This yr’s Cisco Associate Summit 2025 was a robust reminder of what’s doable when innovation meets goal. Every year, as a part of the summit, we host a International Associate Innovation Problem — an open invitation for our companions to deliver 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 immediately’s most urgent challenges throughout power, 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
Yr after yr, our companions proceed to boost the bar, and this yr was no exception. Seventy-six of our 87 whole submissions — a powerful 86% — fell below the Partnering for Function class. Moreover, 76 of the entire submissions included AI parts, displaying how companions are embracing rising expertise to maximize outcomes and impression.
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 greater, tackling issues at scale, and constructing options designed for real-world impression.
Amongst so many robust submissions, I’m excited to have a good time the 4 companions who exemplify the best possible of purpose-driven innovation.
Get to know this yr’s Partnering for Function winners
- KIW – This accomplice, based mostly in Spain, is tackling two vital challenges without delay with their Splid.AI platform: the rising demand for extra computing energy to run AI functions and the waste of renewable power as a consequence of 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 obtainable, serving to to cut back prices and switch wasted power right into a beneficial useful resource for AI development.
- Morgan Photo voltaic – This Canada-based accomplice is rethinking how buildings use and create power. Morgan Photo voltaic’s Vitality Blinds are photovoltaic window remedies that generate clear power whereas protecting constructing occupants snug. Constructing house owners report seeing actual financial savings, with payback intervals as brief as two years. The blinds join by way of 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. In addition they acquire beneficial knowledge about warmth movement and occupancy that can be utilized for constructing administration and AI functions.
- 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 expertise. The answer integrates with current hospital programs — digital well being data, labs, and monitoring gadgets — to ship real-time, context-aware affected person summaries by way of earpieces, headsets, or cellular 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 programs don’t work collectively, response instances endure and lives are in danger. Iron Bow, additionally based mostly within the U.S., constructed SignalPoint to repair this drawback for organizations managing complicated emergency response operations. The platform brings collectively Cisco expertise and accomplice emergency platforms into one unified resolution that retains a number of programs in sync whereas making certain compliance with legal guidelines and laws. SignalPoint additionally supplies superior location providers that may pinpoint 911 callers inside 5 meters, giving first responders the correct data they should arrive on web site shortly and save lives.
This yr’s robust engagement within the Partnering for Function class reinforces a robust reality 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 Associate 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.