AI Virtual Assistant for African SMEs
# AIVA
### AI Virtual Assistant — a business operating system for African SMEs
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## ⚠️ Project status
**This repository documents the planned AIVA platform. It is a pre-MVP, architecture-and-vision-stage project — none of the backend, automation, or AI layers described below are built yet.**
| Component | Status |
|---|---|
| Public landing page + waitlist | ✅ **Shipped** — see `aiva-landing` |
| WhatsApp Cloud API integration | 🚧 Planned |
| AI conversation engine (OpenAI) | 🚧 Planned |
| n8n automation workflows | 🚧 Planned |
| CRM / lead management | 🚧 Planned |
| Appointment booking | 🚧 Planned |
| Analytics dashboard | 🚧 Planned |
| Voice AI agents | 🚧 Planned (Phase 3) |
Everything in this document past this point — architecture, API surface, database schema, deployment pipeline — describes the **target design**, not shipped functionality. See `CHANGELOG.md` for what's actually been built, and `ROADMAP.md` for the build sequence.
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## Overview
AIVA is an AI-powered business operating system built specifically for African SMEs. Unlike a standalone chatbot, AIVA is designed to combine several capabilities that SMEs otherwise stitch together from separate tools:
- **AI Communication** — natural-language conversations with customers over WhatsApp (and later, other channels)
- **Business Automation** — no-code/low-code workflows that handle repetitive tasks
- **CRM Intelligence** — lead capture, qualification, and follow-up without manual tracking
- **Knowledge Base** — a business's prices, catalog, and policies made queryable by the AI
- **AI Voice Agents** — voice-based customer interaction (future phase)
- **Analytics** — visibility into conversations, leads, and conversion
- **Lead Management** — structured pipeline from first message to paying customer
- **Appointment Booking** — scheduling without back-and-forth messaging
The plan is to ship a lightweight, WhatsApp-first MVP first, validate it with real vendors (starting with hair, wig & …