Objects are forgotten. Memories remain. Based on this insight, MyWai offers to transform a person's memories into a printed and bound biographical book, without asking the family to become biographer, layout designer, and print production manager over the same weekend.
The product risk was obvious: AI can quickly produce clean but generic text, which is useless here. The journey was designed to avoid that: the initiator creates a dedicated space, loved ones contribute photos and stories without an account, then AI composes a narrative the user can review and adjust. The first chapter is free so users can judge the quality before ordering the full book.
Context before the project
The personalized gift market suffered from a paradox: the most meaningful gifts — those that truly touch people — are also the hardest to create. Writing a book tracing a loved one's life requires weeks of work, skilled writing, and complex printing logistics.
Existing solutions were limited to online photo albums or complex self-publishing services, without editorial support. Loved ones wanting to offer a memorable gift for a birthday, retirement, or tribute found themselves overwhelmed by the scale of the task.
Furthermore, family stories are being lost as families scatter geographically. Anecdotes, photos, and memories remain locked in individual minds, without a lasting medium to pass them on to future generations.
Project objectives
For the product to work, the whole chain had to be covered without unnecessary friction:
- Make creation accessible to everyone through a guided step-by-step journey, with no writing skills required.
- Collect memories without friction by allowing contributors to share photos and stories via a simple email or SMS link, with no account creation.
- Produce interesting AI narratives that transform fragmented memories into personal text, not a generic interchangeable tribute.
- Manage the entire chain from memory collection through to printing and delivery of the bound book.
- Offer a "try before you buy" model with a free first chapter to convince through quality.
The implemented solution
MyWai was built as a complete product, not a simple AI demo. Text generation is only one step: the product has to collect memories, reassure the buyer, support review, handle photos, take payment, produce a printable PDF, and deliver a physical object.
Guided creation journey
- 5-step wizard : information, book tone, excerpt, inviting loved ones, customization
- Tone selection influencing the AI's writing style (up to 3 personality traits per book)
- Editable private space to review, adjust, and personalize content before printing
Artificial intelligence
- AI narrative generation transforming fragmented memories into coherent, readable chapters
- Intelligent photo analysis : date estimation, content description, chapter assignment suggestions
- Tone-based personalization : writing style adapts to selected personality traits
- Image processing pipeline : EXIF extraction, automatic rotation, cropping, and optimization
Contributor portal
- Email and SMS invitations with unlimited number of contributors
- No-account contribution : loved ones share photos and stories via a simple secure link
- Intuitive interface to maximize contributor participation rates
Printing and delivery
- Professional PDF generation with careful layout and photo integration
- Integrated digital publishing for online browsing
- Print-on-demand and home delivery included in the price
- Secure payment via Stripe with gift card system for group purchases
Technical architecture
- Rails backend + React frontend : application foundation for a long, editable, transactional journey
- Multi-provider authentication : Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft alongside classic authentication
- Multi-language : French, English, and Spanish for international reach
- B2B offering : dedicated space for companies seeking corporate gifts and employer branding
The product at a glance
The product at a glance
99€
all-inclusive: AI writing, printing, binding, and delivery
Unlimited
number of contributors per book
6 chapters
AI-generated from collected memories
3 languages
French, English, and Spanish
The first books produced confirmed the core product point: users need to see a concrete result before buying. The "free first chapter" model reduces perceived risk and lets them judge AI writing quality before any financial commitment.
The email and SMS invitation system, with no account creation for contributors, maximizes participation rates. Loved ones easily share their photos and stories, enriching the material from which the AI composes the narrative.
Intelligent photo analysis — date estimation, content description, chapter assignment suggestions — considerably reduces the sorting and organization work for the book initiator.
The B2B offering opens a natural development path: retirement gifts, collective presents, team memory. Again, the point is not "put AI in a gift", but making a personal gift possible when nobody has the time to produce it manually.
Evolution and roadmap
MyWai continues its development to enrich the experience and expand its reach:
- Additional book formats : themed books (travel, career, couple) with adapted chapter templates
- B2B expansion : custom offerings for works councils and employer branding programs
- New languages : adding German and Italian to support European expansion
Conclusion
MyWai shows that AI has value only when it fits into a real product journey. The generated text has to be good, but it also has to arrive at the right moment, from the right memories, inside a flow families understand. Otherwise it is just another vaguely moving prose generator. The internet has enough of those.
My role covered that full flow: frame the product, design the steps, integrate AI, make image handling reliable, manage payment, and prepare printing. The result is not just an app that generates text, but a tool that actually helps people offer a personal book.