Be My Eyes — Microvolunteering Video Assistance for Blind and Low-Vision People, from Volunteers to AI

Be My Eyes was conceived by Hans Jørgen Wiberg, who has a visual impairment, with the Danish Association of the Blind, presented at a Danish start-up event in 2012 and released in January 2015. A blind user calls through the app and is connected to the first available sighted volunteer, who sees the camera feed and helps with tasks such as checking expiry dates. Wiberg calls the approach microvolunteering.
Reported scale has grown from about 200,000 volunteers and 18,000 blind users (Irish Times, 2015) to the company's own figures of over 750,000 blind and low-vision users and 8.3 million volunteers in January 2025. In March 2023 it launched Be My AI, based on OpenAI's GPT-4, reported as used one million times within weeks; the app has also added partner call channels such as Microsoft and Hilton. The company raised 2.8 million USD in Series A funding in February 2020.
Caveats: early coverage noted long waiting times despite more volunteers than users, and the app was criticised for insufficient data protection that allowed passing data to third parties. Most figures are company-reported; independent outcome evaluation is limited.

Read the full analysis: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/be-my-eyes-an-app-that-sees-for-two-1.2255997