The selection process for this roundup started back in May at the tail-end of a previous, but closely related competition, 10 Hot IoT startups to watch.
AI wasn’t a key selection criterion then. Some startups had it, some did not, but enough of them focused squarely on AI that it made sense to look more closely at this subsector of the overall IoT market.
This roundup considered about 20 companies from the previous contenders that had strong AI components. Notice of the search for candidates was posted on HARO, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., and all told, just under 40 startups were considered.
Eleven were eliminated because either AI or IoT was not central enough to what they do. The next cuts were the easiest: startups that missed deadlines or failed to answer questions (instead just sending product boilerplate) were eliminated.
That left 18 contenders to be whittled down to 10 that were chosen based on a combination of funding, value proposition, the strength of the leadership team, market opportunity, product-market fit and named customers.