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Cuely: An AI-Powered Guide to Social Cues

Inspiration

Cuely started off as an app to help people on the spectrum get a better grasp of social cues as they could have never had the chance or gut to do so. We also have members of Cuely that understand those struggles but just got lucky opportunities like a retail job to learn through trial and error. We wanted to create that "lucky opportunity" for everyone—a safe, private, and judgment-free space to practice the unspoken rules of social interaction, built by and for those who know how challenging they can be to navigate.

What it does

Cuely is an educational platform that uses AI to evaluate the user's social and facial cues, giving them insights onto how to improve while not being discouraging. Through interactive video scenarios, users practice real-world conversations. Our AI provides specific, constructive feedback on their tone, eye contact, body language, and word choice. We even used AI to extend our lessons, allowing users to generate unique, tailored practice scenarios via custom context, visual aids, tonal hints, and audio dialogues, ensuring the learning never gets repetitive and always feels relevant.

How we built it

Most of Cuely's AI processing is from Google's Gemini API, which can analyze video submissions of our users and provide nuanced critique on how they approached the scenario. ElevenLabs was used to handle audio transcriptions and to generate realistic, empathetic audio bytes for dialogues. MongoDB was used to store the user's grade data and progress, as we know it's essential to help users track their improvement using our dashboard and their lesson history. React was our JavaScript framework of choice to quickly get our responsive and intuitive frontend up and running, creating a seamless flow from lesson to feedback.

Challenges we ran into

Empathetic AI Feedback: The biggest challenge was tuning the AI's critiques to be constructive and encouraging, not clinical or discouraging. We spent significant time crafting prompts that focus on "growth opportunities" rather than "mistakes."
Balancing Structure & Customization: Creating a core curriculum that was universally helpful while also allowing for the AI-generated, personalized scenarios required careful architectural planning to keep the app cohesive.
The "Uncanny Valley" of Audio: Using ElevenLabs for dialogue, we had to ensure the AI-generated voices sounded natural and emotionally appropriate for each scenario, which took extensive iteration on scripts and voice parameters.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building a Tool We Needed Ourselves: Creating an app that directly addresses the challenges faced by our own team members is our deepest point of pride. It's built with genuine understanding.

The "Aha" Moment in Testing: Seeing a test user light up after receiving clear, actionable feedback on a micro-expression they weren't aware of confirmed we were on the right path.

Creating a Truly Safe Space: Successfully designing an interface and experience that feels private, low-pressure, and empowering—turning anxiety-provoking practice into a series of achievable victories.

What we learned

Technology Can Build Bridges: AI isn't just for automation; it can be a patient, non-judgmental medium for teaching deeply human skills.

Progress is Personal: Tracking "grades" was important, but we learned the most powerful metric was a user's growing confidence, which we saw in their willingness to tackle more complex scenarios.

The Power of Lived Experience: Our team's personal insights were irreplaceable. They guided everything from scenario design to the tone of feedback, ensuring the app was authentic and respectful.

What's next for Cuely

Our journey is just beginning. We plan to:

Expand the Scenario Library: Partner with neurodiversity advocates and therapists to develop more modules for specific challenges like job interviews, dating, or group dynamics.

Introduce Community Features (Carefully): Explore optional, anonymized peer practice rooms or mentor matching, built with robust moderation and safety tools.

Develop a "Companion" Mobile Feature: A lightweight tool that offers gentle, real-time cue reminders (via audio analysis) for users who want support during actual phone or in-person conversations.

Pursue Clinical Validation: Work with researchers to study Cuely's efficacy, aiming to become a recognized supplemental tool for social skills therapy and education.

Cuely was born from a personal need for a better way to learn the social rules that don't come naturally to everyone. Our mission is to make that learning accessible, empowering, and rooted in triumph.