Pain points we solved

The brief

Valio Aimo wants an open way for kitchens’ buying software to look up products, lock a price, and get clear human approval, without exposing real systems or locking everyone into one closed platform.

“I need 1,000 litres of lactose-free milk by Monday.”

We built the full brief, not a chat window pretending to be the webshop.

We listened to your pain points

1

A full working pathAsk → cart → sign → order → audit on aimoassist.com.

2

Real kitchen needDishes and guests, not SKUs. Web, Telegram, voice, photo.

3

Clear controlsFifteen rules · order alone / ask / stop · 29/29 attacks blocked.

4

Tough exceptionsDelivery risk, carbon, substitutes, stock-outs, allergens.

5

An open pathOpen standards · written assumptions · clear next steps.

1 · Working path

1. A full working path

One continuous path you can run on the site:

1. Type (or speak, or photograph) what you need
2. Get signed prices and stock
3. See which lines order alone, which need a person, which stop
4. Human client signs → signed order confirmation
5. Open the audit log and verify the chain

Hero ask	“120 guests tomorrow, 20 vegan” · ~20 lines · ~€562
Alone / ask	17 lines alone · 3 need a person (+ order over €500)
Time	~10 s live · ~1 s replayed
Try it	aimoassist.com

11/11Done. cartId sent; the client opens the cart.

2 · Kitchen need

2. Real kitchen need

Kitchens think in dishes and guests, not product codes.

• Menu and headcount become pack sizes automatically
• You only review lines that need a decision
• Order from the website or Telegram (text, voice, photo)
• Each kitchen keeps its own diet, dishes, and standing orders
• The cart shows savings against the usual order

Demo kitchens: Hotel Aurora (hotel) and Koulu Kaarna (strict school allergens).

3 · Controls

3. Clear controls

Control	In practice
Permission slip	Human sets budgets, diet, and signing limits
Fifteen rules	Same checks in the kitchen app and at Valio’s door
Three outcomes	Order alone · ask a person · stop, each with a sentence
Approvals	Cryptographically signed, tied to exact products and amounts
Learning	Remembers prefs and portions, and never changes diet or budget alone
Proof	29 / 29 attack cases refused

9/9PolicyResult: outcome needs_approval (the worst line), each line with its reasons, the order's reasons, and the rules skipped for lack of data.

4 · Exceptions

4. Tough exceptions

When	What happens
Delivery looks risky	On-time score on every line; kitchen sets the bar
Sustainability matters	Carbon and labels; “greenest” mode
Stock is short or late	Try another product, earlier day, split, then ask
Stock fails after ordering	Watch and re-quote before cut-off
Allergens	School-strict rules; substitutes cannot sneak in new allergens
Someone tries to cheat	Attack tests + Valio re-checks every order

Mode

hard deadline critical lineusual product arrives late by 0 daysOTIF bar from the slip: 0.95

Candidate	dateOk	stock	fill	OTIF	cost	fit	carbon	nutrition	total
Usual cream, stocked pick €58.20 · 21.6 kg CO₂e · stock confirmed	1.00	0.99	0.97	0.96	0.86	1.00	0.29	0.76	0.853
Cheaper cream, supplier €49.90 · 22.1 kg CO₂e · stock unconfirmed	1.00	0.85	0.93	0.79 below bar → exceptions, then OTIF check	1.00	0.50	0.29	0.73	0.724
Oat cream, plant-based €61.50 · 6.3 kg CO₂e · stock confirmed	1.00	0.95	0.95	0.90 below bar → exceptions, then OTIF check	0.81	0.50	1.00	1.00	0.794

Weights for balanced: cost 0.3, OTIF 0.25, fit 0.25, carbon 0.1, nutrition 0.1. Modes change weights, never constraints: diet rules, budget and the OTIF bar always apply.

5 · Open path

5. An open path

Other companies’ software can buy through the same door we use:

• Documented web API
• Open connector (MCP) with the same operations
• Public keys so anyone can verify a price or order
• Written assumptions (credit limit, minimum order)
• A clear roadmap: stronger database, better search, clearer operations monitoring

See Open connector · Tech stack.

What the brief asked for

Ask	We shipped
Structured lookup	Search + signed quotes
Inquiry → fixed price order	Offer (up to 15 minutes) → order → confirmation
Permissions and approval	Slip · fifteen rules · signed approvals
Delivery and sustainability	On-time risk · carbon · greenest mode
Substitution and exceptions	Fallback steps · curated substitutes · stock watch
Traceability	Readable audit trail both sides can verify

Who was worried about what

Who	Worry	What we did
Kitchen	Overspend or wrong allergens	Signed slip; diet always loaded; review only exceptions
Buyer software	Fake or stale prices	Signed offers that expire
Valio Aimo	A closed middleman	Valio runs AimoGuard; anyone can connect

We did not build yet: a marketplace, a chatbot as the webshop, a trained shortage model (no history yet), or a proactive Valio sales bot. See Future work.