The concept of ZAYA represents a pioneering step in the long path of conserving Earth from the negative impact of deforestation, water waste, and CO₂ emissions. The initial hunch for creating ZAYA is based on my personal experience: I found inspiration in the most unexpected situation and had an Eureka moment, trying to dig up some (if truth be told, many and heavy) user manuals during a major home renovation project. Aha! moments present themselves, when you’re buzzing with curiosity and you’re constantly on the lookout for something new and fascinating to fire your imagination. My creative spark was ignited by the need to improve the immediate availability, readability and convenience of storing home appliance technical documentation as part of a cardinal move to a greener personal life and economy. But this was only the beginning.
Here’s where the AI came up. ZAYA isn’t just a depository of user manuals, it employs state-of-the-art technologies allowing users to communicate with the platform. There are 26 million visually-impaired people in the EU, who could benefit from its voice services* – similar to a personal assistant, ZAYA can advise them on how to start their washing machine, which programme they should choose, etc. The app is focused mainly on user experience, household comfort and ecology. Another beneficial functionality of ZAYA is setting up reminders to unplug home appliances or adjust their energy consumption. This is particularly handy before going on a trip or vacation and it allows families to take proper care/maintain them on a regular basis.
ZAYA’s cognitive services will be used in five languages during Phase 1 of the development – English, Spanish, Italian, German and French. Our team is highly prolific and we’ve got more than 100 ideas for the next phase. We’ll keep them a surprise for now, but you can rest assured we’re working on the most trouble-free solution for you – the person trying to figure out how to use and store instruction manuals with ease and take charge of the home appliances.
Imagine creating a business model for a service which hasn’t been developed yet. Challenges arise on every step of the way – not only with regard to building the app, but also communicating with manufacturers and EU institutions. We’re very optimistic though, because we learn from our experience and we’re getting better and becoming stronger.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Signed by George Randelov, Managing Director, GR Consulting