This yr’s Cisco Accomplice Summit 2025 was a strong reminder of what’s doable when innovation meets goal. Annually, as a part of the summit, we host a International Accomplice Innovation Problem — an open invitation for our companions to convey their boldest concepts and improvements to leverage expertise for good.
This yr’s submissions within the Partnering for Function class reignited my ardour for this work. The options our companions are constructing handle a few of at this time’s most urgent challenges throughout vitality, healthcare, emergency response, and past. Collectively, we’re working towards our shared Function of Powering an Inclusive Future for All, one innovation at a time.
Function-driven innovation at scale
12 months after yr, our companions proceed to boost the bar, and this yr was no exception. Seventy-six of our 87 whole submissions — a formidable 86% — fell underneath the Partnering for Function class. Moreover, 76 of the overall submissions included AI elements, displaying how companions are embracing rising expertise to maximize outcomes and affect.
What stood out this yr wasn’t simply the amount of submissions, however the ambition behind them.
It’s clear that our companions are pondering larger, tackling issues at scale, and constructing options designed for real-world affect.
Amongst so many sturdy submissions, I’m excited to rejoice the 4 companions who exemplify the easiest of purpose-driven innovation.
Get to know this yr’s Partnering for Function winners
- KIW – This associate, primarily based in Spain, is tackling two crucial challenges without delay with their Splid.AI platform: the rising demand for extra computing energy to run AI functions and the waste of renewable vitality because of energy grid limitations. KIW developed Splid.AI, an AI market that turns extra renewable vitality into computing energy by connecting surplus vitality producers with enterprises that want AI processing. Leveraging Cisco AI PODs, Splid.AI allows high-performance AI workloads to run precisely the place and when renewable vitality is out there, serving to to scale back prices and switch wasted vitality right into a useful useful resource for AI development.
- Morgan Photo voltaic – This Canada-based associate is rethinking how buildings use and create vitality. Morgan Photo voltaic’s Vitality Blinds are photovoltaic window remedies that generate clear vitality whereas conserving constructing occupants snug. Constructing house owners report seeing actual financial savings, with payback durations as quick as two years. The blinds join by means of Cisco Energy over Ethernet (PoE) networks and use good algorithms to regulate their place all through the day, serving to to scale back vitality consumption from heating and cooling the room. In addition they gather useful information about warmth stream and occupancy that can be utilized for constructing administration and AI functions.
- EchoStor Applied sciences – Addressing the crucial problem of clinician burnout and well being care workflow inefficiency, this US-based associate developed Pleasant Whisper, an AI-powered voice assistant platform constructed on Cisco expertise. The answer integrates with present hospital methods — digital well being information, labs, and monitoring gadgets — to ship real-time, context-aware affected person summaries by means of earpieces, headsets, or cellular apps. By turning present hospital infrastructure into an clever voice assistant for clinicians, Pleasant Whisper saves time, improves communication, and makes well being care safer for each workers and sufferers.
- Iron Bow – When emergency methods don’t work collectively, response occasions undergo and lives are in danger. Iron Bow, additionally primarily based within the U.S., constructed SignalPoint to repair this drawback for organizations managing advanced emergency response operations. The platform brings collectively Cisco expertise and associate emergency platforms into one unified answer that retains a number of methods in sync whereas guaranteeing compliance with legal guidelines and rules. SignalPoint additionally offers superior location companies that may pinpoint 911 callers inside 5 meters, giving first responders the correct info they should arrive on web site rapidly and save lives.
This yr’s sturdy engagement within the Partnering for Function class reinforces a strong 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 yr’s International Accomplice Innovation Problem: thanks. Your dedication to combining innovation with goal reinforces what we already know — once we leverage expertise for good, there’s no restrict to what we are able to obtain.
