[1][2][4][6][7] Luminoso was co-founded in 2010 by Dennis Clark, Jason Alonso, Robyn Speer, and Catherine Havasi,[8] a research scientist at MIT in artificial intelligence and computational linguistics.

[9] The company builds on the knowledge base of MIT’s Open Mind Common Sense (OMCS) project,[1][10][6] co-founded in 1999 by Havasi, who continues to serve as its director.

[13] During the World Cup in June 2014, the company provided a widely reported real-time sentiment analysis of the U.S. vs. Germany match, analyzing 900,000 posts on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

[1][14][15] The company uses artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and machine learning to derive insights from unstructured data such as contact center interactions, chatbot and live chat transcripts, product reviews, open-ended survey responses, and email.

[2][10] Commercial applications include analyzing, prioritizing, and routing contact center interactions; identifying consumer complaints before they begin to trend; and tracking sentiment during product launches.