By Jorge Mercado Friday, January 3rd, 2025

Let’s get this out of the way now.

If you got tired of hearing about artificial intelligence and how it is going to revolutionize our way of life, well, fair warning, that isn’t going to stop in 2025.

In fact, that’s probably the majority of tech trends you’re going to hear about — and the Central Coast is certainly no exception.

The next time you’re curious about one of your favorite publicly traded tech companies here in Ventura, Santa Barbara, or San Luis Obispo, take a peep at their latest earnings — or just read our reporting — and you’ll see at least a few mentions of investments in AI.

You simply cannot be a technology company in 2025 and not have any AI component.

That won’t work — at least if you’re hoping for some venture or angel investing.

When I think of AI companies based on the Central Coast, one that quickly comes to mind is Snappt.

The Ojai-based company made a name for itself in 2024, ranking No. 41 in this year’s Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the United States with a three-year revenue growth of 6,323%.

Snappt was not only the highest-ranked Central Coast-based company on the list, but it was also the top firm in the AI category.

By all accounts, the company’s Central Coast ties are relatively small — CEO Daniel Berlind told me the Ojai headquarters is just a P.O. Box in the city. 

But just the simple idea that an AI company is here, even if it’s just the illusion of it, puts Santa Barbara and the Central Coast even more on the map.

It also helps that Snappt is far from the only AI company here on the Central Coast — and far from the only one thriving.

In 2024, Santa Barbara-based Invoca, a leader in AI-powered conversation intelligence for revenue teams, passed a $1 billion valuation and $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

Startups like Unwrap.AI and Beni continue excelling as well, with the former continuing to add a slew of partnerships and the latter doing the same even as they made a change in the CEO spot.

The point is the Central Coast ties to AI is not changing, whether it be in the startup space or even our most well established companies, and in fact we will see more in 2025.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Google’s Quantum Computing Lab will continue to make key strides in 2025.

Quantum scientists at Google made quite a splash in November after the release of its breakthrough chip, Willow.

Largely overlooked was the fact that Willow was designed and built at Google’s quantum foundry, located near the UC Santa Barbara campus off Hollister Avenue. 

That lab will likely be the home of many UCSB and Cal Poly graduates and will make a huge impact on the region.

Other universities are also making investments in the AI space.

Recently, CSU Channel Islands students and their mentors are preparing for the world of big data and Artificial Intelligence by learning and sharing all they can about High-Performance Computing or HPC. 

That trend started after CSUCI won the 2023 HPC Winter Classic Invitational Cluster Competition. 

Team captain Berkhan Berkdemir was eager to keep interest high in HPC, so he started an HPC club. 

And Feister plans to recruit another winning team to compete in the 2025 HPC Winter Classic during the Spring semester. 

So whether it is students, universities, or companies, AI is making a difference throughout all sectors.

The only question isn’t will a breakthrough company, student or expert come out of the Central Coast in 2025, but rather how many breakthroughs will come out of the tri-county region.

Jorge Mercado covers technology around the tri-county area for the Business Times. Feel free to reach out to him via email at [email protected] or text/call him at (323) 605-5155.