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The 10 most innovative enterprise companies of 2021

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In a year when businesses of every size and description in all sectors were forced to adapt to unprecedented global upheaval, these 10 companies offered innovations that helped enterprises not only to survive but to thrive. 1. Twilio For facilitating face-to-face communication during an era of social distancing and global lockdown During the pandemic, usage of Twilio ‘s omnichannel (voice, text, chat, video, email) communications applications doubled; after receiving expedited HIPAA certification in March, the company became the go-to choice for much of the healthcare industry and began offering its video platform for free to organizations dealing with COVID-19 restrictions. The video business unit has seen a 540% year-over-year increase in weekly minutes. 2. Cloudflare For providing free security during a very insecure year One of the few U.S. internet firms doing business in China, Cloudflare expects its partnership with JD Cloud to lead to 150 new data centers on the mainland. During the COVID-19 crisis, the company offered Cloudflare for Teams to small businesses for free and also offered a free suite of its products to government agencies. Another free suite of services, Cloudflare for Campaigns, protected candidates from cyberattacks and hackers during the election cycle. The company’s largesse did not hurt its bottom line: Q2 revenue exceeded $100 million, up 48% year over year. 3. Elastic For making search faster and more secure The search technology utilized by many major companies (Cisco, Pfizer, Shopify, and Walmart, to name a few), Elastic last year released four new versions of its machine learning-native core stack and partnered with Defending Digital Campaigns, providing free endpoint security to presidential and congressional campaigns. The company’s revenue grew by 44 percent year over year. 4. Honeywell For advancing the state of quantum computing Last year, this hundred year old company came out of nowhere to launch what may be the most powerful quantum computer in the world. Honeywell ‘s Quantum Solutions utilizes a “trapped ion” process that is slower but more accurate, and since its launch in March 2020, the company has grown its share of voice within the quantum computing industry from 1 percent to 25 percent. 5. Microsoft For democratizing at scale the ability of non-coders to build apps Six years after its initial launch, Microsoft ‘s Power Platform has continued to evolve and expand to empower employees to build web and mobile apps without having to write any code. From automating workflows to building chatbots, the four pillars of the Power Platform—Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents—have facilitated workplace innovation at a time when companies of every size have had to adapt to a disruptive global crisis. 6 Read More …

Meet Moxie, the robot that could be your child’s or parent’s new best friend

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Consumer robots aren’t really a thing yet, but some specialized robots are starting to edge toward the mainstream. One of those is a big-eyed little robot named Moxie, which its maker, Pasadena, California-based Embodied, designed to be an emotionally intelligent friend to a child. Moxie uses a powerful natural language model to carry on conversation; in fact, it starts getting to know its child friend from the moment it’s turned on. Moxie uses computer vision AI to recognize the child (and others) and to detect eye contact and facial expressions. It’s also a serious child development tool: Moxie tells stories and plays games to inspire creativity. Embodied put Moxies in 100 households as a way of learning some lessons from experience. Some of those kids really needed a friend, as the pandemic kept them home from school and cut them off from their social circle. Embodied CEO Paolo Pirjanian says his company’s small team needed a special blend of IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence) to bring Moxie to life. Thanks to being located right next to Burbank, he says, Embodied was able to recruit people from animation studios to create Moxie’s cartoon-cute look and feel. AI specialists, engineers, and childhood development specialists worked alongside them to build the robot’s personality and skills. New Moxies will start shipping to new homes, and finding new friends, in April Read More …

The 10 most innovative companies in augmented and virtual reality

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Consumer virtual reality (VR) headsets took a stride toward the mainstream with the release of Oculus Quest 2 this year, while augmented reality (AR) experiences have been mainly phone-bound—consisting of Snapchat overlays and Apple ARKit apps. Still, some compelling AR and VR content was produced, such as the Solastalgia short film that took honors at the Sundance Film Festival, and Valve’s new game, Half-Life: Alyx . Because of the pandemic, some businesses have begun thinking about bringing far-flung employees together to collaborate using spatial computing. These are the companies whose products did the most to push mixed reality forward during 2020. 1. Snap For bridging reality with mini apps For Snap , 2020 might be remembered for the launch of “minis,” or little third-party apps that run inside the company’s messaging app. The apps can be used in social ways: Two friends can use a mini to figure out a movie to see, and then buy the tickets together. Or two friends might shop for a prom dress together (yes, Snap’s audience skews a little younger). And the developers of these little apps can either bring their own computer vision models or use Snap’s to let users identify places or products in the real world. The company says it’s been working with retailers on ways to keep business humming during the pandemic. For instance it launched a virtual try-on app with Gucci in June. Imagine pointing your Snapchat camera at your feet to see how a pair of Gucci shoes would look on you, then simply pushing a button on the lens to make the purchase. Snap’s AR try-on technology, launched last June, allows you to do just that. With its new Camera Kit tool, Snap is also letting brands like MLB and Nike build Snapchat AR lenses into their own apps, for their communities to enjoy. It’s in a position to do so: Snap has seen a big bounce in usage since people have been trapped at home (with their phones) during the pandemic. The company says its daily active users grew to 265 million in Q4 2020, compared with 218 million a year earlier, average revenue per user is up from 33%, and it anticipates an impressive 50% revenue growth in the years ahead. Read More …

The 10 most innovative dining companies of 2021

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The dining companies on this list are doing more than survive the COVID-19 crisis. They’re setting themselves—and the entire industry—up for future success. Chicago-based reservation management platform Tock is helping independent restaurants offer order and delivery services, while Slice does something similar for local pizzerias. Sensor company OneDine has adapted its technology to help restaurants set up new drive-through services, and New York-based architecture firm Rockwell Group allows them to create outdoor spaces quickly and efficiently Read More …

The 10 most innovative film and TV companies of 2021

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Because most people spent more time in 2020 cooped up inside than ever before, film and TV offerings transcended the realm of entertainment to become something more substantial. They served as a crucial, sanity-preserving balm, and a point of connection with others similarly stuck at home. With people consuming so much TV and film, it might sound easy for a studio or a streaming service to win audiences over. Considering just how much content was competing for eyeballs in lockdown, however, it took innovation and foresight to truly stand out. Read More …