This post is produced by BeMyApp.
According to researchers, 2016 will be the year of AI. Believed to be replacing the screen age as one of the “hot consumer trends,” the latest in AI allows for much more than robots, personal assistants, and self-driving cars.
Facebook recently announced that the company is open-sourcing its Big Sur servers designed for deep learning (i.e. voice, image, and language recognition). The move comes as no surprise. Google, IBM, and Microsoft already took decisive steps towards opening their AI technologies earlier this year.
And while tech giants in Silicon Valley are fighting over AI dominance, six startups from around the world are getting VC’s attention. As part of theHacker Unit accelerator program — the first remote accelerator for disruptive startups — these companies are on their way to shape the future of AI.

1. Legal Robot

Reading through and understanding legal documents can be a huge hassle for many. With an increasing number of small businesses and individuals trying to navigate the field, Legal Robot helps with understanding complex legal language using AI without the cost associated with it. The company’s goal is to empower consumers, save businesses money, and let lawyers focus on what matters. The startup uses AI to parse legal documents and translates them into accessible language; it also handles analyzing contracts, and according to its founders, “improves transparency.”

2. Semantile

Semantile is a Relevancy Engine Platform that brings AI to semantic text analysis. It allows people and companies to have a better comprehension of what a word is or is related to. It helps businesses and enterprises extract all meaningful and actionable concepts from their unstructured text and sort them accordingly. For example, if you search for a BLT on Semantile, the algorithm will tell you what is a proper BLT, what defines this sandwich, what makes it different from a burger. The Semantile team is composed of startup veterans and their mission is to re-wire how relevancy matching is done today. Semantile’s proprietary and patent pending semantic annotation and similarity discovery technology makes it a high quality and fast text analysis software compared to other text analytics in the market.

3. Shadeo

Similar to Shazam but designed for products, Shadeo is an automated in-video advertising plugin. The goal is to be able to initiate a search of an object from any kind of media flow — video, picture, etc. — and interact with it. It gives users a brand new way to search on the web and buy products that interest them. For businesses, this is an opportunity to generate qualified leads without major changes in the commercial process. So next time you see a suit in a James Bond movie that you want, you will be able to get it with just three clicks.

4. Real Life Analytics

We can’t be talking about Artificial Intelligence and not look into big data, especially when it comes to analyzing consumer behavior. The startup Real Life Analytics enables targeted advertising on any digital screen in real time using plug-and-play AI dongles. Think of commercial displays you see in places like shopping centers and subway stations that can now leverage real-time facial recognition to customize the content according to the viewer’s engagement and demographics: age, gender, etc. and provide insight into customer demographics and behavior. And we thought search-based ads were brilliant.

5. ClevAPI

ClevAPI allows brands to automatically put their logos and products on top of related objects and make advertising more natural and engaging for viewers. The SaaS technology receives and processes images, and then returns a list of tags that describe image content and precise location of recognized objects. Ultimately, ClevAPI provides real-time image recognition service for product placement and native advertising. The company is founded after years of research in deep learning and computer vision.

6. Riminder

Riminder is a service aiming to disrupt the HR industry and job seeking. Using a unique technology and tapping into deep learning, the application has a dual purpose: on one side, it helps individuals improve their career path thanks to the two million careers the company has analyzed. Simultaneously, Riminder allows talent managers and recruiters to leverage both internal and external data to attract relevant talent and pinpoint high potential candidates. Don’t miss the right candidate or the most fitting job again — use real data and make smart decisions.
Being part of the Hacker Unit accelerator is allowing these startups founded in different places around the world to connect and work with mentors and experts. The program is designed to be entirely online and this first batch is graduating in March. Follow their progress as they take AI one step further.
If you’d like to get in touch with them and find out more about their solutions, we will be happy to help: contact@hackerunit.com.
Hacker Unit was launched in November, 2015 by BeMyApp and aims to solve the problem of successful business acceleration and fund-raising tied to geographic location.
Vera Glavova is Director of Operations, BeMyApp.