We were impressed by her R&D work on improving staple Microsoft products and saw an obvious opportunity for her to bring her expertise over to the legal sector, where Word and Excel are the default tech tools for millions of legal professionals.
“Successful AI companies have to manage the dual focus of developing practical products that improve customers’ working lives, while also paying close attention to the ever-evolving technology landscape. This is the skill set Carina brings to the table.”
Carina’s appointment is the latest in a series of senior hires for Robin AI, including prominent AI journalist Ryan Heath as head of communications and tech industry veteran Scott Casey as CFO.
At Robin AI we’re told that 35% of management roles are held by women, around double the tech industry average.
Worth checking their Glassdoor reviews…