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Three film students met their maker when they went looking for the legendary Blair Witch in 1999, and the world believed the resulting film was comprised of real found footage.
Over two decades later, after an illustrious career in filmmaking and video game development, producer Robin Cowie has left horror behind for another avenue of first-person storytelling: extended reality training.
Cowie founded Skillmaker.AI in 2023. The Wilmington-based company aims to equip workers for skilled jobs at a faster rate than other training programs by incorporating data and AI—providing a VR headset and smart glasses that allow someone to watch training material while building, fixing or updating the physical hardware in front of them, Cowie said.
“You can actually look through the headset, and over top of that it is the digital information, but you’re using real tools,” Cowie said. “I don’t have to have an instructor there, you’re using real tools, working on these items.”Â
Cowie, who is from South Africa, said he drew inspiration from his father’s 50-year career developing first-person training methodology.
Cowie’s father worked as an industrial psychologist in South Africa. His first job was to address an uptick of accidents in the gold mines, where language barriers had become dangerous for workers handling explosives and chemicals. He began using video to shoot first-person training lessons in multiple languages, stepping into the shoes of the person doing the job and ultimately preventing accidents.
The need for new and better training
By 2030, the world will be short some 85 million skilled workers. Cowie said he wants to close the training gap.
“I started Skillmaker to basically help create skilled jobs very quickly,” Cowie said. “So that’s what Skillmaker does. It automates the process of learning and development, but I can also look at it from the perspective of XR developers.”
After producing The Blair Witch Project, Cowie found a second calling with video games and electronic arts, and soon ventured into extended reality. He said Skillmaker bridges the gap between subject matter experts and the artists who create computer graphics.
“It’s that bridging that is truly unique, that nobody has done before, and it’s built on 50 years of experience,” Cowie said. “That’s really what makes us different.”
The company provides clients with Meta smart glasses along with an Oculus Quest 3 headset. Artificial intelligence in the headset, using computer vision, acts as a teacher and provides instruction.
Experts can remotely access the headset to see what the person in training is seeing, Cowie said.
“We allow them to have an expert—somebody who would normally certify somebody—remote into that headset, and now all of a sudden the expert themself can see what the person is doing and remotely certify them,” Cowie said.
The startup also provides the hardware and physical simulator. If a person is learning brake maintenance, for instance, they can work on a real set of brakes.
To that end, automotive repair is the startups’s biggest vertical. But Cowie would also like to expand into industrial training, healthcare and trade work: construction, plumbing, HVAC, masonry and carpentry.
The startup has been bootstrapped to date and is now in the middle of raising a seed round.
What’s next for Skillmaker.AI
In April, Skillmaker will travel to Las Vegas to launch an auto tech accelerator for NAPA Auto Parts that will significantly speed up the process of learning and development, Cowie said.
“The accelerator will take the amount of time that it takes to train a technician, which is currently about two years, and will take that down to 25 days,” Cowie said. “It really makes a big difference.”
After an initial training package like this, the startup uses a SaaS business model to collect a monthly fee for clients to retain their training data and continue learning through the smart glasses.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Skillmaker.AI
Founder: Robin Cowie (CEO)
Founded: 2023
Location: Wilmington
Website: www.skillmaker.ai
Funding: Bootstrapped to date; raising seed round
Last week, Cowie had the opportunity to demo his technology in front of NAPA’s Auto Care Council. For a moment, he said, it was like being back at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999, unsure if the audience would break into applause or laugh him out of the room.Â
The response was very enthusiastic, Cowie said. Skillmaker received positive video testimonials from members of the council, and the smart glasses alone got a standing ovation.
“I’m just really grateful and really thrilled by what that means,” Cowie said. “We’ve got a lot of work to [do], but it really charged my batteries this week, because it just shows that we’re on the right path.”