AI Startup Interview: Hassan Murad and Vivek Vyas of Intuitive Inc.

Where others see garbage, this visionary AI startup sees opportunity

We’ve all been at the road fork before: a passion to do good drives us forward but following our passion requires daily sacrifices – what do we do? Take the case of caring for our environment: Every time we recycle, we have to take time, effort and resources to put the waste in the right place (i.e. blue bin, green bin, or garbage). It’s fair to say that helping the environment by sorting garbage is a dirty chore that many can’t be bothered with.

This is where Hassan Murad and Vivek Vyas, Co-Founders of Intuitive Inc. and winners of NextAI’s inaugural Outstanding Venture Award, step into the picture. Hassan and Vivek run an AI startup that invented Oscar – the “World’s first AI for zero waste”. They are on a mission to make the world cleaner, greener, and a better place for everyone.

Photo credit: SFU Innovates

I first met Hassan and Vivek at the Rotman School of Management’s Annual Conference of Machine Learning and Market Intelligence in Toronto. We sat down for an interview recently to talk about the company’s mission to “develop AI that empowers a zero-waste world.”

AI Artisan: What got you started on Intuitive AI?

“From a young age, I was inspired by my grandfather who was a great entrepreneur and philanthropist as well as my father who created successful businesses based in Pakistan and Dubai.

So when it came to me, my goal was to build a business that makes a positive impact on the world. Waste is often the least focussed upon part in people’s lives and yet everyone has to deal with it regardless of where in the world you are. We are just not great at dealing with our waste. I believe the challenge of properly disposing of our waste is a very pressing yet neglected problem, and we saw a great opportunity here.

Let me tell you about the scale of the problem – according to the World Bank only 2% of the world’s waste is recycled. First-world countries generate the most waste – the more you earn, the more you consume and so the more waste you tend to generate. Rich countries often pay to ship off their waste for someone else to recycle, but for the rest of the world, that waste is not properly handled. It’s estimated by the City of Toronto that a 1% decrease in contamination could save the city almost $1 million in recycling costs. This has led to China, importer of the majority of the world’s trash, has now placed a stringent ban on acceptable contamination levels coming from foreign waste. We have a finite planet and if left alone this waste problem can damage our environment beyond repair.”

AI Artisan: It seems that you have identified a clear problem statement. What then is your product and its value proposition?

“Oscar is our product – it attaches to any garbage bin and immediately starts to change public behavior by nudging them and providing guidance on how to recycle their waste correctly as they start approaching the Oscar powered bins. Oscar also incentivizes people to recycle their waste correctly by randomly rewarding them with coupons for treats like coffees and donuts. For the facility that owns the garbage bins (i.e. the office, shopping mall, university), Oscar can help reduce their overall contamination levels providing them with a monetary benefit.

Oscar also collects valuable waste data such as diversion rates, categorization rates and other pieces of information that is crucial for performing waste audits. Currently, most waste audits are done manually or outsourced at a cost. Oscar has the ability to automatically collect this crucial data to enable facility management optimization.

In short, Oscar is the AI for Zero Waste!”

AI Artisan: Oscar sounds really impressive, can you tell me more about your business model? How do you go to market?

“Our business model is ‘less hardware, more intelligence’. Oscar can essentially be added on to any garbage bin. Facility managers can easily convert their existing equipment and turn an entire fleet of garbage bins into smart bins!

Currently, we are in our piloting phase. Some of the valuable insights gained from our AI include:

• Custodial insights in the form of highly granular data
• Daily consumption details
• Automated waste audits

We are responsible for the design of our product. Manufacturing is outsourced to third-party partners. Our main clients are property management firms, REITS (Real Estate Investment Trusts), cities, municipal governments and there is also considerable interest from large corporations.”

AI Artisan: What is the most satisfying or rewarding experience you’ve had so far?

“The greatest satisfaction comes from building the Intuitive family to a dedicated team of almost 10. We have a really talented and passionate team looking at the waste industry from a fresh perspective. We are moving towards our goal and making progress every day.

Winning a number of awards with the team has also been a source of pride and motivation for us. Our recognitions include winning  NextAI’sinaugural Outstanding Venture Award, being selected as one of CIX(Canadian Innovation Exchange) Top 20 Most Innovative Companies, and more recently selected by Elevate as one of 16 finalists to compete in the ElevateR Pitch contest.

We have also been successful in raising capital from visionary entrepreneurs and investors to propel our vision forward.”

AI Artisan: Amazing! Sounds like you are really enjoying the process! What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs and startup founders in the AI space?

“We believe that passion for whatever you are doing is the most important element of success. You need a ‘true north star’ to guide you on a day-to-day basis. As long as you remain passionate about what you do, success will eventually find you!”

AI Artisan: Thank you Hassan and Vivek for your valuable insights! We at AI Artisan wish you all the best in your endeavours!

This article by Maurice Chang was originally published by the AI Artisan Blog.