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If you’ve seen HBO’s Westworld, you might be a little wary of artificial intelligence (thanks, Anthony Hopkins). But these Colorado tech groups are using AI to make our lives more efficient and—hopefully—rogue-robot-free.
Josh.ai
In 2015, Josh.ai co-founders Alex Capecelatro and Tim Gill were constructing new smart homes when they found that the latest voice-assist technology—Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri—couldn’t handle more complex tasks. So the two coders built software that uses artificial intelligence to track patterns in homeowner requests. Example: Ask Josh to routinely turn on the lights at sunset and it will remember. This past September, the duo integrated the software into Josh Micro, a home-control interface that mounts to a table or wall; installation starts around $1,000.
Pipeline Equity
Pipeline’s mission is simple: help companies close the gap in gender equity and increase their top lines. How? The Denver group’s software mines employee data then uses AI to assess gender biases and make recommendations about key human resource decisions such as pay, hiring, and promotion. Those results can lead to more revenue. In a study of 4,000 companies, Pipeline found that for every 10 percent increase in gender equity (as measured in factors like equal pay and applicants’ gender diversity), companies enjoyed a one to two percent increase in revenue.
Listen.MD
Physicians spend twice as much time documenting visits and filing paperwork as they do seeing patients, according to a 2016 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. To help increase face time, Denver-based health app Listen.MD, which became available to users in the United States in January, records conversations and provides a summary of the appointment for the physician (reason for visit, follow-up actions, etc.). The end result? Doctors can spend more time actually working with patients, not just writing about them.