Inspiration My mother-in-law is an independent woman who lives by herself and takes utmost pride in being able to take care of her. However, as she ages, she can't climb down her 10th story apartment for groceries. She, it seems reluctantly, asks me or my wife to order on her behalf. She can use the cellphone and Whatsapp but can't use digital payments or new age apps. Relatedly, she converses primarily in Hindi.
What it does I created a Telegram app for my mother in law (but, because most mum's around are well versed with tech, decided to call the app Groceries for grandma or "dadi cart" where "dadi" in Hindi stands for grandmother. Now, my mum, via a simple telegram interface, can order groceries with cash on delivery.
How we built it The brainstorming took a while, but once I had the PRD, I used Codex exclusively for implementation and testing. I used OAI for both language and voice models. The application is a Telegram bot that relies heavily on text to speech and speech to text (that is what my mum understands best). The app remembers her preferences and self-improves - in terms of order cart. The order is fulfilled by Swiggy (a quick commerce player in India) MCP server.
Challenges we ran into Getting the experience right was hard. Minute details such as what to remember, what to search, how to present information to my mother took a while. We initially wanted to implement MCP with Zepto (another quick commerce player) but realized that it had issues with Cash on delivery. Last moment, I had to move to Swiggy. Another thing was how do we give my mother (and ourselves) the confidence to use this app. For this, I implemented a guardian mode - wherein orders about a certain limit would need my approval.
Accomplishments that we're proud of Once this goes live, it is my hope that it opens a window for not just quick commerce but other similar apps to cater to senior citizens. With AI, the marginal cost of building for this group should be very low.
What we learned Ah, so man things. Chief among them (1) how Telegram bots work (2) A good idea is just the beginning (3) The power of thinking deeply about experience of a customer
What's next for Grocery for Grandma Connection with other quick commerce players such as Zepto and, of course, MOST IMPORTANTLY: going live on my mother's phone.
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