Data Scientist and U of T alumni Athiya Rastogi builds an AI tool for generating product descriptions from images in seconds
-- article by Jenefer Savoeung, published August 10th, 2022
In lecture halls, accelerator spaces and board rooms, Athiya Rastogi brings a notepad of ideas on how to innovate in technology and ecommerce spaces. “Ever since I was eleven, I knew I wanted to build something on my own, so my entire university [career] has been about experimenting with ideas,” Rastogi says in an online interview.
UTSC The Hub is one of Rastogi’s testing grounds, where she brought ideas like Quick Closet, a platform for instant pick-up at nearby clothing stores. Later, she built a tutoring service that connected Canadian students to affordable tutors in India. Now, Rastogi’s current venture is SnapWrite AI, which is a machine learning tool that generates product features and descriptions from images for ecommerce companies.
Creating SnapWrite AI
Rastogi recalls spending her youth in her grandparent’s jewellery stores, where they were building their own successful business. “I did not understand the meaning of a 9:00 to 5:00 then, [as days] started very early in the morning… then [my grandfather] would wrap up by 10:00 or 11:00 pm,” Rastogi says, “that's how I saw what work looked like and [found] a path I wanted to pursue where I can build things, create things and create an impact.”
At age seventeen, Rastogi moved from India to Canada to study Statistics, Quantitative Finance and Machine Learning at the University of Toronto. At university, she was involved with the Management and Economics Students' Association (MESA), Management Consulting groups and the Fashion Networking Organization. As a full-time student, Rastogi grew her skills in engineering and facilitated statistics and probability classes with Professor Samarakoon and over 450 students. After graduating, she went on to work as a data scientist for brands like Mars, Unilever, and Deciem Beauty Company.
At age thirteen, Rastogi attended a boarding school at the foothills of the Himalayas where students had restricted access to media and technology. Students communicated with parents through written letters and spent their spare time, creating music, writing poetry, or making art. Rastogi enjoyed poetry and producing sentences, she also had a natural talent with numbers, and ranked top of her class in math and English. “When I build products, the math side is the structure of it, and the art side is the user experience and the heart and the soul of the product,” Rastogi adds.
Reading Images with AI Technology
SnapWrite AI uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect details and content in an image and converts it into product descriptions. Rastogi’s idea was inspired by a side project involving time series analysis, where data and technology are used to predict stock prices or fashion trends. In exploring the startup and entrepreneurship world, also the retail space, Rastogi resonated with the idea that AI could predict and tag data with distinct words and descriptions.
“[With SnapWrite AI] you don’t start with the words, you start with the image,” Rastogi explains. The digital tool looks at each image to produce unique words. Through this, retailers can create diverse descriptions which are important for search engine optimization (SEO). SEO refers to a product or companies’ visibility in search results.
Growth, Entrepreneurship and Community
SnapWrite AI’s team includes Rastogi’s younger brother, Aryaman who is a software engineer. “We balance each other’s skill sets,” Rastogi adds, explaining that she handles data science and sales, while Aryaman works on the software behind the AI tool. They are working under the guidance of data scientists and professors from the University of Toronto, Harvard, and NEXT Canada. Currently, SnapWrite AI continues to collect data to improve the tool which is currently used by local and global online businesses. Their venture has been recognized by prominent newsletters from TechStars and San Francisco based tech firms.
Rastogi is actively involved in Toronto’s entrepreneurship community, with support from DMZ Ryerson, UTSC The Bridge, Next 36 and The Hub. Rastogi adds that The Hub encourages her several ideas and provides guidance and advice for her goals. Since SnapWrite AI started, they have won four pitch competitions which include UTE Prize and The Hub’s Startup Pitch Competition.
“The soul of the product is in the images,” Rastogi repeats, explaining how the problem with figuring out the “right words” can be solved with a fast-learning AI technology. Athiya and Aryaman Rastogi continue to alter the fast, accurate, affordable, and adaptable tool. This makes SnapWrite AI beneficial in commercial and retail spaces with actively growing catalogues of new products.
Currently, SnapWrite AI is seeking more clients. Interested in working with Athiya? Contact her through LinkedIn at Athiya Rastogi or email athiya@snapwrite.ca and discover more about SnapWrite AI here https://snapwrite.ca/
More of SnapWrite AI’s Founder: Athiya Rastogi
- Preview Athiya Rastogi speak on her venture: https://youtu.be/xXABonN4uzI
- Pre-save Athiya’s full interview: https://youtu.be/A0IgIxx8nHY
- Subscribe to The Hub UTSC on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdFobbJZAbulSv4nl2uRRg