Years after e-commerce rose to unprecedented prominence during the pandemic, virtually every aspect of sales infrastructure, channel, and experience has been targeted by innovation. Now, every company that interacts with consumers is a potential retailer, engaging customers with hyperpersonalized messaging and minimal friction.
Flex
For bringing transparency to FSA and HSA eligibility
FSA and HSA accounts are popular workplace benefits that allow setting aside tax-exempt funds for expenditures not covered by health insurance plans. Funds can be subject to use-it-or-lose-it rules, but it can be difficult to determine which purchases are eligible and there can be penalties for purchasing ineligible items. Flex’s Product Verification quickly checks the eligibility of items, allowing merchants to more effectively tap into the $150 billion of annual FSA and HSA spending. It’s working with brands such as Tempo, Lumen, Molekule, and Kindred Bravely.
OurX
For leveraging data in textured hair care
OurX has taken the journey of textured hair care from research to reinvention. The company challenged the limited hair type categories of the 1990s-era Walker Hair Chart to better understand the rich nuances of textured hair, starting with validation from 30,000 millennials of color and expanding to a machine-learning algorithm that analyzed over a million data points, yielding clusters of multi-dimensional hair types. The results have inspired a growing portfolio of products offering safe cleansing, protection, hydration, and other benefits to loyal customers.
Pipedream Labs
For taking local delivery underground
Developers of drones and street-based delivery robots have been working for years to overcome the technological, logistical, and regulatory challenges around speedier deliveries. To avoid some of those barriers, Pipedream Labs dug deep. The company has developed a “middle-mile” system of tunnels, delivery carts, and dumbwaiter-like elevators that can cover entire cities. The goal is to make the delivery of groceries, restaurant orders, and everyday staples as convenient as visiting an ATM. Pipedream Labs’ system could allow local vendors to expand their delivery area while reducing delivery time.
Seeen
For making video commerce smarter and seamless
Video content providers that are looking for additional sources of revenue are turning to Seeen’s new spin on video-fueled commerce. The company’s AI toolkit uses over 20 classifiers to identify engaging segments and create contextual offers, creating seamless and relevant opportunities to spur commerce or expose supplemental content. The company claims that its clients have seen average clickthrough rates of 10%, at least doubled their conversion rates on commerce pages, and gained a fourfold advantage versus implementing SEO on video pages.
The Wendy’s Company
For opening a drive-through window to AI
Drive-through windows are a long-standing, theoretically convenient standard feature of fast-food restaurants, but they’ve often resulted in wasted employee time as patrons contemplate vast menu choices and dictate special orders. By leveraging generative AI to free up workers for meatier tasks, Wendy’s has developed FreshAI, a drive-through ordering experience that can understand informal references to products and speak Spanish to those who use it, creating a dialogue that is anything but frosty.
The companies behind these technologies are among the honorees in Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech awards for 2024. See a full list of all the winners across all categories and read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
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