This 12 months’s Cisco Companion Summit 2025 was a robust reminder of what’s potential when innovation meets objective. Annually, as a part of the summit, we host a World Companion Innovation Problem — an open invitation for our companions to convey their boldest concepts and improvements to leverage know-how for good.
This 12 months’s submissions within the Partnering for Objective class reignited my ardour for this work. The options our companions are constructing handle a few of as we speak’s most urgent challenges throughout power, healthcare, emergency response, and past. Collectively, we’re working towards our shared Objective of Powering an Inclusive Future for All, one innovation at a time.
Objective-driven innovation at scale
Yr after 12 months, our companions proceed to lift the bar, and this 12 months was no exception. Seventy-six of our 87 complete submissions — a powerful 86% — fell below the Partnering for Objective class. Moreover, 76 of the overall submissions included AI parts, exhibiting how companions are embracing rising know-how to maximize outcomes and influence.
What stood out this 12 months wasn’t simply the amount of submissions, however the ambition behind them.
It’s clear that our companions are pondering greater, tackling issues at scale, and constructing options designed for real-world influence.
Amongst so many robust submissions, I’m excited to rejoice the 4 companions who exemplify the best of purpose-driven innovation.
Get to know this 12 months’s Partnering for Objective winners
- KIW – This accomplice, primarily based in Spain, is tackling two vital challenges without delay with their Splid.AI platform: the rising demand for extra computing energy to run AI purposes and the waste of renewable power resulting from energy grid limitations. KIW developed Splid.AI, an AI market that turns extra renewable power into computing energy by connecting surplus power producers with enterprises that want AI processing. Leveraging Cisco AI PODs, Splid.AI permits high-performance AI workloads to run precisely the place and when renewable power is out there, serving to to cut back prices and switch wasted power right into a priceless useful resource for AI development.
- Morgan Photo voltaic – This Canada-based accomplice is rethinking how buildings use and create power. Morgan Photo voltaic’s Power Blinds are photovoltaic window therapies that generate clear power whereas maintaining constructing occupants snug. Constructing homeowners report seeing actual financial savings, with payback intervals as brief as two years. The blinds join by Cisco Energy over Ethernet (PoE) networks and use sensible algorithms to regulate their place all through the day, serving to to cut back power consumption from heating and cooling the room. Additionally they gather priceless information about warmth circulate and occupancy that can be utilized for constructing administration and AI purposes.
- EchoStor Applied sciences – Addressing the vital problem of clinician burnout and well being care workflow inefficiency, this US-based accomplice developed Pleasant Whisper, an AI-powered voice assistant platform constructed on Cisco know-how. The answer integrates with current hospital techniques — digital well being data, labs, and monitoring gadgets — to ship real-time, context-aware affected person summaries by earpieces, headsets, or cell apps. By turning current hospital infrastructure into an clever voice assistant for clinicians, Pleasant Whisper saves time, improves communication, and makes well being care safer for each employees and sufferers.
- Iron Bow – When emergency techniques don’t work collectively, response instances undergo and lives are in danger. Iron Bow, additionally primarily based within the U.S., constructed SignalPoint to repair this downside for organizations managing advanced emergency response operations. The platform brings collectively Cisco know-how and accomplice emergency platforms into one unified answer that retains a number of techniques in sync whereas guaranteeing compliance with legal guidelines and laws. SignalPoint additionally offers superior location companies that may pinpoint 911 callers inside 5 meters, giving first responders the correct data they should arrive on web site rapidly and save lives.
This 12 months’s robust engagement within the Partnering for Objective class reinforces a robust fact that doing good and doing enterprise aren’t competing priorities; they’re complementary forces that drive long-term enterprise success.
To all our companions who participated on this 12 months’s World Companion Innovation Problem: thanks. Your dedication to combining innovation with objective reinforces what we already know — once we leverage know-how for good, there’s no restrict to what we are able to obtain.
