DUBAI: Twenty-six years in the corner office, and now a start-up of his own. Nikhil Gandhi, a veteran of TikTok, MX Player, The Walt Disney Company and Times Network, has launched VYYB AI Technologies Ltd, a venture that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help commercial spaces manage sensory experiences more intelligently. The first target is as ordinary as it is everywhere: the music playing in the background.
VYYB AI is headquartered at the DIFC Dubai AI Campus and is beginning its journey in the UAE, with commercial background music as its first area of focus. The launch marks Gandhi’s shift from leading businesses across media and technology to building a company of his own. He draws on his experience in user growth, monetisation, advertising, distribution and commercial strategy.
The pedigree is worth a pause. Gandhi has held senior leadership roles at digital platforms and media businesses, and that work exposed him to different business models, changing consumer behaviour and the part technology can play in helping businesses grow and engage with their audiences. In 2026, he also completed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Applied Agentic AI programme. Few founders arrive with both a media operator’s instincts and a fresh grounding in agentic AI.
Now the idea, and it is a sharp one. Businesses spend heavily on the design and visual identity of their spaces, yet background music, temperature and scent are often managed independently. VYYB AI aims to explore how AI can make these elements more responsive to the context and requirements of a commercial establishment. Look at the places where people work, shop, dine and spend time, and the logic is hard to miss: a space is experienced through all the senses, not just the eyes.
The product plan is tidy. The first offering, VYYB SONIC (https://vyybai.com/sonic), focuses on AI-powered commercial background music management. VYYB ATMOS, for climate optimisation, and VYYB AURA, for contextual scenting, are in development. Over the longer term, the company envisions bringing these capabilities together through a proposed VYYB AMBIENCE platform. Starting with one sense, proving it, then stitching the others in is a sensible way to build a platform.
Gandhi frames it as an extension of his career. “Throughout my career, I have seen how technology can change the way businesses operate and engage with people,” he said. “With VYYB AI, I saw an opportunity to apply that thinking to physical spaces, an area where I believe there is still considerable scope for innovation.”
He is clear about the ambition, and the address. “VYYB AI is made in the UAE and built for the world,” he added. “We are building from Dubai with a clear ambition to help commercial spaces become more responsive to their customers and more consistent with their brand. We begin with music through VYYB SONIC, with each solution grounded in what operators can use in their own venues.”
The analysis is straightforward. Digital businesses have spent two decades learning how to tune the online experience to each user. VYYB AI wants to bring some of that thinking to the physical world, starting where retail and hospitality operators can see results most easily. The company is initially exploring opportunities across commercial environments, including retail and hospitality. The focus on what operators can use in their own venues suggests a product built for practical use, not for show. For a founder who has spent more than a quarter of a century watching what audiences respond to, the bet is that the next frontier is the room itself.
