AIR Bringing the Power of AI to Credit

The world of credit has become larger and more complex, as the rapid expansion of private credit has brought new companies and structures to the market at a time of rising and volatile interest rates and large swings in the currency markets.  At the same time, advances in data science and analytics have increased the volume of data and written content available to support credit decision-making.  While this sounds good in theory, in practice it has created other problems: managers and analysts are now swamped with information, making it all the more difficult to filter out actionable signals and to make decisions in a timely manner.  

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to solve these problems.  Yet to date many institutions have failed to take advantage of AI’s strengths, stymied by high initial build costs and difficulties in implementing and integrating the new technology.

The AIR solution

AIR is the solution.  We are the first standardized, AI-powered framework that evaluates and compares credit risk and opportunity on a consistent basis. Operating at the intersection of technology, finance, and automation, we generate forward-looking AI-powered credit ratings and supporting analytics for private and public companies.  AIR’s tools turbocharge the capabilities of existing staff, boosting productivity and speeding credit origination and review processes.  With AIR as their partner, credit professionals can generate data, content, and scenarios that precisely meet their needs.  Rather than being reactive to events, they are now proactive.  

What do we offer?

Our credit rating platform blends advanced Machine Learning (ML) with Generative AI to generate entity-level ratings, rank order scores, and analytical content in real time that lead to actionable insights.

ML-powered credit ratings and analytics.  AIR’s credit models are trained on  factors including company financial statements, market data such as credit spreads, relevant news events, and sector-specific inputs. The resulting AIR Risk Scores are mapped to a rating scale.  But unlike traditional ratings they are continually updated, providing forward-looking views of credit risk and opportunity.  

Generative AI for text-based insights and analysis:  With AIR’s user interface, credit professionals can quickly produce narratives and credit memos on both public and private entities.  The platform also automatically scours financial news and alternative data sources to flag developments that might signal shifts in creditworthiness and incorporates relevant developments into reports.  And last but not least, users can tap our Credit Agent to address specific scenario-based questions, such as the potential impact of tariffs or a market downturn on an entity.  

Meeting client needs

AIR Platforms meets the needs and relieves the pain points of credit professionals including CLO managers, investment professionals, and counterparty risk analysts.  Key features include:

• Broad market coverage: AIR produces ratings and analysis for both public and private entities.  All entities are analyzed using a robust framework, providing a “common truth” across an organization.  

• Transparent drivers of credit risk and opportunity.  While AIR’s AI-driven approach is indeed cutting edge, it remains anchored in classic credit analysis.  Our ratings model is not a black box: for each entity the platform shows the drivers of its AIR Risk Score such as leverage and profitability, along with their relative contributions to it.  Credit professionals will thus find AIR’s interface intuitive to operate and the output easy to interpret. 
•  Analyst-led customization.  Traditional providers of credit ratings and other types of research providers generate fixed reports and data sets.  With AIR, the users are in control.  By interacting with  the Credit Agent, they can immediately get bespoke reports that meet their needs.  
• Automated spreadsheets.  AIR puts an end to the tedious task of spreading company financial information.  Each public entity’s Ratings Package includes up to 10 years of quarterly data in Excel format (private company history will reflect what is available).  The spreadsheets are automatically updated as new company reports become available.  
• Historical analysis.  AIR’s platform contains up to a decade of history and mapped ratings for each entity, enabling users to analyze the drivers of creditworthiness over time.  
• Automated information gathering and filtering.  Partnering with AIR means that analysts no longer need to spend hours monitoring markets and news sources.  We automatically scan a broad array of databases and media organizations for relevant developments, which are then systematically incorporated into AIR Risk Scores and company reports.  And by filtering the inputs through the same lens, AIR eliminates a source of inconsistency in how changes in credit risk is monitored in different parts of an organization.  Finally, the system is transparent.  We provide links to all our sources so analysts can see what’s moving the score and drill deeper as needed.  
• Ease of ingestion of financial documents.  Our user interface’s drag and drop capability makes it easy to upload financial information on private companies, sparing analysts the time-consuming work of finding and spreading data.  The platform can extract financial information from both structured and unstructured documents.  
• Early warning signals.  AIR makes portfolio monitoring easy by allowing analysts to set warning triggers on entities in their portfolio, centered on AIR Score levels or on mapped ratings.   
• Industry-specific modeling frameworks.  Each company’s modeling framework reflects factors specific to its sector.  It also produces a sector score that can be tracked over time and compared to an entity’s AIR Risk Score.  
• Portfolio capabilities.  Credit professionals can set up their own portfolios on AIR’s user interface, mirroring how teams are generally organized.

At AIR, we’ve built a next-generation credit intelligence system for the speed and complexity of today’s markets.

To learn more, please follow us on Linkedin and check out our site: airplatforms.com