Why we are doing what we are doing.
The ‘Old Way’ of building on-device AI is an artisanal cage. It is slow, complex, and costly, trapping innovation and holding back the next generation of intelligent products. We believe this process is fundamentally flawed, and we refuse to accept it as the only path forward.
Our manifesto is a call to action: to replace this legacy approach with a foundational model-build layer that automates the entire workflow, democratizing access to high-performance, on-device AI for every team and device.
The Artisanal Cage Must Be Broken
For too long, the promise of on-device AI has been tempered by a harsh reality: building and deploying production-ready models is a fragmented, labor-intensive process. It relies on a small, scarce pool of expensive specialists — the "craftspeople" with a rare combination of data science and embedded systems expertise. Their fragmented toolkit and manual steps have led to a broken process that is holding businesses captive.
This artisanal cage manifests as:
- Protracted Development Cycles. On-device AI projects can take 12-24 months to complete, causing delays and missed market opportunities.
- Unmanageable Complexity. The sheer number of model architectures and training methods is a nightmare of orchestration, leading to high project failure rates — with less than half of projects ever reaching production.
- Talent Scarcity. The demand for specialized AI talent drastically outpaces supply, forcing companies to spend millions and still face internal bottlenecks.
The process itself is a fundamental flaw we refuse to accept. We stand at a critical juncture where the complexity and cost of AI development are threatening to stifle innovation and prevent the full potential of intelligent products from being realized.
Our Manifesto: Data In, Model Out
We declare Model Cat to be the foundational "model-build layer" for all AI development. Our mission is to accelerate the creation of the next generation of intelligent products by empowering teams with the world's first automated, end-to-end AI model builder.
Model Cat is an AI-in-the-Loop platform that encapsulates the expertise of an entire team of specialists. It autonomously builds, optimizes, and validates production-ready AI models in a single, powerful step. We call this "Data In, Model Out."
This is not a new tool; it is a fundamentally new way of working. By automating the entire process — from model selection and training, to optimization and validation on real hardware platforms — we compress a 4-24 month process into 0-2 weeks. This new reality empowers engineers to focus on product innovation, not on a fragmented, expensive, and painfully slow manual workflow.
The Vision: AI Models for All
We are not just moving the conversation, we are redefining it — from "Edge AI" to the more encompassing and powerful concept of "On-Device AI." This shifts the focus from location (the "edge") to the functionality (AI running directly on hardware), positioning our platform for any device where local AI processing is critical, regardless of power consumption or size.
This is not just our vision; it is our mandate. We are here to build an indispensable platform that democratizes access to high-performance AI. We will unlock unprecedented velocity and efficiency, accelerating the use of AI worldwide.
The future of on-device AI begins now.