Questions about where to build a store, expand a business or plan infrastructure can take weeks to answer. Calgary-based BigGeo aims to change that with an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that delivers insights from complex spatial data in seconds.

“Spatial data is effectively out of reach for the people who need it. Answering a location question means briefing a specialist and waiting weeks," Brent Lane, chief executive officer with BigGeo told TechNX in an interview. "The data is large, scattered across sources and often licensed and so we brought that all under one roof where everything you get access to that easily.”

Founded three years ago, BigGeo has compiled a vast database of spatial data — information associated with a geographic location — for its new product, BigGeo AI. It can be gleaned from such things as cell phone locations or other location-based computer technologies, he said.

“BigGeo offers a connected data layer for location-based information to AI, so that companies can ask questions using the AI interfaces and get real-world answers about physical time and space,” Lane said.

“We currently have in our spatial data catalog about 30 per cent of the globe’s spatial information available. So that was a labour of love to get the trust and the sponsorship from the world’s largest data partners to understand that this is the future of how spatial data is going to be used for both commercial and public-use cases.”

AI simplifies access to spatial data

The tool allows users to query spatial data in plain language and receive actionable insights, Lane said.

“An example would be: a grocer could ask, ‘Rank these 12 sites for new grocery stores. Consider the population who needs groceries nearby; proximity to your existing stores, competitor density, neighbourhood growth.’ What our AI does is, it will return the top three site locations that would be the best fit. We teach the AI how to use those different spatial data sets to answer that question and solve that problem for the customer.”

BigGeo AI reduces the time needed to analyse spatial data and generate answers.

“We live in the physical world as a human and so asking questions about data in relation to how you walk through your life is important. And previously, the answers to those questions — without things like BigGeo AI — were locked behind specialist workflows, and we’ve really brought them to the forefront so that the folks can get that information easily,” Lane said.

There is no requirement for the user to have geographic information systems (GIS) expertise, according to the company.

Users will be provided initially with 500 free credits then a per-use fee will be charged.

Integration with major AI players

It is also available through some of the more popular AI tools on the market.

“You can go into your favourite large language model (LLM), and right through their apps source for Claude and through ChatGPT, and find BigGeo: you sign up with your favourite email account, and you’re up and running. You either use your own data in combination with that large language model to ask questions of the spatial cloud, or you can start to just ask questions and see what the AI agent can do,” he said.

“It’s logistics, it’s mining, it’s the energy business, it’s forestry, it’s the infrastructure business; data centres uses this type of information, all sectors that we’re looking at. Spatial data is used every day. With BigGeo AI we’ve brought it to the forefront where an everyday user can ask questions now that they don’t need to be a geospatial expert to get a really concrete answer back on.”

BigGeo also offers controls intended to help organizations manage how their data is accessed through AI tools, Lane said.

“So from a corporation or an individual’s perspective, we are storing that data safely in a secure environment, and then through rules of use and governance on our platform, we can control what types of information can be asked using the AI services and what types of questions can be answered, right down to the granularity of what data is exposed to even answer those questions.”

“That’s our superpower as a business is helping companies and retail customers, to be able to access their data in a controlled way using LLMs to ask the questions,” he said.