YORKSHIRE Water Services has named leading British artificial intelligence (AI) company Aiimi as a new IT partner, with work already underway to pioneer water strategies.

The partnership is part of an initial five year framework (with an option to extend annually for a further three years), valued at up to £25m, whereby Aiimi was selected as one of Yorkshire Water’s chosen data services providers. This followed a bid which saw almost 40 companies whittled down to just three.

Data insights specialists Aiimi use AI to help teams find, make sense of and retain control of their data. Their technology and services are used by the likes of FTSE100 companies, the UK government and the FCA.

The framework win will build upon Aiimi’s existing experience of working with companies across the water industry, which spans over 10 years.

Andy Haywood, chief modernisation officer at Yorkshire Water said: “Following an incredibly competitive bidding process, this exciting new framework brings together experts and companies who are leading in their respective fields. We’re looking forward to working together with Aiimi over the coming years; setting out water roadmaps underpinned by data insights to ensure the very best services for our 5.2 million customers.”

Steve Salvin, CEO and founder of Aiimi added: “We’re delighted to announce our new partnership with Yorkshire Water which will build upon over 10 years of work between Aiimi and water companies across the sector. The scale of the new framework recognises the value of data science and technology, and the role they can play in supporting the water utilities industry - and we’re proud to be leading the way alongside Yorkshire Water.”

As part of the new partnership with Yorkshire Water, Aiimi has already begun work on three projects. Initial projects include the delivery of wastewater and clean water roadmaps, as well as work to enhance Event Duration Monitoring - which measures the frequency and duration of releases to the environment from storm overflows. Bringing pioneering data-led approaches to these projects, Aiimi is helping to improve efficiencies, deliver performance commitments, and ensure safe and effective services for Yorkshire Water’s 5.2m customers.

As an official data science provider to Yorkshire Water, future projects during the framework could draft Aiimi into work spanning everything from data modelling and scenario analysis, to forecasting and prediction.