In the world of technology and innovation, artificial intelligence is the biggest buzzword right now. A lot of startups around the globe are exploring what this technology can do to improve our society as a whole. The 100 top AI startups have raised a total of US$3.8bn in funding since 2012. Let’s take a closer look at what makes these startups so appealing.

#6 Zymergen

One of the companies raising a lot of money over the past few years is Zymergen. This company focuses on unlocking the power of biology and aims to use AI to do so. In fact, the company prides itself on being able to “engineer biology predictably.” Their bread and butter is delivering better economics for products made from biology and used across multiple industries. For example, they are working on creating artificial microbes that make can create useful molecules. To be more precise, they are working with the industrial fermentation market to speed up the fermentation process of foods using artificially created microbes.

#5 InsideSales.com

As the name suggests, the company is focused on accelerating sales. Their comprehensive sales acceleration platform user’s breakthrough technologies – such as artificial intelligence

– to create high-performance sales teams. The company uses a predictive engine that forecasts how a company will do based on it’s sales patterns and other historical data. The software can even predict potential upcoming risks with certain deals. Other techniques employed by the company are gamification, data visualization, and communication. InsideSales raised a total of US$199.3m so far.

#4 Voyager Labs

Do not confuse this startup with Star Trek Voyager, as they have nothing in common. Voyager Labs provide an artificial intelligence engine which uses publicly available data to analyze human behavior. Some use cases for the engine include: Anti-Bribery / Anti-Corruption, Investigations, Fraud, and Human Resources. Furthermore, the AI engine could be used in risk assessments for issuing out loans. The company is only a few months old and it already has $100M of funding.

#3 Descartes Labs

Descartes Labs’ mission is to gain a better understanding of how our planet works. Using a massive pipeline which gathers all images coming from satellites, UAVs, cameras, cell phones, etc. This startup uses artificial intelligence to analyze this data to teach the program how to identify important information so they can be used for many purposes. One solution this company offers is the enabling real-time global awareness regarding energy infrastructure, food production, and the environment. Right now, the startup is able to forecast the production of global commodity crops using deep machine learning and other technologies. Eventually the engine could even forecast weather because it could use images of past weather patterns to predict future ones.

#2 iCarbonX

The healthcare sector stands to benefit a lot from developments in the artificial intelligence sector. iCarbonX is a startup working on such an AI platform, with a particular focus on curing disease, preventive care, and precision nutrition research. There is a distinctive pattern here as just like the other startups iCarbonX uses big data and machine learning. The difference is that iCarbonX uses the data to figure out solutions in the healthcare sector.  In the long run, platforms like these can pave the way for personalized medicine.

#1 Zoox

Valued at $1.5 billion Zoox is by far one of the most prominent AI startups in the world today. The robotics company is pioneering autonomous mobility, think of it as an autonomous driving Uber. Artificial intelligence, cutting-edge engineering, and high-tech design efforts are a few of the aspects that will be used to make this project a reality. The company plans to launch a fleet of self driving cars, and scale the platform to a large market. The development of such a car and the supporting ecosystem is underway as we speak. The next generation of mobility-as-a-service is just around the corner, that much is certain.

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