Outside of costly content licensing deals, model developers and enterprises are turning to synthetic data — artificially generated datasets such as text and images — to supplement AI model training, especially in domains where data availability is limited or privacy is a concern. 

Since 2022, nearly 30 of 50 vendors identified in the synthetic training data space have raised equity funding. But overall funding has stalled as big tech eyes opportunities in the space — and as generative AI itself has upended the business models of data simulation companies founded prior to LLMs mainstream arrival. 

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Synthetic data funding has stalled as big tech moves in — we analyzed 50 companies to identify green shoots in the space appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Nvidia has used its experience developing graphics processing units (GPUs) — which were originally developed for applications like gaming but turned out to be rather good at AI tasks — to become a dominant force in AI infrastructure and applications. 

But a host of established companies and startups are investing heavily to capture a share of the growing AI computing market. This includes building new types of chips specifically for training and running AI models, evolving traditional processors like CPUs and GPUs to better support AI workloads, and exploring novel information processing technologies such as quantum and neuromorphic computing. 

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post The AI computing hardware market map appeared first on CB Insights Research.

What you need to know: 

• Ambient AI is reducing clinician burnout by autonomously documenting clinical interactions. Physicians are already reporting benefits such as being able to see more patients each month.
• Strategic partnerships, like that between Abridge and Kaiser Permanente, are driving large-scale adoption.
• Tech giants like Microsoft and Oracle are entering the space, making ambient AI a key part of their health IT offerings.

Ambient AI — tech that autonomously monitors and reacts to changes in an environment — could be key to addressing the widespread issue of clinician burnout, which costs the US healthcare system an estimated $4.6B annually.  

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post The $4.6B opportunity in healthcare: Ambient AI to target clinician burnout appeared first on CB Insights Research.

To do this, new tech-enabled solutions are targeting key bottlenecks throughout the clinical trial lifecycle for all participating stakeholders, from researchers to life science companies to patients.  

To help strategy teams prioritize clinical trials markets in their planning decisions, we plotted markets using CB Insights’ TECH framework, which scores markets across 2 dimensions:

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Prioritizing clinical trials tech: How 16 tech-driven markets stack up across maturity and momentum appeared first on CB Insights Research.

What you need to know: 

• The AI agent space remains nascent overall, but a growing cohort of startups has begun selling a product — suggesting the sector is poised for accelerated commercial growth in the months ahead.
• Investors like Y Combinator, OpenAI Startup Fund, and a16z are actively backing AI agent startups, with YC alone investing in 10+ companies in this space.

The future of the workforce is deeply entwined with AI — and enterprise AI agent startups, mostly early-stage, are rushing to seize the opportunity.

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Enterprise AI agents are on the cusp of broad commercialization appeared first on CB Insights Research.

What you need to know: 

• Animal health is seeing rising demand and early-stage startups are building novel products targeting the space, including AI-based solutions.
• Focus areas for emerging trends include: Diagnostic platforms for vets, advanced therapies, methane-reducing solutions, AI-driven diagnostics & monitoring, and disease prevention & treatment.

Animal health — which includes companion and livestock animals — is steadily growing as a topic of interest among executives.

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Animal health is seeing new innovations — here’s what early-stage startup activity says about the future of the space appeared first on CB Insights Research.

What you need to know: 

• The OpenAI co-founder’s AI safety startup has raised $1B, reflecting the industry divide on AI risks — and the rush to back the next tech giant. 
• SSI’s deal marks the 9th $1B+ AI equity round of the year, following record levels of AI investment in Q2’24.

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s AI startup Safe Superintelligence (SSI) recently announced it had raised $1B at a $5B valuation. 

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Monster VC deals: $1B+ AI rounds keep coming as investors hedge their bets on who the next tech giant will be appeared first on CB Insights Research.

The question is certainly top of mind for corporations getting to grips with emerging technology like generative AI — the answer could help identify future competitors, partners, new markets, or acquisition targets.  

Using CB Insights’ proprietary data and metrics — including Exit Probability, Commercial Maturity, Mosaic, headcount, patents, and funding — we identified the 52 emerging players our data says are most likely to have an outsized influence in the next 5–10 years and have a strong exit. 

Download the report to see:

• The full list of Future Tech Hotshots
• Key themes and industry analysis
• Methodology

MORE TOP COMPANY LISTS FROM CB INSIGHTS:

• Insurtech 50: The most promising insurtech startups of 2024
• AI 100: The most promising artificial intelligence startups of 2024
• The Digital Health 50: The most promising digital health companies of 2023
• Fintech 100: The most promising fintech startups of 2023

The post Future Tech Hotshots: 52 emerging tech startups that will have big, successful exits appeared first on CB Insights Research.

The content below was curated by our experts using CBI Instant Insights, a one-click AI analysis and summarization tool. Click on company profiles for more details and sourcing information.

NOTABLE DEALS

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post This month in genAI: Moonshot raises $300M, Amazon acquires Perceive, Google launches Gemini Live appeared first on CB Insights Research.

What you need to know:

• Multi-agent systems outperform single agents on complex tasks by leveraging specialized sub-agents, improving accuracy and modularity.
• While still in the early stages, multi-agent architectures are gaining traction in enterprise applications like customer service and software development, with major tech companies and startups developing frameworks and tools.
• Future software applications will be defined by their agent architectures. We envision that AI agent marketplaces will emerge, enabling dynamic integration and collaboration between specialized agents across platforms.

AI agents — LLM-based bots that can independently assign themselves to and complete tasks to fulfill a user’s goal — took off like wildfire in 2023.

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post The Multi-Agent AI Outlook: Here’s what you need to know about the next major development in genAI appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Unlike big tech peers like Google and Meta, it’s largely kept its in-house model development activity out of the public eye. With a focus on the on-device user experience — and smaller models as a result — Apple is relying on external large language models (LLMs) from partners like OpenAI to round out its generative AI suite.

Using CB Insights data, we uncovered the 3 biggest strategic priorities in Apple’s AI strategy:

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Analyzing Apple’s AI strategy: Small models, spatial computing, and consumer-friendly AI agents appeared first on CB Insights Research.

What you need to know:

• • Execs and investors are showing renewed interest in virtual fit tech, which saw a surge in interest a few years ago but hasn’t been adopted widely yet.
  • Other AI-powered styling tools, from automated stylist chatbots to generative AI outfit suggestions, have the potential to further deepen personalization and drive conversion with shoppers.

Virtual try-on tech was once touted as a silver bullet for fashion and beauty shopping.

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post AI is revitalizing the “virtual try-on” space — this is what’s coming next, including interactive Google ads appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Essential resources to understand the future of healthcare:

• • The generative AI in healthcare market map — These tech companies are bringing generative AI into medical research and clinical settings.
  • Pharma AI Readiness Index: Who’s best-positioned for the AI boom? — Assess how prepared top pharmaceutical companies are to adopt and respond to rapidly evolving AI technologies.
  • 6 digital health markets gaining momentum in 2024 — We analyzed early-stage investment trends to uncover which digital health markets — from telepsychiatry to virtual & hybrid women’s healthcare — are quickly evolving and how.
• 
  • The Digital Health 50 — Here are the world’s most promising digital health startups.
  • Big Tech in Healthcare — How Amazon, Google, Microsoft, & Nvidia are looking to transform drug R&D, primary care, and more.
  • State of Digital Health Q2’24 Report — Funding in digital health drops, but larger check sizes and an uptick in exits highlight bright spots for the industry in Q2’24.
• 
  • Longevity tech market map — 64 promising startups across 12 categories aiming to expand lifespans, from human cryopreservation to cellular reprogramming.
  • Digital Health AI M&A — Every second acquisition in 2024 has been an AI company; here’s where we’re seeing the most activity.
  • 20 tech trends to watch closely in 2024 — The technology trends that will transform industries as generative AI takes center stage, including several directly impacting healthcare.

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Our top digital health research and trends to watch appeared first on CB Insights Research.

In 2024 so far, a16z has backed more than 20 AI startups working within disruptive categories. For example, this year, it has invested in several AI-driven copilots and agents designed to automate key workflows in big industries like healthcare and finance. It has also turned its attention to multimedia generation startups expediting the creation of a wide variety of content, from images to videos to audio.

While championing AI’s advancement, the firm also acknowledges associated risks — its founders are proponents of open-source models, arguing that their transparency and accessibility will help ensure that AI is developed in a secure and ethical way. So far this year, the two largest a16z-backed AI deals have gone to open-source large language model (LLM) developers xAI and Mistral AI.

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Analyzing a16z’s AI investment strategy: Where the firm sees opportunity amid the genAI rush appeared first on CB Insights Research.

What you need to know:

• GenAI M&A activity continued to pick up in H1’24, featuring notable deals like Snowflake’s acquisition of TruEra and Nvidia’s acquisitions of Run:ai and Deci — putting the spotlight on the companies that may be next.
• High-momentum genAI startups with leading M&A Probability are in markets including machine learning security and agents & copilots.

More companies are looking to gain an AI edge by acquiring a startup — overall AI M&A activity spiked in Q2’24 to 119 deals, surpassing even the heady 2021 levels.

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post GenAI M&A is heating up. Here are the 20+ startups that could be acquired next appeared first on CB Insights Research.

In addition to facing regulatory pressure – a US judge recently ruled that Google was illegally maintaining a monopoly – the online search giant is being pushed to lean into AI to defend its position, rolling out AI Overviews to users in the US in May. 

Meanwhile, OpenAI has started testing out its own AI search tool called SearchGPT, while a new crop of genAI-powered startups are using the tech to power the next generation of search engines. 

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Can Perplexity threaten Google? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

As new, hard-to-predict threats emerge from the nascent genAI space, so too do startups working on a broad range of novel cybersecurity solutions — some of which protect against genAI risks, while others use genAI to build new defenses. 

But among these young companies, which are building the tech solutions that could eventually grow into their own cybersecurity markets? 

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Generative AI is upending old cybersecurity assumptions — here are the emerging themes and players to watch appeared first on CB Insights Research.

With the rapid development of generative AI, consultancies are keen to use the tech to streamline internal processes and launch AI-based products for their enterprise clients. 

Boston Consulting Group, for example, is zeroing in on responsible AI through its partnership with large language model developer Anthropic. Meanwhile, Deloitte’s AI Institute launched an internal generative AI copilot in January 2024 to streamline tasks like coding and project planning, with plans to offer the tool to 100K employees. 

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post AI strategies for 8 of the world’s biggest consultancies: Where Accenture, Deloitte, and 6 other giants are making moves appeared first on CB Insights Research.

To stay on top, OpenAI has raised billions of dollars in funding and ramped up its hiring into the thousands of employees.

It has also acquired 3 startups in the last year to add new enterprise tech capabilities and talent, as noted in the Acquisition Insights on OpenAI’s CB Insights profile. 

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post OpenAI is on an M&A tear — here’s who it could acquire next appeared first on CB Insights Research.

It’s estimated that robots and other smart machinery will make up as much as one-third of US military presence in the next 15 years, according to Mark Milley, a retired US Army General and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Unmanned systems already dominate in some areas — like aerial drones — while significant development is underway in bringing autonomous tech to the ground, ocean surface, and underwater domains.

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post The AI in defense tech market map appeared first on CB Insights Research.

For the networking leader, AI forms the crux of a multi-pronged strategy to steer away from pure hardware toward services and software, which offer expanded revenue streams. Cisco is investing in pure-play AI infrastructure startups, forming AI partnerships, and embedding AI in its products.

Yet Cisco is going one step further by embracing an approach to AI computing centered on Ethernet and networking fabrics. These technologies could help handle the scale the speed demanded by data- and compute-intensive AI workloads. To this end, Cisco has partnered with chip leaders like Nvidia to help businesses manage AI clusters and deployments more easily. 

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Analyzing Cisco’s growth strategy: How the networking giant is betting on emerging infrastructure in AI and cybersecurity appeared first on CB Insights Research.

That’s at least partly driven by a wave of big companies racing to build AI into their roadmaps.

Source: CB Insights — customers can use the CB Insights platform search filters and our business model data to explore both B2B AI deals and B2C AI deals 

But while B2B dominates AI funding, the consumer sector is rapidly evolving.

Big tech companies like Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are all exploring how to use AI to engage consumers with chatbots and other AI-powered features.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is embedding ChatGPT more deeply into consumers’ day-to-day lives by leveraging partnerships with device makers (like Apple) and auto manufacturers (like Peugeot).

The company is also looking for AI’s killer consumer apps. 

The OpenAI Startup Fund (a corporate venture fund backed by external LPs, including Microsoft) has zeroed in on learning and personal health based on its recent activity. 

For example, it’s backed multiple deals to language-learning app Speak (last valued at $500M). 

Source: CB Insights — OpenAI Investment Strategy Map

That tracks where we’re seeing AI B2C funding going so far this year.

Here are some notable categories where startups are developing B2C applications based on 2024 deal activity: 

• Personal AI assistants and chatbots: This includes chatbots from some of the top-funded companies in the space (Anthropic, xAI) as well as early-stage agent startups (MultiOn, Altera). Both Altera and MultiOn are featured in our autonomous agents market on the CB Insights platform.

Source: CB Insights — autonomous agents & digital coworkers market

• Language learning & education: Companies are raising fresh funding amid natural language processing advances to offer AI tutors, including companies funded this year like Praktika.ai, Speak, Futura, and Buddy.ai. 
• Image generation & editing: This was one of the earliest genAI categories to gain attention in 2022. Notable deals to companies in this space in 2024 YTD include Ideogram ($80M) and PhotoRoom ($43M). It’s a space that also includes a bootstrapped player that we’d projected might be worth $10B (and likely more now). Another entrant into the space is YC-backed PhotoRoom, an AI photo-editing platform. The company is actively scaling as highlighted by its Commercial Maturity score from CB Insights shown below. The company hit $50M in ARR in 2023 per CB Insights revenue data.

Source: CB Insights — Commercial Maturity score on PhotoRoom’s company profile

• Mental health & wellness: Companies in this category are providing AI-powered mental health support, such as chatbots (Lore Health, Clare&me) and stress management techniques (SacredSpace.AI). 
• Virtual characters & social interaction: This tracks with our January 2024 prediction that AI “friends” would become a bigger reality. A number of companies here (SOAI, Foxy) are targeting romantic companionship. 

Personalization is paramount. Across almost all categories, there’s a strong emphasis on using AI to deliver personalized experiences. 

From AI tutors to virtual companions, startups are racing to create the next game-changing consumer AI application.

However, the business models for consumer-focused AI companies may need to evolve beyond subscriptions, so expect to see significant innovation on both the business model and product fronts.

MORE AI RESOURCES FROM CB INSIGHTS:

• State of AI Q2’24 Report
• Analyzing OpenAI’s investment strategy: Where the ChatGPT maker is betting on AI disruption
• Future of the workforce: How AI agents will transform enterprise workflows
• The enterprise AI agents & copilots market map

The post These emerging B2C AI applications are gaining investor attention appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Investors have poured nearly $4B into the space in the last 2 years as the rapid development of generative AI (genAI) enables more complex forms of natural language processing.

GenAI has fueled the emergence of not only chatbots like ChatGPT, which leverage large language models (LLMs) to answer user questions, summarize documents, and more, but also copilots (or assistants) that work alongside humans to speed up their workflows. AI agents mark another evolution beyond copilots: they can tackle complex tasks on a user’s behalf with minimal intervention, from sales prospecting to scheduling meetings.

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post The enterprise AI agents & copilots market map appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Humans will still play a crucial role — but instead of assembling parts or operating machinery, they will maintain robots and keep them running.

In these future factories, robots coordinate in unison, completing work automatically — without breaks, every hour of the day — to get products out the door. 

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Future of the factory: The emerging technologies defining next-generation manufacturing appeared first on CB Insights Research.

This acquisition follows Commure’s Oct 2023 acquisition of another AI-driven provider workflow solution Athelas — which offers revenue cycle management (RCM) and automated documentation services — further bolstering its AI arsenal.

These deals reflect a key trend in healthcare M&A: AI is all the rage. 

Want to see more research? Join a demo of the CB Insights platform.

If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Digital Health M&A: Every second acquisition in 2024 has been an AI company appeared first on CB Insights Research.