Why This AI Startup Night Mattered
TechUnited:NJ and BetterFutureLabs came together once again for AI Demo Night #3, creating a space where AI startups could pitch their solutions to a room filled with investors, industry experts, and fellow entrepreneurs.
The night wasn’t just about showcasing cool tech — it was about demonstrating real-world applications of AI and how these startups are tackling industry-specific challenges.
Three startups took the stage, each presenting a unique AI-powered solution designed to streamline workflows, improve decision-making, and address inefficiencies in critical industries. From automating customer interactions to navigating pharma regulations and revolutionizing hiring, these founders showed that AI isn’t just theoretical — it’s here, and it’s practical.
Startup #1: Syncrux
Elevator Pitch: An AI-powered assistant that ensures businesses never miss an important call.
The Pain Point: Many small businesses struggle with missed calls, losing potential customers because they can’t answer every inquiry in real-time. Syncrux steps in with an AI-powered phone assistant that handles reservations, customer questions, and scheduling — ensuring businesses stay connected, even when no one’s available.
Why It Stands Out: Instead of replacing human interaction, Syncrux fills the gaps, taking care of routine inquiries while passing complex customer needs to real staff. Its seamless integration with existing calendar and POS systems means businesses don’t need to overhaul their workflows — AI simply enhances them.
During the demo, the Syncrux team highlighted the importance of making AI interactions feel natural, not robotic. People want efficiency, but they don’t want to feel like they’re talking to a machine. “Your staff works more efficiently, and it books your calendar on automation.” the Syncrux team explained about their AI startup.
Startup #2: RegKey
Elevator Pitch: A regulatory intelligence platform designed to help pharma companies navigate complex regulations with ease.
The Pain Point: The process of getting drugs approved is notoriously slow, often taking years due to bureaucratic hurdles. RegKey uses AI to streamline compliance, provide instant regulatory insights, and speed up time-to-market for pharmaceutical companies.
Major Perk: The AI startup, RegKey’s platform cuts through mountains of documentation and regulatory updates, providing companies with real-time guidance on compliance requirements. Instead of waiting weeks for legal teams to research a regulatory question, pharma teams get instant, AI-assisted answers.
The team behind RegKey explained that regulatory changes happen frequently, making it difficult for companies to stay compliant.
With drug development costs skyrocketing, speed matters. “We are talking about months of work can now be done in a few minutes,” says Dr. Aruna Dontabhaktuni, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of RegKey. By reducing time spent on compliance research, the AI startup, RegKey enables pharma companies to focus on innovation while ensuring they remain on the right side of the law.
Startup #3: Cook’d
Elevator Pitch: A gamified approach to code reviews that makes hiring top tech talent faster and more effective.
The Pain Point: Traditional whiteboard coding interviews often fail to measure real-world problem-solving skills. Hiring managers struggle to differentiate between candidates who can memorize algorithms and those who can actually write, review, and optimize code in real projects.
Future-Focused: The AI startup, Cook’d ditches the old-school approach, offering scenario-based coding challenges that assess engineers in real-world development environments. Instead of isolated algorithm tests, candidates complete interactive, gamified challenges designed to reflect actual job tasks.
With remote hiring on the rise, companies need better ways to assess talent beyond a resume and a Zoom call. Cook’d provides data-driven insights into candidate performance, helping teams make faster, more informed hiring decisions.
“It’s very useful when you have a job and you’re a big company and you get thousands of applicants that are all inbound. It’s almost impossible to look through those. So instead, you could use the score. And this score is not just indicative of things that happen during the game. It can be indicative of people’s actual experience,” explains Ali Alobaidi, Co-Founder of Cook’d.
The founders emphasized that AI isn’t here to replace hiring managers — it’s here to give them better tools. By automating tedious screening processes, Cook’d allows hiring teams to focus on what really matters: finding the right people, not just the best test-takers.
The Takeaway
AI Demo Night #3 wasn’t just a stage for flashy tech demos — it was a showcase of AI startups that solve real problems.
Each of these startups reflects a growing trend: AI isn’t just about automation — it’s about augmentation. Whether it’s making customer service seamless, cutting down regulatory roadblocks, or improving how companies find talent, these startups are using AI to empower businesses, not replace them.
TechUnited:NJ and BetterFutureLabs continue to foster an ecosystem where startups can connect with investors, industry leaders, and future collaborators. Events like this aren’t just about what AI can do today — they’re about shaping where it goes next.
If you’d like to RSVP for a future AI Demo Night, you can register here.