The speaker, Michele Tameni, introduces a project they started five months ago to make it easier to add business places to OpenStreetMap. They describe the current process as time-consuming and requiring a lot of information gathering. They propose a solution that uses a picture of the receipt with all the necessary information and automates the process of extracting and adding the data to OpenStreetMap. They offer a Python API and a front-end application as a proof of concept with plans for future integration with other map editing applications.