Introduction
After 26 years of working with companies such as TikTok, Disney and MX Player, Nikhil Gandhi is bringing his experience in media, technology and consumer engagement to a new business opportunity: improving how people experience physical spaces.
As the Founder and CEO of VYYB AI Technologies Ltd., Gandhi is working towards making commercial environments more responsive to their surroundings through sensory intelligence. The company aims to help businesses manage elements such as music, climate and scent to create experiences that reflect their brand and meet customer expectations.
VYYB is beginning with VYYB SONIC, its commercial background music offering, developed by its technology partner, Tringbox AI. The company plans to expand into intelligent climate optimisation and contextual scenting through its upcoming products, VYYB ATMOS and VYYB AURA.
In this conversation with Indian Startup Times, Nikhil Gandhi discusses his entrepreneurial journey, the thinking behind sensory intelligence, the challenges of introducing AI into physical environments, and his vision for building a globally relevant business from the UAE.
The Interview
Q1. After 26 years with companies like TikTok, Disney, and MX Player, what inspired you to start VYYB AI?
Throughout my career, I have focused on understanding audiences and building businesses around how people engage with products and experiences. Working across media and technology helped me understand how strongly customer experience influences business success.
I wanted to take that experience and build something of my own from the ground up. With VYYB, I saw an opportunity to bring greater intelligence to physical spaces where consumers interact with businesses.
Companies invest significantly in how their venues look, but other elements, such as music, temperature and scent, also shape the experience. I believe these elements deserve the same level of attention, and that is the opportunity I want to build around.
Q2. What is sensory intelligence, and how is VYYB AI using it to transform commercial spaces?
Sensory intelligence is about using context to manage how a commercial space sounds, feels and smells. The goal is to create an atmosphere that reflects the brand and adapts to how the venue is being used throughout the day.
For example, music that works in a hotel lobby during breakfast may not create the right atmosphere in the evening. The environment should reflect that change.
Neuroscience also helps explain why sensory experiences matter. Pleasant music can engage the brain’s reward systems and influence how people feel. Similarly, the overall environment can contribute to whether customers feel comfortable and welcome.
For businesses, this has a practical purpose. A more enjoyable experience may encourage customers to spend more time in a venue, engage with the brand and return. Our aim is to help businesses manage these experiences more thoughtfully while supporting their commercial objectives.
We are starting with VYYB SONIC for background music, with plans to extend the same contextual approach to climate and scent over time.
Q3. How does VYYB SONIC use AI to personalise background music, and what makes it different from traditional music platforms?
VYYB SONIC uses contextual information, including the type of venue, time of day and environmental conditions, to guide music selection and management.
The focus is not simply on playing music but on creating the right atmosphere for a particular brand and setting. A fixed playlist usually requires someone to decide when the music should change. Our approach aims to make this process more responsive and reduce the need for manual selection and switching.
For businesses, the value lies in having music that suits their environment and can be managed more consistently as part of their daily operations.
Q4. Why did you choose music, climate and scent as the key areas for VYYB AI’s product development?
These are three elements people experience when they enter a physical space. Music helps establish the atmosphere, climate influences comfort, and scent can become part of a venue’s identity.
Together, they offer a practical starting point for improving customer experiences.
We chose music first because it provides a clear commercial application and allows us to work closely with businesses. Climate and scent are natural extensions of the same vision, although each requires its own development and validation.
Our approach is to ensure that every product addresses a genuine business need before bringing these capabilities together.
Q5. What have been the biggest challenges in bringing VYYB SONIC, powered by Tringbox AI, to commercial spaces?
VYYB AI has a strategic partnership with Tringbox AI, which is our technology partner and develops VYYB SONIC. Our focus is on bringing this capability to commercial operators and making it useful in their everyday environments.
The challenge is translating technology into a service that businesses can depend on. Music needs to suit the brand, the venue and the moment, which requires careful configuration and feedback from operators.
Reliable support is equally important. Businesses need solutions that work within their existing operations without creating unnecessary complexity.
Ultimately, we judge the product by how well it serves businesses in real commercial settings.
Q6. How does VYYB SONIC help businesses improve customer experience and manage multiple locations efficiently?
VYYB SONIC is designed to make music a more deliberate part of the customer experience while reducing the effort involved in selecting and changing it.
For businesses operating across multiple locations, consistency is particularly important. Customers should be able to recognise the brand experience across different outlets, while each location should still have the flexibility to suit its specific needs.
For instance, a flagship retail store and a smaller outlet may require different musical environments. Our approach aims to balance brand consistency with the needs of individual venues, reducing dependence on staff members making every music-related decision manually.
Q7. What challenges have you faced while building AI-powered solutions for real-world commercial environments?
One of the biggest challenges is understanding how different commercial environments operate. Every venue has its own routines, customer expectations and working conditions.
A solution that works in one setting may require adjustments in another. It must also be reliable and simple enough for teams to use without disrupting their daily responsibilities.
This is why implementation matters as much as technology itself. Businesses need to understand what a solution is designed to achieve and how they can evaluate its effectiveness.
Our focus remains on developing practical applications that fit into existing operations and solve clearly defined problems.
Q8. How do you ensure that VYYB SONIC’s music recommendations match different brands, venues and customer preferences?
It begins with understanding the brand and the experience it wants to create. A luxury boutique, a neighbourhood café and a fitness studio have very different expectations when it comes to music.
These differences should guide how the music experience is configured. The venue’s context and time of day also help determine what is appropriate.
Feedback from operators is equally important because the people managing a space understand its customers and daily requirements.
Our approach combines contextual recommendations with practical business judgement to keep the music relevant to the venue, its brand and its audience.
Q9. Why did you choose the UAE as your headquarters, and what are your plans for global expansion?
The UAE fits the kind of business I want to build with VYYB: a company based in one market but designed to serve customers internationally.
Dubai provides access to the retail and hospitality sectors we want to work with, along with opportunities to develop international partnerships. We are headquartered at the DIFC Dubai AI Campus.
Our immediate focus is on the UAE and the wider Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. We are also targeting opportunities across the broader Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asia.
Expansion will depend on customer requirements, market suitability and our ability to provide reliable support in each region.
VYYB is made in the UAE and built for the world.
Q10. How are you approaching customer acquisition and building trust among businesses adopting AI-powered solutions?
We are at an early stage, so my priority is to build strong customer relationships around clearly defined business needs.
The conversation begins with understanding how a business currently manages its music and where it sees opportunities to improve consistency or reduce manual work.
Demonstrations are important because business owners and operators should be able to experience the solution and assess its relevance for themselves. Where appropriate, a carefully planned pilot can help establish whether the product fits their requirements.
Trust comes from being transparent about what the product can do, setting clear expectations and providing dependable implementation and support. I intend to remain closely involved in these early customer conversations.
Q11. How will VYYB ATMOS, VYYB AURA and the broader VYYB AMBIENCE vision shape the future of sensory intelligence?
VYYB ATMOS and VYYB AURA are currently in development. ATMOS focuses on intelligent climate optimisation, while AURA focuses on contextual scenting.
Our broader vision, VYYB AMBIENCE, is to bring sound, climate and scent together through a shared understanding of the venue’s context and brand.
However, each capability must work well independently before combining them can deliver meaningful value. The long-term opportunity is to help commercial spaces respond more thoughtfully to how they are being used.
We want to build towards this vision through practical applications that businesses can evaluate in their own environments.
Q12. Where do you see VYYB AI in the next five years, and what is your long-term vision for the company?
Over the next five years, I want VYYB to become a trusted AI platform with a strong international presence.
I would measure our progress through customer retention, the quality of our deployments and our ability to serve businesses across multiple locations.
Our long-term ambition is to build a company whose solutions become an integral part of how commercial spaces are designed and operated.
Music is our starting point. As we develop the broader portfolio, I want VYYB to establish a lasting role in helping businesses create experiences that customers value and that operators can manage with confidence.
For me, the goal is to make sensory intelligence a practical part of everyday business operations, rather than simply a technological concept.
Interview By: Palak Pandey
