Alexio Vay is a German software engineer who builds AI-powered products and the web and mobile systems around them, with a focus on performance and scalable architecture.
His Italian mother taught him to look at art on museum visits, and he started drawing early.
At 13 he turned pencil sketches into pixels and built his first hand-coded websites.
He learned mostly from books and by reading other people's source code, and he still works that way: keeping up with new technology is part of the job.
Applied AI is where most of his work goes today. He built a model-agnostic AI layer that can run on Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenAI, Groq or AssemblyAI, and the pipelines around it: speech transcription, OCR and document analysis, AI image detection and face detection. They power live products such as DocDee, AudioCap and FakeScan.
His iOS apps on the App Store include SlipDee, Walk2Wake, MemoTap and WallCube.
Open source on GitHub: docqa, a document Q&A service with hybrid retrieval in PostgreSQL, a LangGraph pipeline that cites its sources or declines to answer, Langfuse tracing and an eval harness that gates CI.
Starting small with personal pages and early commissions taught him to ship reliably and also strengthened his business skills.
That path became 
VayDesign, the independent studio he founded while studying Computer Science at school Humboldt University of Berlin,
one of Germany’s leading universities. His business proved sufficiently lucrative that, after graduation, he chose to continue running the studio full time.
Established 2005 in Berlin
20+ years of experience. He started in the entertainment industry, building complete websites for models, photographers and local businesses such as restaurants and real estate agencies.
That grew into work for 
Mercedes-Benz, 
Lufthansa, 
Delivery Hero, 
IKEA and other large organizations, from interface design and application logic to migrating legacy systems and hardening infrastructure, across web and mobile.
He favors small, testable components and reuse:
evaluating pros and cons early, mapping database schemas and application architecture in depth to avoid any unforeseen consequences.
These practices improved Core Web Vitals metrics (LCP, INP, CLS), reduced server and client response times, lowered abandonment rates, and increased conversion rates.
The same approach supports large-scale migrations and integrations, from full legacy rewrites to incremental, zero-downtime rollouts, critical for systems that cannot afford service interruptions.
Furthermore, he values teamwork and open communication, preferring close collaboration and experienced in pair programming,
code reviews and cross-functional delivery. He also communicates technical trade-offs clearly to non-technical stakeholders and
collaborates internationally in German, English and Italian, while applying basic Thai and Mandarin when useful.
A curated set of project highlights is shown above. While logos provide a visual reference,
several engagements are confidential or not published at the client’s request; many smaller or private commissions are therefore not listed.
For in-depth case studies, technology stacks and measurable outcomes, visit vaydesign.com.
Multi-Cultural Personality
Alexio was born to a Thai father and an Italian mother while being born in Germany,
thus he grew up with the influence of three different cultures.
From his father’s strict Asian upbringing he learned to work hard, stay disciplined and be resilient,
being taught nothing in life is simply given.
From his mother he inherited warmth, deep empathy and a vivid imaginative sense, he instinctively pictures scenes and moments in his mind,
which helps him read situations and understand people quickly.
This combination of visual thinking and emotional sensitivity shapes how he perceives, communicates and builds relationships.
Raised between Thai and Italian family tables, Alexio learned that cooking is first and foremost about people.
Thai homes taught him hospitality, generosity and the instinct to feed others;
Italian meals taught him patience, respect for simple ingredients and the ritual of gathering.
For him, every recipe is an invitation: a way to connect and to turn ordinary moments into shared memories.
Therefore he shares his passion and cooking inspiration on 
youtube.com/@alexiovay with authentic and honest recipes presented
with aesthetic edits that highlight the love for food, sometimes spending up to 12 hours filming, scripting and editing
to craft a single 30-second short, a quiet measure of his dedication.
Alexio grew up in Germany and, because of his mixed appearance, often experienced a sense of exclusion.
The computer became his refuge and the foundation of a lasting passion for the digital world.
He didn’t always get the chance to prove his abilities right away, but once his work and references spoke for themselves,
recognition followed, and he kept pushing, learning beyond what school required and turning that extra effort into real capability.
A one-year solo trip through 30+ countries taught him that the best experiences come from local recommendations.
AskLocals was built out of that journey, the most ambitious solo-project he has developed so far.
His goal was to let people share the same authentic value of local insight even without traveling the world themselves, ideal for expats, people curious about specific locations, and of course travelers.
The project deepened his cultural awareness and sparked a lasting passion for languages.
While he already masters numerous programming languages, he keeps expanding his spoken languages such as Thai and Mandarin,
using every free moment productively to master them.
For him, learning is a continuous path that enriches both his craft in code and his ability to connect with people.
Naturally, these experiences often lead to recurring questions about his background, work and approach, a few of the most common ones are answered below.
