Dear Augmentir Customers and Friends, This week we announced that we closed an oversubscribed funding round that will support our mission to transform the frontline workforce with our AI-based Augmented Worker Platform. This round was led by leading venture capital firm Pritzker Group Venture Capital, with participation from Lerer Hippeau, our current investors, and HOLT […]
This round was led by leading venture capital firm Pritzker Group Venture Capital, with participation from Lerer Hippeau, our current investors, and HOLT Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of HOLT CAT.
Not only does the successful closing of this round further validate our unique approach of using AI and AR to support frontline workers, but it also enables us to expand our global footprint, further increase the functionality of the platform, and make it even more accessible to companies across the small, mid-sized and large spectrum.
Together with our investors and partners, we look forward to reaching even more companies, more workers, and more innovators, while defining the future of work.
With a unique and proven track record that includes founding efforts at Wonderware, Lighthammer, and ThingWorx, our executive team has the unparalleled domain expertise to deliver the next software innovation that will revolutionize the manufacturing and industrial market and shape the frontline workforce of the future.
We are excited to continue this journey with you, to support your frontline workforce with augmented procedures and help your organization drive continuous improvement through AI-driven insights.
https://www.augmentir.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Campaign-Visual_Funding_Option-A1.jpg6121024Chris Kuntzhttps://www.augmentir.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Augmentir_Logo_Sm-300x169.pngChris Kuntz2019-07-18 17:01:262023-03-08 20:14:02A Letter From the CEO: Augmentir Closes Funding Round to Accelerate Expansion
Recently, Augmentir’s Dave Landreth sat down with Christopher Lind from Learning Tech Talks, and discussed the evolution of learning technology and the role that connected worker solutions play.
Recently, Augmentir’s Dave Landreth sat down with Christopher Lind from Learning Tech Talks, and discussed connected worker solutions, and how leading manufacturing organizations are digitizing their workforce and transforming their frontline operations.
The Evolving Landscape of Learning Technology
Learning Tech Talks explore the evolving landscape of learning and training technology through unbiased conversations with experts and technology providers from around the world. In this episode, Dave and Chris discuss the role that connected worker solutions play in learning for frontline workers. The discussion covers what connected worker solutions are, their value to manufacturing organizations, and walks through the process of using this technology to digitize a workforce from “hire to retire”, as well as investigates some of the insights and opportunities that are available in a smarter connected collaboration.
Gartner recently published their annual Hype Cycle for Frontline Worker Technology, and Augmentir was recognized as an important player and solution provider. The report covers emerging tech categories for frontline workers including Connected Factory Workers, Remote Expert Guidance solutions, and Augmented Reality. Digital Technologies for Frontline Workers This Hype Cycle focuses on the leading-edge technologies […]
Gartner recently published their annual Hype Cycle for Frontline Worker Technology, and Augmentir was recognized as an important player and solution provider. The report covers emerging tech categories for frontline workers including Connected Factory Workers, Remote Expert Guidance solutions, and Augmented Reality.
Digital Technologies for Frontline Workers
This Hype Cycle focuses on the leading-edge technologies that are transforming the workflows in which frontline workers participate, while also improving the safety, quality, and productivity of the activities they perform.
According to the report, “The COVID-19 crisis has led organizations to ask frontline workers to work in new ways or to perform new tasks. To optimize efficiency, organizations are investing in mobile technology, including wearable technologies for frontline workers. These technologies transform the workflows in which these workers participate. Gartner predicts that up to 70% of new mobile and endpoint investments over the next five years will be for frontline workers”.
This Hype Cycle highlights several key mature and emerging technologies that are focused on helping frontline worker productivity, including the following:
Remote Expert Guidance Solutions: Remote expert guidance solutions provide industrial-level collaboration between subject matter experts and remote workers or customers utilizing mobile or wearable devices. Typical features include chat, live video, file sharing, and annotations, which provide visual cues that overlay the worker’s view. These tools help guide remote workers as they perform tasks, and are used across a variety of use cases – maintenance and repair procedures, remote factory acceptance tests, post-task audits, or training.
Connected Factory Worker: Connected factory workers use various digital tools to improve the safety, quality, and productivity of the jobs they perform. This technology helps connect workers to the “digital fabric” of the business, providing insight into the tasks they perform so that they can be optimized and continually improved on.
Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality (AR/MR): Connected workers use augmented and mixed reality technologies to improve and integrate their interactions with both physical and virtual surroundings. Through the use of digital work instructions, as well as augmented/mixed reality delivered through mobile and wearable devices, they are able to make faster and better decisions that optimize and improve a process or workflow that they participate in.
Augmentir’s Approach to the Connected Frontline Worker
Augmentir sits on the intersection of these innovation profiles, using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to amplify the value that digital technologies bring to the connected worker.
Augmented Work Instructions and digitized workflows help guide connected workers with visual aids while AI-driven insights provide contextual information that enable workers to perform at their best.
Remote Expert Guidance helps companies virtually connect and collaborate with their frontline workforce and their customers to provide remote guidance and support.
AI-based Operational Insights help companies identify the largest opportunities in improving the skills of the frontline workforce, and helps to drive continuous improvement throughout the organization.
At Augmentir, our AI identifies patterns and generates insights based on analyzing data from connected workers. These insights improve worker performance as well as provide positive impact on training, operational workflows, and quality. According to Gartner, “The possibility of predicting performance is extremely attractive for manufacturers. This is driving the strong interest in ML. ML is an essential enabler of artificial intelligence (AI), smart factories and intelligent automation.”
Our view at Augmentir is that the purpose of a connected worker platform isn’t simply to deliver instructions and remote support to a frontline worker, but rather to continually optimize the performance of the connected worker ecosystem. Artificial intelligence is uniquely able to address the fundamental macrotrends of skills variability and the loss of tribal knowledge in the workforce. With an ecosystem of content authors, frontline workers, subject matter experts, operations managers, continuous improvement engineers, and quality specialists, there are dozens of opportunities to improve performance.
If you’d like to see how our AI-Powered Connected Worker platform improves safety, quality, and productivity across your workforce, schedule a demo with one of our product experts.
Gartner recently published their annual Hype Cycle for Manufacturing Operations Strategy and Innovation in Manufacturing Industries. These two Hype Cycles focus on the leading-edge technologies and methodologies that will significantly change how manufacturers innovate, deliver and support products and services. Augmentir was recognized as an important player in both Hype Cycle reports. Emerging Technologies in […]
Gartner recently published their annual Hype Cycle for Manufacturing Operations Strategy and Innovation in Manufacturing Industries. These two Hype Cycles focus on the leading-edge technologies and methodologies that will significantly change how manufacturers innovate, deliver and support products and services.
Augmentir was recognized as an important player in both Hype Cycle reports.
Emerging Technologies in Manufacturing
According to the report, “manufacturers that adopt the breakthrough opportunities presented as innovation profiles on this Hype Cycle will accelerate digitalization that increases the agility and ability to innovate products and business operations”.
These Hype Cycles, which reflect the convergence of the physical and virtual worlds, present several key mature and emerging technologies, including the following:
Connected Worker: Connected workers use digital technologies to improve and integrate their interactions with both physical and virtual surroundings. Through the use of digital work instructions, as well as augmented/mixed reality delivered through mobile/wearable devices, they are able to make faster and better decisions that optimize and improve a process or workflow that they participate in.
Immersive Experiences – Manufacturing Operations: According to Gartner, immersive experiences refer to enabling the perception of being physically present in a nonphysical world or enriching people’s presence in the physical world with content from the virtual world. The report covers three kinds of immersive experiences: Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR).
Machine Learning: Machine learning is a technical discipline that identifies patterns and generates predictions based on analyzing large sets of data. According to Gartner’s research: “In manufacturing operations, machine learning (ML) can take advantage of available data and rely on the algorithms to identify patterns and correlations. It can also use them to predict outcomes, to find the best course(s) of action and to control processes. Typical use cases include eliminating unplanned downtime and stoppages, increasing yield optimization, reducing energy usage, improving product quality or stabilizing production processes.”
Augmentir is mentioned in the context of Connected Workers and Immersive Experiences in Manufacturing Operations as software and solution provider.
Augmentir’s Approach to Connected Workers and Immersive Experiences in Manufacturing
Augmentir sits and the intersection of these innovation profiles, using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to amplify the value that digital technologies bring to the connected worker.
Digital Work Instructions help guide connected workers with visual aids and augmented with AI-driven insights and contextual information enable workers to perform at their best.
Integrated Remote Expert assistance helps workers resolve issues faster using insights from Augmentir’s AI and information from the guided procedure.
Augmentir’s AI uses granular data to identify the largest opportunities in improving the skills of the frontline workforce, and helps to drive continuous improvement throughout the organization.
At Augmentir, our AI identifies patterns and generates insights based on analyzing data from connected workers. These insights improve worker performance as well as provide positive impact on training, operational workflows, and quality. According to Gartner, “The possibility of predicting performance is extremely attractive for manufacturers. This is driving the strong interest in ML. ML is an essential enabler of artificial intelligence (AI), smart factories and intelligent automation”.
Our view at Augmentir is that the purpose of a connected worker platform isn’t simply to deliver instructions and remote support to a frontline worker, but rather to optimize the performance of the connected worker ecosystem. Artificial intelligence is uniquely able to address the fundamental macrotrends of growing skills gaps and the loss of tribal knowledge. With an ecosystem of content authors, frontline workers, subject matter experts, operations managers, continuous improvement engineers, and quality specialists, there are were dozens of opportunities to improve performance.
https://www.augmentir.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/manufacturing-innovation-hype-cycle.jpg215382Chris Kuntzhttps://www.augmentir.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Augmentir_Logo_Sm-300x169.pngChris Kuntz2020-01-24 20:33:062023-03-07 20:09:31Augmentir Included in Gartner Hype Cycle for Innovation in Manufacturing Industries
These virtual events were a great way to connect with manufacturing professionals and discuss some of the industry’s top challenges and topics – workforce transformation, learning and development, lean manufacturing, and autonomous maintenance.
Last week, Augmentir participated as a sponsor in the 2021 American Food Manufacturing Summit. This 3-day virtual event was designed to bring food and beverage manufacturers together to discuss current trends, strategic insights, and best practices in an ever-evolving environment. The event focused on addressing today’s top challenges and future of food processing and manufacturing, specifically around embracing digital transformation and technology for manufacturing excellence. Attendees were able to connect with top industry influencers and learn about different strategies to improve automation, operational excellence, quality, and safety in the food manufacturing industry through open roundtables and 1:1 meetings.
Augmentir’s Enablement Director, Shannon Bennett, hosted an open roundtable discussion on the role digital transformation plays in food and beverage manufacturing, and how technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and connected worker platforms are helping companies kick-start their digital transformation efforts. During the discussion, Shannon opened the floor to the attendees to discuss the day-to-day challenges they face at their manufacturing organizations and the tools they’re looking into to solve those challenges.
Solving Manufacturing’s Biggest Challenges with AI and Connected Worker Technology
The roundtable consisted of executives and manufacturing leaders from some of the world’s largest food and beverage companies to smaller family-owned and operated specialty food and beverage manufacturers. Throughout the roundtable, we heard the same challenges and frustrations related to standardization, moving from paper to digital processes, data collection, lack of traceability, and an overall need for digital transformation.
The overarching roundtable discussion was around digital transformation. Food and beverage manufacturers are accelerating the pace of digitization to address their top challenges – the labor crisis, increasing skills gap, and increased pressure for improved production efficiency, changes in consumer demands, and increased regulatory compliance related to food safety.
Moving from Paper to Digital
During our roundtable discussion, most of the manufacturing leaders were in the discovery phase of their modernizing process, where they were beginning to look into digital solutions to solve their challenges around manual processes and efforts to reduce paper. Some of the discussion around paper included issues with quality on the shop floor and wanting to go paperless, easier access to training for employees, lack of traceability (for example, maintenance schedules need more visibility of completion, where issues arise, and more transparency all around), and digitizing information from a quality standpoint.
Digital work instructions reduce the need for paper and deliver information to frontline workers when and where they need it. This provides frontline workers with a standardized way of performing technical work.
Lack of Data-Driven Insights into the Work Being Done
Another key challenge was the lack of insight into how workers were performing their jobs – whether it be in quality, equipment operation, or maintenance. One participant discussed labor challenges in their organization and that when they collect data it often gets lost and when they come back to it, they don’t know or remember why they’ve collected it in the first place.
Connecting workers with digital tools is merely a first step in the process of truly understanding and getting clarity on the work being done. Connected Worker data is inherently noisy, generating misleading signals that traditional business intelligence (BI) tools aren’t designed to handle. This leads to murky or contradictory conclusions that prevent organizations from taking anything but a “one size fits all” approach to work process and workforce investments. Or, even worse, false conclusions are generated about the state of work process and workforce opportunities, leading to targeted investments into the wrong areas.
The discussion shifted to AI as a solution not only bringing clarity to the work being done, but also more generally democratization of the workplace, and giving employees the tools to use data effectively to improve manufacturing operations. AI is designed for purpose to recognize patterns in the noisy data sets generated by a factory workforce, letting your continuous improvement and operations teams focus on what’s really going on.
Training
Employee onboarding and training was also a hot topic of discussion. Many participants spoke about manual processes and how traditional training methods are proving to be ineffective. Traditionally, there was a clear separation between training and work execution. However, many participants shared that they are starting to re-think how they are training and onboarding their workers, and shifting more towards delivering training at the moment of need. The roundtable participants discussed at length approaches and strategies for re-thinking how training is delivered for today’s workforce.
Build a Modern, Connected Workforce with AI
To address these challenges, the roundtable participants overwhelmingly agreed that the starting point should be digital transformation initiatives that focus on streamlining data collection and digitizing valuable data. Using an AI-powered connected worker platform to accelerate this effort not only furthers a company’s digital transformation efforts, but also provides a whole new set of data that can provide really interesting insights and optimization opportunities. AI doesn’t remove the human worker from the equation, but rather, takes the human worker and embeds them into the digital operation.
https://www.augmentir.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/digital-transformation-food-manufacturing.jpg6301200Chris Kuntzhttps://www.augmentir.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Augmentir_Logo_Sm-300x169.pngChris Kuntz2021-11-23 02:51:542023-03-07 20:04:42How Digital Transformation is Shaping the Future of Food Manufacturing
This post by Augmentir CEO Russ Fadel was originally published on Medium. I have been a fan of Marc Andreessen since the Netscape days — he has consistently predicted the macro changes in numerous marketscapes before virtually anyone else. Recently, I was watching Marc on Youtube “Why You Should Be Optimistic About the Future” and […]
This post by Augmentir CEO Russ Fadel was originally published on Medium.
I have been a fan of Marc Andreessen since the Netscape days — he has consistently predicted the macro changes in numerous marketscapes before virtually anyone else. Recently, I was watching Marc on Youtube “Why You Should Be Optimistic About the Future” and found his discussion on AI particularly enlightening, and in complete alignment with Augmentir’s journey. The entire video is worth watching, but the discussion on AI runs from between the 7:00 to 9:00 minute mark.
Some of the most insightful (paraphrased) quotes include:
“There is a more fundamental question — is AI a feature or an architecture?”
“A16z sees this with most start-up pitches now — ‘here are the 5 things my product does…and oh yeah, AI is always bullet number 6.’ Number 6 because it was the bullet they added after they created the deck”
“If AI is a feature, then this is correct, where every product will have AI sprinkled on it.”
“We (a16z) believe AI is an Architecture, and if it is, everything above this will need to be rewritten.”
“Ultimately, the goal of AI is to answer questions, even before the have been posed.”
At Augmentir we had to make a strategic decision at the time of company founding (late 2017), as to whether AI was going to be a feature of our connected worker platform or, whether it was going to be the architecture that our connected worker functionality ran on. We didn’t frame the decision as elegantly as Marc did, but we nevertheless asked, “will AI be a feature of our product or will it be pervasive?”
Even though no one in our space had chosen this path, we decided AI would be pervasive. We postulated that the purpose of a connected worker platform wasn’t to deliver instructions and remote support to a frontline worker, but rather to optimize the performance of the connected worker ecosystem. We knew that AI was uniquely able to address the fundamental macrotrends of growing skills gaps and the loss of tribal knowledge. With an ecosystem of content authors, frontline workers, subject matter experts, operations managers, continuous improvement engineers, and quality specialists, we predicted that there were dozens of opportunities to improve performance.
By building our connected worker platform on an AI architecture, all data is automatically pipelined, labelled, and cleansed, and is immediately available to start generating insights and recommendations. On this journey, the scope of what we can use AI for has even surprised us. Our initial thoughts were on personalizing instructions and content to make each frontline worker perform this current task safely and as quickly as they can, given their current proficiency. This immediately expanded to a generalized True Opportunity™ system that uses AI to stack rank where an organization has the largest capturable opportunities across all stakeholders. The range of this is astounding: which jobs have the largest monthly opportunity, which workers can benefit from targeted training, what is the optimum time to perform any given task, what inline training material can benefit from an update, what content/procedures would benefit the most from an update, etc.
The future looks even more fantastic — AI bots offer a realistic opportunity to capture tribal knowledge and convert it to a scalable corporate asset, and AI Diagnostic bots to make everyone an immediate expert.
This is only possible when you view AI as an architecture, not as a feature.
https://www.augmentir.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Untitled-design-2.png215382Chris Kuntzhttps://www.augmentir.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Augmentir_Logo_Sm-300x169.pngChris Kuntz2020-01-09 19:48:572023-03-07 19:53:28Is Artificial Intelligence a Feature or an Architecture?
This article was originally published on AI Authority. Leading manufacturer of operator interface systems and industrial displays, STRONGARM, has deployed Augmentir’s AI-Powered Augmented Worker Platform. The innovative producer of Hardened Workstations acknowledged that the AI-driven Augmented Worker platform has improved efficiencies and quality within a fortnight of its deployment. Currently, Augmentir, Inc. is a leading […]
Leading manufacturer of operator interface systems and industrial displays, STRONGARM, has deployed Augmentir’s AI-Powered Augmented Worker Platform. The innovative producer of Hardened Workstations acknowledged that the AI-driven Augmented Worker platform has improved efficiencies and quality within a fortnight of its deployment. Currently, Augmentir, Inc. is a leading provider of Augmented Worker software for industrial companies.
Last month, Augmentir announced it has closed an oversubscribed funding round, led by Pritzker Group Venture Capital, with participation from Lerer Hippeau, current investors, and HOLT Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of HOLT CAT.
STRONGARM has expanded the use of Augmentir’s AI-Powered Augmented Worker Platform across its operations, resulting in improved technician performance and training, better insight into job status, and improved quality.
What STRONGARM Achieved with AI-Powered Augmented Worker Platform
In an official press release, STRONGARM posted,
“Because the process was so easy, our technicians were able to quickly incorporate Augmentir into their daily operations, and the results were immediate – technician productivity improved, and inspection times went down. Furthermore, when one of our senior and most experienced technicians retired recently, we were able to onboard a new technician and trust Augmentir’s AI engine to guide him during the learning curve to get (the) product out the door at 100% quality so that we didn’t miss shipments. Once Augmentir’s AI engine determined that the worker had become proficient, it recommended that the instructions should be adjusted to enable him to complete the job faster while still meeting quality and safety goals. This has resulted in a 20% reduction in average build time in our most complex workstations.”
Steve Thorne, General Manager of Operations at STRONGARM stated,
“We chose Augmentir because their platform allows us to not only digitize and standardize on our manufacturing work instructions, but also to intelligently close the skills gaps when on-boarding new technicians. In addition, it’s AI-based ‘True Opportunity™’ system enables us to gain insight into how our technicians are performing, and autonomously identifies our largest capturable opportunities across our entire operation.”
“The use of Augmentir across our manufacturing operation represents an important step for us in our digital journey and continued commitment to quality and innovation in the products we build,” added Steve.
Augmented Worker Demonstrates Future of Manufacturing Lies with Digitally-Enabled AI and Robotics
STRONGARM designs and manufactures ergonomic and environmentally protected workstations for companies in a wide range of markets, including food, pharmaceutical, CPG, packaging, and transportation, with additional interface solutions for specialized verticals including STRONGARMenergy and STRONGARMhealthcare.
The company credits its long-term leadership position to its commitment to innovation. Since its 1990 founding, STRONGARM has maintained a robust “lot-size-one” offering wherein STRONGARM collaborates with clients, and then designs innovates, fabricates, and assembles these customer-specific products, all in-house.
Russ Fadel, Co-Founder, and CEO at Augmentir, said, “STRONGARM is a great example of a small, innovative manufacturing company that was able to capitalize on the emerging trends around Industry 4.0 and Digital Transformation.”
Russ added, “Augmentir was uniquely designed to meet the needs of industrial companies of all sizes, enabling even small to mid-sized manufacturing companies to get the benefits of Industry 4.0 today. Our SaaS-based ‘consumerized’ enterprise software approach makes trying, buying, and owning Augmentir simple, with free pilots, low IT support, and best in class usability.”
According to Thorne, STRONGARM started seeing value from Augmentir within 10 days of their Augmentir rollout. “The process for getting our operation set up with the Augmentir platform was easy and painless, with little required IT overhead,” stated Thorne.
STRONGARM plans to expand its use of Augmentir into the manufacturing operations of their ruggedized workstations used in the Oil and Gas industry.
The Augmentir Platform includes complete functionality that makes it easy for industrial companies to improve their operations across a range of manufacturing and service use cases. The Platform provides software that helps guide frontline workers with augmented, step-by-step-instructions, assist workers with live remove expert collaboration, and utilizes its AI engine to deliver organization-wide insights and recommendations that focus on improving the quality and productivity of frontline workers.
Augmentir is the first of its kind to combine enterprise Augmented Reality (AR) with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) to empower frontline workers, helping workers perform their jobs with higher quality and increased productivity while driving continuous improvement across the organization.
Field Service News, a leading online journal dedicated to the Field Service industry, recently posted an article featuring Augmentir as one of their top three picks for best new solution providers in the Field Service Sector. Field Service News spoke with field service management professionals and field service solution providers across the globe over a […]
Field Service News, a leading online journal dedicated to the Field Service industry, recently posted an article featuring Augmentir as one of their top three picks for best new solution providers in the Field Service Sector. Field Service News spoke with field service management professionals and field service solution providers across the globe over a 12 month period to cherry-pick the top three solutions that meet their needs.
What landed Augmentir on this notable list?
1.) Strong Leadership Team The first reason is the strong leadership team with founding efforts at Wonderware, Lighthammer, and ThingWorx. The Augmentir team has a proven track record delivering industry-leading solutions in the industrial and manufacturing sectors.
2.) AI Powered Approach In addition, Field Service Now calls out Augmentir for being different from the many Augmented Reality providers that have suddenly noticed the potential in the field service industry and says, “the really interesting thing about Augmentir is that they’ve gone far beyond the initial approach that many of their peers are offering when it comes to Augmented Reality (AR) and dived straight into an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered approach. In their own words, they position themselves as the first software platform built on Artificial Intelligence in the world of the augmented or connected worker.”
3.) Powerful Platform with an Easy-to-Use Interface Finally, taking an AI approach is important when it comes to the use of AR in Field Service, because when leveraged alongside AI, AR becomes much more useful and powerful. Augmentir is a 100% AI-first company and understands that AR is the interface that makes the most sense for modern field service operations.
https://www.augmentir.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Untitled-design-1.png6881000Chris Kuntzhttps://www.augmentir.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Augmentir_Logo_Sm-300x169.pngChris Kuntz2019-07-23 19:38:322023-03-07 15:36:34Augmentir Listed as a Top 3 Best New Solution Provider in the Field Service Industry
