14 Incredible Artificial Intelligence Pioneers Everyone Should Know About

Every year, the World Economic Forum reports on technology pioneers from around the world. As you might expect, this year, many companies use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning at the core of their business to deliver innovative products and service offerings. Anyone interested in AI should know about these 14 pioneering businesses.

BenevolentAI

This London-based company was founded in 2013 and operates under two business units: BenevolentTech’s focus is to develop the artificial intelligence platform that will drive innovation by transforming the way scientists access and use the information available to them. BenevolentBio is the division that applies the tech to generate new ideas that will impact human health such as better medicines and research, insights and innovation for rare diseases.

Casetext

With a mission to make law free and understandable, Casetext leverages artificial intelligence technology to help legal researchers find the most relevant cases quickly. More than 1 million people including litigators at more than 100 law firms access Casetext’s CARA, a legal library powered by AI tech, monthly.

CognitiveScale

Rather than artificial intelligence replacing humans, the AI and blockchain solutions provided by CognitiveScale aim to pair humans and machines to augment a human’s cognitive capabilities to impact a variety of industries from healthcare to energy and manufacturing and more. These systems learn, adapt and scale as new data streams in.

DriveAI

Graduate students from Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Lab founded DriveAI in 2015. DriveAI has retrofit kits that include sensors, LiDAR, high-def cameras and more to allow a vehicle to gain 360-degree perspective of its environment. The company works with public and private partners to solve today’s transportation challenges with geofenced self-driving solutions.

Gamalon

Gamalon is another company committed to augmenting human abilities with artificial intelligence. By combining human and machine learning, Gamalon allows people to talk or text with organizations through natural language processing and receive personalized interactions. Applications include customer chat, online surveys, social media feedback, trouble tickets, call transcripts and more.

Malong Technologies

The objective of Chinese company Malong Technologies is to develop machines that can "see" physical objects just like a person can at high, microscopic and X-ray levels. The company's AI initiatives are expected to help its customers achieve better safety, quality, and efficiencies. There are applications for several industries including retail, security, and manufacturing.

MyCrop Technologies

From its headquarters in India, MyCrop Technologies offers a collaborative platform that uses machine learning to provide real-time support for farmers who need to make decisions about their crops. Through big data, sensors, drones and more, MyCrop’s tech and intelligent algorithms process data and direct farmers to their "next step" to increase productivity and profitability.

Narrative Science

Another company focused on natural language processing innovation, Narrative Science’s Quill platform can learn and write like a person and transform data into intelligent narratives that allow people to make better decisions faster, empower employees and improve interactions with customers. Instead of spending time writing reports, clients of Narrative Science can act on the data.

Petuum

U.S. company Petuum, one of the highest-funded artificial intelligence and machine learning startups and founded by scientists and professors from Carnegie Mellon University, wants to make plug-and-play AI solutions available to every company. Petuum provides enterprises of all sizes the machine learning building blocks and software to create AI applications which result in productivity and efficiency.

Precognize

By analyzing plant data and applying advanced machine learning, Precognize’s predictive maintenance software detects system failures days and even weeks in advance. Not only does it help prevent shutdowns, it saves on maintenance costs and keeps downtime to a minimum.

Primer

Machines that can read and write? That's precisely the offering the artificial intelligence company Primer builds—machines that can read and write not only in English, but also in Chinese and Russian. The company's tools automate the analyses of very large datasets in its pursuit to "accelerate our understanding of the world."

Pymetrics

The 21st-century way of recruiting and hiring uses neuroscience games and artificial intelligence (free of bias) to match people to jobs where they will excel. Developed by Pymetrics, the system assesses people not on their resume, but on their cognitive and emotional makeup that is revealed through 20 minutes of game play. Since algorithms are bias-free, this strategy can diversify the hiring process.

Soulmachines

Who says machines can’t be expressive and emotive? New Zealand company Soulmachines created a digital nervous system they believe will revolutionize the way humans and machines interact. With a vision “to humanize artificial intelligence to better humanity,” Soulmachines creates incredibly life-like, emotionally responsive artificial humans.

ThoughtSpot

ThoughtSpot is a leader in artificial intelligence-driven analytics and search to put the power of thousands of analysts in every business person’s hands. Imagine taking advantage of a Google-like search to analyze incredible amounts of data and gain insights from the data. That’s what ThoughtSpot promises with a single click.

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