Zebra Recognizes AI Developer Challenge Winners

Zebra Technologies announced the winners of its inaugural AI Developer Challenge, highlighting the art of the possible with Zebra solutions and its developer community. 

In first place is Zebra independent software vendor (ISV) partner, Spatialsolutions.ai with its StoreAi app designed for Zebra mobile computers. The application offers three core features enabled by on-device product recognition capabilities: realogram generation, store navigation, and product picking. It was selected as the first-place winner for its business value, ability to overcome real world challenges in retail, and technological innovation.

“Zebra’s on-device AI vision technology is a game changer, minimizing both the latency and costs typically associated with cloud-based AI,” said Dr. Pat Narendra, founder of Spatialsolutions.ai. “This journey has been an exciting blend of tackling real-world business challenges, innovation, and enjoyment.”

The second-place winner is Zebra ISV partner, SoftServe for its Zebra Eyes and Ears – an AI-powered reporting app for public safety professionals. The app enables hands-free incident documentation combined with speech-to-text transcription and camera-based evidence capture, allowing first responders to focus on their environments and cut down on manual, paper-based administrative tasks.

Zebra ISV partner, Tego, Inc. takes third place for its Tego Warehouse Management Solution. It leverages Zebra optical character recognition (OCR), product recognition, and barcode localization AI models which are integrated into workflows to ensure the seamless, automated handling of inventory from receipt to shipping. This product could offer significant cost reduction, efficiency gains, and error minimization by automating critical warehouse processes.

The AI Developer Challenge was launched in September last year, with participating developers tasked with creating a functioning AI vision application on a Zebra handheld mobile device. A total of 40 developer partners applied with 10 progressing to the final round.

In addition, they were given access to an advanced release of the Zebra AI Suite for Mobile Computers, which will be more widely available to all Zebra’s ISV partners later this year. Final applications had to include at least one Zebra AI model (Shelf and Product Localizer, Barcode Localizer, Product Recognizer, Feature Extractor, OCR/Text Recognizer) and AI Data Capture software developer kit (SDK) which could be combined with other technologies and AI application tools.

“Enabling our developer community to be at the forefront of building AI applications for the frontline is a key area of focus for us, and this challenge has demonstrated how together we can extend the capabilities of Zebra’s mobile computers for our customers across a variety of industries,” said Tom Bianculli, CTO, Zebra Technologies

Zebra’s next developer conference, DevCon 2025, will take place June 4-6 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It will bring together developers, engineers, solution architects, ISVs and alliance partners for three days of networking, breakout sessions and keynotes by senior executives from Zebra, Google Cloud, Edge Impulse, a Qualcomm Company and Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn and others.