Trust
AI at IG Metrix
IG Metrix uses software, including AI, to collect, check and describe official market figures. This page sets out what each part does, what AI is not allowed to do, and where a person takes over.
1. Collecting the figures: software, not AI
For each market we have written a program, called a parser, that downloads the regulator's official file (a spreadsheet or PDF) from the addresses where the regulator publishes it and reads the figures out of it. Each parser will only download from a fixed list of web addresses that the regulator uses to publish its files.
No AI model types or estimates a figure. Every reported figure was read from a regulator's file by a parser; growth rates, shares and 12-month sums are calculated from those figures by code. Parsers also run arithmetic checks on each file, such as confirming that product figures add up to the regulator's total and that no month is missing. If a file fails those checks, nothing from it is loaded.
2. Checking every figure: an AI checker
Before a figure can be published automatically, a separate AI checker opens the official file again and compares each figure with the exact place it was taken from. It confirms the value, the units and multiplier (for example, millions), the currency, the period and what is being measured. The checker cannot change a figure. It can only pass it or fail it and record why.
3. Publishing: automatic only when everything passes
An item is published automatically only when:
- the checker has passed it;
- it cites at least one source; and
- each of those sources comes from an approved official publisher, such as the regulator itself.
Anything that fails a check, has no source, or cites something outside that list is held for a person to review and is not published. Our editor, Frank Black, works through held items. Sponsored material, if we ever carry any, is never published automatically.
4. Release notes: drafted with AI, then checked
When a regulator releases new figures, a short release note may be drafted with AI. The draft may use only figures that have already passed the checker. The checker then tests every claim in the note against its sources, and the note follows the same publishing rule as the figures.
5. After publication: people
Not every item is read by a person after it goes live. Each week Frank picks published items at random and compares them with the regulator's files, and he puts right any mistake found, whether by that check or reported by a reader. Every fix for a mistake of ours is recorded on the public corrections page. When a regulator revises its own figures, tables mark the revised figure instead.
What AI does not do here
- It does not enter, estimate or fill in missing figures.
- It does not convert currencies. Every figure stays in the currency the regulator used.
- It does not build the tables, charts or league tables. Code generates those directly from checked figures.
- It does not decide which markets we cover or how they are defined. People make those choices.
If you think something here is wrong, email info@igmetrix.com.