Saathi

Inspiration

Many people in Pakistan pay their bills at local shops, and some get scammed there. Others don't have much banking knowledge, or are simply too busy. We wanted one safe, secure app in their hand where they can pay a bill without worrying about being cheated.

What it does

Saathi is an AI banking assistant for bank customers in Pakistan who would rather write "ye bill pay kar do" than use an English-only banking app. It reads a photo of a bill and answers in Urdu, Roman Urdu or English. Nothing is paid until the customer approves, large payments go to a bank officer, and every step is logged with a reason.

How we built it

I built Saathi with Claude Code and the Devpost Learn skills. The AI first interviewed me about the idea and helped plan it (scope, product requirements and technical spec, all in the repo), then built it with me step by step. The app uses React, Vite and Tailwind CSS for the page, and Node.js with Express for the server. Google Gemini reads the bill photo and detects the language. Every money decision is made by fixed rules in the bank's own code, never by the AI, and 35 automated tests check those rules.

Challenges we ran into

In Urdu sentences, amounts like "PKR 85,000" appeared scrambled, because Urdu is written right to left and numbers left to right. This was serious for us: if the amount looks wrong, a customer could approve the wrong payment. We fixed it by marking every amount as left-to-right text. Another challenge was privacy versus working: typed account numbers must not reach the AI, but the payment card still needs them. The AI sees a placeholder like [NUM1], and our server puts the real number back.

What we learned

I learned to plan before building: the AI first interviewed me, and we wrote the scope, requirements and spec before any code. I learned that money decisions belong in fixed rules in code, not in the AI; Saathi's AI only reads and explains. And I learned that language is more than translation: right-to-left Urdu can change how an amount looks, and with money that matters.

What's next for Saathi

Next we want to bring Saathi to WhatsApp, where people already chat, and add Urdu voice notes for people who find reading or typing hard. We want to connect it to a real bank's test system, and hide personal details in the bill photo before the AI sees it (today the photo is sent as it is). We plan to enter it in the Allied Bank Fintech Hackathon, and keep adding safety features that protect Pakistani customers from scams.

Built With

• express.js
• google-gemini
• javascript
• node.js
• react
• tailwindcss
• vite