Digital guardian: Harness AI to help with parenting

Hindi hit films of the 1950s and 60s — many of them remakes of South Indian family fare — perpetuated the myth of the kindly granny dishing out advice and guidance to dutiful  young parents trying to bring up their young children. Came the 21st century and such cozy relationships had gone with the same wind, which also  destroyed the old undivided families.

Hindi hit films of the 1950s and 60s -- many of them remakes of South Indian family fare -- perpetuated the myth of the kindly granny dishing out advice and guidance to dutiful young parents trying to bring up their young children. Came the 21st century and such cozy relationships had gone with the same wind, which also destroyed the old undivided families.

Today's millennial parents, with no elderly relatives to turn to, address the challenge of rearing children by doing what comes naturally -- googling for help. This is when they hit a problem of plenty: thousands of sites, many of doubtful credibility. This challenge has created an opportunity for some innovative Indian startups. At least two of them have in recent months, harnessed Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and analytics to create useful services for early child development and parenting. Coincidentally both are based out of Bengaluru, which emerging as a hotbed for such AI-fuelled solutions.

Parentlane: First social platform for parents

This tool available as an Android app, guides parents on the development of a child from birth to 8 years. It tracks complete growth across categories, like learning skills, social & emotional development, speech & language skills, motor skills, health & wellness, and eye-hand coordination. It spots weakness in any area and recommends how to remedy it. It has recently added a new feature called GrowthCheck -- a baby development tracker. Parentlane is free to use for 3 months after which fees kick in.

Mia from Parentof: Customised activity for your kid

Parentof claims to be the first "parentech" tool that integrates public and private data to make parenting smarter. Its Android app, Mia, concentrates on age 3 to 16 and has some 15,000 registered parents in India and is signing up many educational institutions in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. It offers customised daily 15-minute activities to help develop the child’s skills.

Content-wise the two apps which address different age groups, share many features -- real time help and advice, mobile phone based tracking, digital profiles of the child, kid recipes... Happy parenting!

—IndiaTechOnline