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Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s preeminent startup accelerator, held a demo day for its inaugural fall cohort this week.
The 95 startups in this latest batch looked quite similar to recent YC batches, in the sense that they included many AI startups. If I do the math right, 87% of the startups in this batch are AI companies. Similar to YC’s summer and winter installments this year, there was a notable focus on AI and AI agents related to customer service.
But among these companies, four caught my interest, and they all had something in common: They build tools to help companies monitor their AI applications to quickly resolve errors or prevent inaccuracies that prevent companies from adopting AI tools more widely. . Businesses must keep an eye on them.
What does: Application programming interface (API) that enables AI agents to communicate with humans for assistance and approval.
Why is it preferred: AI agents can make a big difference when it comes to productivity, if they work as intended. Having humans in the feedback loop helps keep AI agents from getting off track, but too much human oversight can slow down processes and reduce the efficiencies that AI agents are supposed to achieve. HumanLayer seems like a nice happy medium; It brings human oversight only when it is needed, and does not require it when it is not.
What does: Research agent for institutional sales.
Why is it preferred: This is the first major enterprise sales program I’ve had reason to be excited about (sorry). Raycaster’s approach is to find very specific details about a potential sales target, such as what laboratory equipment the company uses or what the company’s CTO discussed at a recent conference, to pitch them at the right time and in the right way. This stands out among a wave of pioneering startups that seem to still be focused on collecting surface-level information only.
What does: Compliance guardrails for AI applications.
Why is it preferred: Galini provides organizations with a tool that makes it easy to set up AI guardrails based on company policies and regulations for their AI applications. Additionally, putting these controls in the hands of companies gives them more freedom and allows them to evaluate the effectiveness of guardrails.
What does: An AI toolkit that helps enterprise customers manage hallucinations.
Why is it preferred: AI hallucinations are a big problem with no easy solution. While CTGT cannot prevent all hallucinations, its method of actively monitoring and auditing Enterprise models, allowing it to better detect anomalies and potential hallucinations, seems like a good upgrade over the other options available. The fact that the company is already testing its technology with Fortune 10 companies is also a good sign that potential customers are looking for a tool like this.
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