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Located just 300 meters apart along the Lindholmen pier in Gothenburg, Kognic and Zenseact have built a partnership that exemplifies how the right annotation platform accelerates autonomy development. We've watched each other grow and hit milestones, yet we hadn't shared the story of this collaboration—until now.
We spoke with Michael André, Machine Learning Engineer at Zenseact, about how Kognic's platform has helped his team integrate scalable, cost-efficient human feedback into their data pipeline. The conversation ranged from autonomous vehicle challenges to the specific ways our collaboration delivers value.
Michael has spent two years at Zenseact, working on systems that select and prepare data for deep learning teams. Kognic has been essential in helping them annotate autonomy data efficiently and retrieve it for model training—a perfect example of our core promise: get the most annotated autonomy data for your budget.
No Technical Blockers: Solutions That Scale
When Zenseact started (originally as Zenuity, a Volvo-Veoneer joint venture), they were already working with Kognic. Today, as a Volvo-ECARX company, they continue the partnership—and for good reason.
When asked what companies gain from partnering with Kognic, Michael said: "A highly skilled team who makes sure you reach your goal. When we work on technical problems or need to implement new capabilities, there's no technical blocker on Kognic's side—they always find a solution." He continued, "Everything is well thought through, and the Kognic experts know what they're doing."
At Kognic, we work with dedicated account teams—representatives from Customer Success, Data Delivery, and Advisory Services who maintain continuous dialogue with clients. This model ensures customers get the productivity, automation, and expert support they need to succeed.
Automated Workflows Drive Productivity
Michael described how Kognic's platform has transformed their annotation workflow and delivered measurable productivity gains.
"Before, we'd upload data, communicate about parameters, then manually check and download annotations—lots of manual work and Slack conversations to resolve issues. We've worked together to automate as much as possible. Now we have an API where Kognic quality-checks annotations and delivers them automatically. Our processes are much more automated, freeing up time for higher-value work."
This tight collaboration has resulted in a reliable, scalable, automated data pipeline that delivers high-quality annotations—exactly what autonomy teams need to train safe, validated systems efficiently.
Consistent Communication, Collaborative Problem-Solving
Despite the pandemic limiting physical meetings, communication remained tight and effective. Kognic's account-based model means clients work with the same individuals consistently, building trust and making everything run smoother. "When you get to know the Kognic team, even at a small scale, you build up trust," Michael noted.
This continuous communication helps tackle complex problems. "Sometimes you have a vague idea of how to solve something when you don't know the topic well. You need to build understanding together to create a system that works for everyone—us, other companies we work with, and Kognic." Iterating on problems in new ways can be challenging, but it's how the best solutions emerge.
How do we approach these situations? With Zenseact, we've held workshops where teams break down problems and solve them together—a more effective approach than endless Slack threads, according to Michael.
The Path to Autonomous Vehicles
Our conversation ended on the future of autonomy. "I think it will take a really long time before we have cars working 99% of the time autonomously. Maybe decades." We agree: autonomous vehicles must reach a state where humans trust them completely with driving responsibility before they become universally accepted.
"It's interesting to be part of the process. Seven years after people started talking about autonomous vehicles, I'm working in this area. At Zenseact, as at Kognic, there's this shared interest in how far we can go, how safe we can make vehicles, how reliable we can build systems, and how capable they can become," he said.
Exciting times ahead. The future of autonomy depends on getting machines the right human feedback—fast, accurately, and at scale. 🚘
Kognic is the price leader in autonomy data annotation. We help customers integrate scalable, cost-efficient human feedback into their data pipelines, enabling them to train and validate autonomous systems faster. If you need a platform that delivers the most annotated autonomy data for your budget, reach out to us.
