Last week, Jersey City, NJ-headquartered Apprentice announced that it has raised $2.5m in venture funding for its augmented reality (AR) solution. Dubbed, Affinity, the solution is designed to improve productivity, audit readiness quality, and safety within pharmaceutical lab and research environments.
Angelo Stracquatanio, CEO and co-founder of Apprentice told us in an interview that there has been a “huge” increase in AR in commercial industries because it’s a “cost-effective technology with great revenue generating potential” – and relatively no adoption risk.
An increasing familiarity with the technology is also driving the adoption of AR, as people recognize its use beyond entertainment and become less suspicious of its potential to replace humans in the workforce, he explained.
“People are seeing that innovations like ours actually foster a synergistic relationship between man and technology that magnifies a company’s human capital and unleashes the user’s fullest potential,” said Stracquatanio. “With AR, we can propel a company to the forefront of its industry.”
In the biotech and pharma industry specifically, Stracquatanio noted the increasing need for immediate, cost-effective operations, and proposes AR as one solution.
“[The industry] requires a way to remain efficient and keep up with demand while still operating safety, efficiently and in a cost-effective manner,” he said, adding that this need is reflected in the development flexible manufacturing strategies such as single-use processing and large capacity facility equipment.
For Stracquatanio, AR is next step to further ensure safety and productivity, while providing a method for audit readiness and information tracking. He also said it will address the need for experienced bioprocessing professionals, as it can be a tool to train staff and help prevent process deviation through guided instruction.
“Overall, AR is going to be transformational in learning, decision-making and in how we interact within our physical environments,” he explained. “Commercial AR is going to effectively improve how enterprises meet industry demands, train employees, record data, design and test products.”