Background.ai

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Inspiration

We were inspired by the power of automation tools like n8n and wanted to explore how they could streamline background research. Our goal was to create a simple way to discover more about colleagues and professionals—both socially and professionally—through publicly available data.

What it does

background.ai takes a person’s name and uses an automated workflow to search the web for their online presence—scanning platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and GitHub. Once the correct profiles are selected, the app generates an AI-powered summary of the individual, and allows users to chat with a bot to learn even more contextual insights.

How we built it

We built the app using React for the frontend and n8n to automate backend workflows. The workflows leverage Google's Gemini for natural language processing, Sarpai for scraping search results, and the Google Programmable Search Engine for precise querying.

Challenges we ran into

We faced a steep learning curve with n8n, especially when it came to designing complex workflows and handling JSON formatting across multiple services. Additionally, accessing social media data via APIs was challenging, pushing us to rely on web scraping and search-based methods instead.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of the clean and intuitive UI we developed with React, as well as the smooth integration of automated workflows. Our API calls run seamlessly, and the end-to-end experience—from search to profile summary—is robust and user-friendly.

What we learned

We learned that aligning on a shared vision as a team can be more difficult than expected, especially under time pressure. We also realized how challenging JSON formatting can be when juggling multiple tools and data structures across different workflows.

What's next for Background.ai

Next, we plan to enhance the depth and accuracy of our profile summaries, refine the chatbot experience, and improve our background checking results. We also aim to optimize our AI agents for better context understanding and faster performance.