About Us

Our mission is to create the most ethically, emotionally, and experientially aware conversational intelligence to improve the quality and trust of the human AI experience.

Brian Ritchie
Founder & CEO

Our Story

kama.ai, formally Kamazooie Development Corporation, is a Canadian Indigenous company that recognizes the value of innovation and technology. Innovation is not limited to modern generations; it is as old as mankind. Consider the innovative and transformative nature of the birchbark canoe used by Indigenous people for centuries. It allowed a single person to carry a pack and their own watercraft. It let them define their journey and travel anywhere they wanted to go.

Like the simple canoe, Artificial Intelligence is the innovation that can help us develop in any direction we wish to go. It offers virtually unlimited possibilities. Yet, we must not lose sight of who we are as people and as corporate citizens. kama.ai was founded in 2014 to design an EI, or an Emotionally Intelligent AI. Unlike other AI engines, the EI is meant to remain grounded, and embrace human traits and values like ethics, emotions, and empathy. All this while improving the lives of the people it serves. This is our journey, and we invite you to join us. Together we will navigate new and uncharted waters – safely, responsibly, and with fairness and respect for all people.

Our Story

kama.ai is a Canadian Indigenous company that recognizes the value of innovation and technology. Innovation is not limited to modern generations; it is as old as mankind. Consider the innovative and transformative nature of the birchbark canoe used by Indigenous people for centuries. It allowed a single person to carry a pack and their own watercraft. It let them define their journey and travel anywhere they wanted to go.

Like the simple canoe, Artificial Intelligence is the innovation that can help us develop in any direction we wish to go. It offers virtually unlimited possibilities. Yet, we must not lose sight of who we are as people and as corporate citizens. kama.ai was founded in 2014 to design an EI, or an Emotionally Intelligent AI. Unlike other AI engines, the EI is meant to remain grounded, and embrace human traits and values like ethics, emotions, and empathy. All this while improving the lives of the people it serves. This is our journey, and we invite you to join us. Together we will navigate new and uncharted waters – safely, and with fairness and respect for all people.

Our Language, Words, and Vision

Our language and words are perhaps our most powerful gifts beyond our ability to reason. Words give us the ability to share our feelings, communicate plans, ideas, and designs to enhance our experience. Words also give us the ability to educate and transcend time with stories, history, culture, and wisdom from one generation to the next. For many cultures, spoken words and actions were the only real form of communication to educate and preserve culture since written languages did not exist. Therefore, our voice was and is the natural medium for sharing our thoughts and preserving our culture.

In 2010, the founders of kama.ai had the vision to use words as the basis of a new form of intelligence that combines human values to bring machine understanding to words, knowledge, and human issues or requests. We believed that this approach could more closely approach human understanding. Our vision extended into using this intelligence to drive many business and societal applications. It ultimately includes allowing people to tell their stories and pass family and community culture to future generations with their own words and voices.

Now, with our first patent awarded in four global jurisdictions including Canada, USA, China, and Israel, and with our kama DEI platform in commercial service with customers since May 2020, we are beginning to see the aspirations of our vision appear more clearly. In late 2022, we will file our second patent that will expand our ability to understand, infer, and communicate in natural language and further deliver our vision and mission.

Our Values

Values are at the heart of our being and, for our company, at the heart of our technology. Our values, and our desire to achieve and live by them, drive our actions. The values we strive to uphold and to have upheld in our responsible AI technology are:

Truth

Though we are developers, we are the seekers of truth and wisdom. In this regard, we are more literally philosophers. Through truth, we can best approximate the human experience. Here, we are honest with ourselves, and we understand, without bias, the desires and requirements of those we serve.

Humility

While we are courageous, we must be open and empathetic to the needs, ideas, and points of view of others. It is in these diverse views that we find the Truth we seek.

Innovation

We value the societal improvements that stem from innovation and human creation. We value the creation stories that precede us and the ones yet to be developed with our customers and partners. Through Truth, Inclusivity, Courage, and Humility – we can innovate to serve and improve the quality of life of those we serve.

Courage

To invent something new, we must be courageous. Opportunities are found on the fringes, not in the middle ground. Yet, on those same fringes, we are away from the pack and must have the courage and conviction to stand for our beliefs.

Inclusivity and Respect

Continuously, we strive to understand each other and our clients. We commit to hear and recognize the different viewpoints that ALL others bring to our attention. This Respect is for both our technical discussions and those encounter on our journey and mission through life.

Truth

Though we are developers, we are the seekers of truth and wisdom. In this regard, we are more literally philosophers. Through truth, we can best approximate the human experience. Here we are honest with ourselves, and understand, without bias, the desires, and requirements of those we serve.

Courage

To invent something new, we must be courageous. Opportunities are found on the fringes, not in the middle ground. Yet, on those same fringes, we are away from the pack and must have the courage and conviction to stand for our beliefs.

Humility

While we are courageous, we must be open and empathetic to the needs, ideas, and points of view of others. It is in these diverse views that we find the Truth we seek.

Inclusivity and Respect

Continuously, we strive to understand each other and our clients. We commit to hear and recognize the different viewpoints that ALL others bring to our attention. This Respect is for both our technical discussions and those encounter on our journey and mission through life.

Innovation

We value the societal improvements that stem from innovation and human creation. We value the creation stories that precede us and the ones yet to be developed with our customers and partners. Through Truth, Inclusivity, Courage, and Humility – we can innovate to serve and improve the quality of life of those we serve.

Meet Our Team

Brian Ritchie

Founder & CEO

Brian holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Lakehead University and an MBA from Lake Superior State College. Brian founded his first software company, Palos Bay Technologies Inc in 1992. The company’s business management product ‘Leadership’ was ahead of its time; its scope defined business and resource management tools that were later successfully introduced by SalesForce and LinkedIn.

Brian went on to hold executive Sales and Marketing positions with ChangePoint, Oracle, Ericsson, and ZTE. As lead inventor of the patents for kama DEI, Brian uses his experience in the Internet and Telecom industry to define the go-to market strategies for kama.ai’s Designed Experiential Intelligence™ enablement platform in the Enterprise market and CRM channel partner community.

Mark Cosyn

VP Business Development

Mark is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and holds an MBA with specializations in leading innovation and building sustainable communities. He brings 20+ years of experience in start-up ventures, business development, executive technology management, and consulting. He focuses on value creation through integrating customer experience (CX), value engineering, and employee experience (EX).

Prior to joining kama.ai, Mark led business development and project roles in North America and the Middle East, delivering go-to-market programs with industry leading firms. His competencies cover multi-platform cloud architecture and application development, specializing in AI, IoT, and digital twin data ecosystems.

Mark is responsible for business development, strategic partnerships, and channel development, helping clients and partners deliver sustainable economic, environmental, and social outcomes.

Michael Sasarman

SVP of Customer Success & Operations

Michael holds a M.SC in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and International MBA from Kellogg and Schulich. He has 20+ years of national and international assignments in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East spanning Business & Digital Transformation, Operations, and Customer Relationship Management implementation. Michael is experienced in the Kaizen culture of innovation, quality, and service excellence. Michael leads partner sales, strategic projects, and customer engagements involving the application and integration of kama DEI into enterprise customers.

Behrooz Darabiha

Head of Enterprise Development

Behrooz holds a BSc in Nuclear Physics and has been a programmer for 30 years, starting with FORTRAN on DEC to C++ and Pascal and programming in PHP since its conception. Lately, Behrooz has begun exploring open source tools such as OpenNLP in enterprise projects prior to joining Kama.AI in 2017 to become Head of Kama DEI’s knowledge management and user administration system development. Behrooz has extensive experience in API design and development and applies this experience to building out kama DEI’s enterprise application integration capabilities.

Jacky Wang

Head of AI Development

Jacky holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has 15+ years of hands-on experience in developing machine learning algorithms, statistical models, time series analysis techniques, natural language processing, speech recognition, and algorithm trading.

Prior to joining kama.ai to head up AI development, Jacky worked for a major Canadian hedge fund where he applied deep learning techniques in algorithm trading. Jacky also served as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Ryerson University and was a visiting Professor and Scholar at the University of Manitoba and the University of Windsor.

Jacky is responsible for advancing kama DEI’s inference capabilities, Natural Language Understanding and Natural Language Generation to continually improve the conversational interactions with users.

Kaiyang Li

kama DEI Product Manager

Kaiyang holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Toronto and a Master of Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University. Since joining kama.ai in 2018, Kaiyang has played a key development role in expanding kama DEI’s client access into FB Messenger, Amazon Alexa and advancing kama’s proprietary chatbot front-end interface. In 2020, Kaiyang was promoted to Product Manager where he is responsible for the full kama DEI platform and client portfolio roadmap and release management.

Gabriel Carrillo

Senior Software Developer

Gabriel holds a Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering with a specialization in Web Development, a Master’s degree in Higher Education, and a Ph.D. in Management. He is an experienced developer with expertise in Expert Systems, Business Software, and Natural Language Processing. Since joining kama.ai in 2017 as a Senior Software Developer, Gabriel has been a key member of the technical team, contributing to the development of the kama.ai platform with a focus on processing knowledge graphs to deliver precise and context-aware responses to inquiries. In 2025, he published “AI IN YOUR HANDS: A Friendly Introduction to Artificial Intelligence”.

Charles Dimov

Chief Marketing Officer

A seasoned B2B marketing leader with over 25 years of experience, specializing in driving demand for high-tech SaaS startups and scale-ups. With a strong focus on demand generation, Charles’ track record includes increased SQLs by 11 times and expanding sales pipelines by up to 5.2 times within 2 year mandates. His expertise spans across AI, HRTech, LegalTech, Supply Chain systems, and eCommerce, with a proven record of helping startup businesses secure substantial investments. Charles leads marketing strategy, communications, and demand generation at kama.ai, leveraging his background to accelerate growth and expand market presence.

Charles has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering, a Master of Applied Science (MBA equiv.) in Technology Management, and a Bachelor of Business Economics, from the University of Waterloo. As an avid lifetime learner, he has certifications in Business Strategy from Harvard Business School, Strategic Communications, Digital Marketing from University of Toronto, and half a dozen other marketing certifications from various universities and academies. Charles also teaches Marketing at Seneca Polytechnic.

Aman Yadav

Network Engineer

Aman Yadav is a Network Engineer at KamaAI, specializing in designing, implementing, and securing cloud-based network infrastructures. With expertise in AWS networking, network security, and performance optimization, Aman ensures seamless connectivity and robust security for mission-critical applications. His work focuses on enhancing network efficiency, reducing latency, and strengthening cloud security to support kama.ai’s cutting-edge AI solutions.

Before joining kama.ai, Aman gained experience in cybersecurity and IT support, working with organizations such as HCLTech and Toronto Metropolitan University. In these roles, he conducted vulnerability assessments, optimized SIEM tools to improve incident response times, and managed end-user IT services for large-scale environments. His ability to troubleshoot complex network issues and implement strategic security measures has contributed to increased system reliability and reduced downtime.

At kama.ai, Aman is responsible for maintaining and optimizing cloud networking infrastructure, enforcing security best practices, and conducting regular audits to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities. By leveraging tools like Datadog, AWS CloudWatch, and advanced access control mechanisms, he plays a key role in ensuring the scalability, security, and efficiency of kama.ai’s cloud environment.

Kaye Schatz

Marketing and Communications Coordinator

Kaye is a strategic communicator and knowledge manager at kama.ai, where she plays a pivotal role in shaping how the company communicates its vision for ethical, human-centered AI. Kaye brings a unique blend of marketing expertise and deep knowledge of curation to ensure kama.ai’s voice is clear, consistent, and aligned with its core values.

In her dual role, Kaye leads marketing and communications initiatives while managing the company’s internal and external knowledge systems. She is responsible for structuring and maintaining kama.ai’s Q&A frameworks, ensuring accurate, relevant, and human-informed responses are delivered across platforms. Her work helps bridge the gap between advanced AI technologies and real-world user needs, making complex ideas approachable and meaningful.

Kaye is driven by a passion for responsible innovation, contextual intelligence, and digital empathy. She believes AI should enhance the human experience, not replace it, and works every day to ensure kama.ai’s systems reflect that philosophy. Her efforts support not only the integrity of the brand, but also the trust users place in it.

Our Logo

The circle is a fundamental construct. It conveys the repetitive and progressive nature of the days and the cycle of the moon. It exemplifies our annual trip around the sun that causes the seasons, and the varied phases of our life’s journey. Our circle, with its imperfect brushstroke, represents the diverse and beautiful imperfections of life as well as the experiences we share with others. Ultimately, it symbolizes our wonderful, circular planet and all the good things on it that we must cherish. So too, the circle represents the cycle of designing, interacting, and learning facilitated by kama DEI.

The central figure in our logo represents all people. The body conveys the layers in our Designed Experiential Intelligence™ platform. The head represents the Emotional Intelligence emerging from the platform. When our platform is empowered by the experience and input of our customers and partners, together we create the Emotionally Intelligent agents that support our customers’ clients and our community members.

The lines of the body represent a multipurpose “E”. This reminds us that we are Emotional beings that grow from our own Experience and those of others too. It also reminds us that we must follow a path of Empathy and Ethics. This being true in all we do, in dealing with others, and in our case, in designing and developing our platform.