Why AIEYU
AI for human systems, grounded in human stories.
We didn't start with a pitch deck.
We started with a shared problem — and the lived experience to recognize it.
From child welfare to workforce training, from casework to community care — every member of the AIEYU founding team spent years inside the systems we now build for. We've worn the badges, heard the stories, buried the PDFs, and lost hours to processes that should've taken minutes.
We didn't meet in a venture studio.
We met in back offices, conference rooms, and after-hours calls — all asking the same thing:
"Why is the tech built to help people always the last to get help itself?"
That question became a blueprint.
The Problem
The social safety net is running on broken infrastructure.
Human services — housing, child welfare, behavioral health, care navigation — still rely on:
- • siloed case notes
- • fragile spreadsheets
- • systems not designed for families or field teams
These aren't just UX problems. They're trust problems.
And trust — unlike tech — can't be retrofitted.
What We're Building
AIEYU is building the public stack for human services.
We're creating an interoperable, community-informed suite of tools that helps agencies, families, and frontline professionals move from chaos to clarity.
Lexi (Pathway Navigator)
Adaptive AI for families and caseworkers, surfacing personalized next steps from complex eligibility and benefit systems.
Agency Intelligence
Real-time dashboards for systemic insight and accountability.
Blockchain Identity (TrustGraph)
Secure, portable documentation so families don't start from zero every time.
Immersive VR Training
Scenario-based learning for emotional intelligence and workforce resilience.
Predictive Signal Layer
AI that anticipates risk and burnout, rather than reacting too late.
Collaboration Hub
Seamless coordination between agencies without the email ping-pong.
Together, these tools form a modular OS for public systems — deployable individually, powerful together.
Looking Ahead
AI's potential is no longer abstract.
But without grounding in real-world context, it risks reinforcing the very systems it's meant to transform.
We believe the future of AI in public infrastructure must be:
- • Built with the communities it serves
- • Auditable, transparent, and ethically deployed
- • Designed not just for scale, but for resilience
We're not chasing the next unicorn trend.
We're building foundational infrastructure that can outlast any hype cycle.
And because of our lived experience — and our technical depth — we're positioned like no one else to do it.
Our Commitment
Co-design over extraction
Every prototype is informed by community voice and frontline feedback.
Impact over optics
If it doesn't work for the field, we don't ship it.
Open collaboration
We partner across public and private sectors to test, iterate, and deploy what works.
Our Team
Our founding team blends deep frontline experience with elite technical capability:
Derrick Stephens, MBA, LCSW, QS
Innovation leader and former foster youth turned systems reformer. Faculty at Florida State University.
Stephanie Ruiz
Veteran casework systems strategist with over 20 years in human services transformation.
Shane Cupid
AI and data engineer, ex-DoD, passionate about automating impact and making advanced tech accessible to underserved communities.
Erik Cooper
Full-stack and ML engineer, committed to building for his hometown and beyond.
We didn't just assemble a team.
We aligned a mission.
What Comes Next
AIEYU isn't a product. It's a movement.
A rethinking of how we build, deliver, and scale care in the 21st century.
We're currently working with public agencies, nonprofits, and innovators to deploy early pilots — with more partnerships in progress.
As we grow, we'll scale our platform thoughtfully — always grounded in the people and programs who trusted us first.
This is infrastructure for dignity, not disruption.
Let's build it — together.
Want to learn more?
Follow our progress. Join our movement.
Or come build the future of human systems with us.