GardenTags is an example of the innovation that can be achieved through data. Co-founder of the social network for gardeners, David Scott and Martin Blampied, data science consultant at C5, worked together to create an automated plant recognition feature using machine learning and computer vision. Mr Scott said it had driven users and increased uptake of the platform by novice gardeners, a market demographic they’d previously struggled to attract: ‘Gardening is the number one pastime in the USA,’ said Mr Scott. ‘And the average UK household spends £500 a year on it, but it is an industry underserved by technology. GardenTags has always been a business driven by data.
‘Our gardening community has generated nearly 20 million data points, including plant identifications and comments containing help and advice on how to nurture plants. With the implementation of AI and plant image recognition, through our app, GardenTags is starting to turn this expert data into knowledge to better serve the larger novice market’.
