#WeArePlay: Meet the people using Google AI to solve problems in agriculture, education, and pet care

Posted by Robbie McLachlan - Developer Marketing

In our latest #WeArePlay stories, we meet the people using Google AI to drive positive change with their apps and games on Google Play - from diagnosing crop diseases with a single photo to reuniting lost pets with a simple nose print.

Here are a few of our favorites:

Jesse and Ken’s app Petnow uses AI-powered nose print recognition to identify individual dogs and cats, helping to reunite lost pets with their owners. 

Dr. Jesse Joonho Lim, co-founder of Petnow Seoul, South Korea 

Inspired by his lifelong love of dogs, Jesse teamed up with Vision AI expert Ken to create Petnow.  Boosted by Gemini, their app uses nose print recognition to identify individual dogs and cats, helping to reunite lost pets with their owners. Recent AI updates, enhanced by Google Gemini, now let people search by breed, color, and size simply by taking a photo with their device. Next, the team plans to expand globally, aiming to help owners everywhere stay connected with their furry companions.

Simone and Rob's app, Plantix, uses AI to identify crop diseases from photos and suggests remedies.

Simone Strey and Rob Strey, co-founders of Plantix Berlin, Germany 

While testing soil in the Amazon, PhD students Simone and Rob were asked by farmers for help diagnosing crop diseases. The couple quickly realized that local names for plant illnesses didn’t match research terms, making solutions hard to find. So they created Plantix, an AI app that uses Google Vision Transformer (ViT), identifying crop problems from photos and suggests remedies in multiple languages.Their mission continues to grow; now based in India, they are building a new startup to help farmers source eco-friendly products. With global expansion in mind, the team aims to add a speech-based assistant to give farmers real-time, personalized advice.

Gabriel  and Isaac’s game, Afrilearn uses AI powered by Google Cloud to make education fun and accessible for children across West Africa.

Gabriel Olatunji-Legend and Isaac Oladipupo, co-founders of Afrilearn Lagos, Nigeria 

Inspired by their own upbringing in Lagos, friends Gabriel and Isaac believe every child deserves a chance to succeed through education. They built Afrilearn, a gamified learning app that uses animation, storytelling, and AI to make lessons aligned with local curriculums engaging and accessible. Already helping thousands of learners, they are now expanding into school management tools to continue their mission of unlocking every child's potential.

Discover other inspiring app and game founders featured in #WeArePlay.