Root Ally AI Detection

Democratizing Asymmetric Price Valuation through Accessible AI Valuation Technology

Impact

In Sierra Leone’s diamond fields, miners often sell their finds for a fraction of the market value, lacking the mineral literacy tools to assess their worth. Root Ally app seeks to change this condition by using a smartphone-based diamond valuation tool that works offline and requires only photos and videos to provide market estimates. It combines computer vision with simplified gemological metrics, making complex valuations accessible to users with limited technical literacy. By placing professional-grade valuation in miners’ pockets, the intervention aims to help over 5,000 artisanal miners in Kono secure fairer prices, with a potential of 30-40% higher transaction values.

My Role

I led the research and product design of the app AI-powered diamond scanning technology from my extensive six years in researching mining communities to understand miners’ daily challenges.

Confidentiality: Proprietary AI technology and partner relationships are confidential pending app launch. The key metrics and outcomes remain inaccessible, and sensitive implementation details are omitted.

Project Duration: August 2024 – Present
Key Partners: GIA (Gemological Institute of America), Root Studios, Pact
Team: Fas Lebbi, Jonathan Chapman, Cristina Villegas, Maarten De Witte, Mickey Birkshire, Ibrahim Bockarie

Problem Context

Diamond valuation has historically favored buyers, not miners. In Sierra Leone’s artisanal mining communities, this information gap leads to systematic undervaluation due to the asymmetry in the valuation process. Existing tools such as DiamondMaster and CARATRATE cater to dealers and traders, requiring extensive gemological knowledge, subscription fees, and stable Internet, which most miners lack. Our early research revealed that most miners owned smartphones but lacked practical ways to assess their finds. Professional scanning systems do not exist in remote areas and, when available, are discreetly used. In some cases, they are in major trading centers, limited to Sierra Leone, but security risks and travel costs make them inaccessible. Root Foundation, the company launching this app, aims to build a local grading and valuation office as an embedded ally approach while engaging in potential partnerships with Pact and GIA. Through community-led discussions with miners about the local grading and valuation office in Kono, the Root Ally app emerged, shifting from a centralized valuation office concept to a decentralized mobile solution. This addresses security concerns raised by local miners, protects Root Foundation agents and office safety, decentralizes the accessibility of market prices, and puts them in miners’ pockets.

Design Solution

The app democratizes diamond valuation using AI-powered mobile technology that enables miners to independently assess rough diamonds, their market value, and potential yield analysis. The solution combines offline smartphone scanning for live capture photography and videos, using AI to analyze photos and videos to provide reliable market value estimates without requiring Internet connectivity. It prioritizes accessibility and usability for miners with limited technical knowledge by simplifying professional assessment principles into clear steps that anyone can follow.

Miner input specific details about their diamond or choose to skip to begin a procedure to scan or take a photo of their diamond.

Detecting and scanning the diamond for evaluation.

Capturing photos for the diamond for evaluation.

The right screen confirms s successful diamond image/video captured from multiple angles, with the option to find the estimated value.

The left estimates the diamond's yield potential for cutting. The right shows a cross-section with key measurements like table width and crown angles, facet pattern from above, and the diamond's estimated value.

Diamond valuation flow—from initial AI-powered real-time detection to market assessment and report generation.

My Appraoch

As a system designer, the central axiom of this research acknowledges that most systems are designed to be exclusionary, and the designer’s role is to democratize systems that marginalize and oppress the vulnerable. This principle, which is at the core of identifying our leverage points within the system, advocates for democratizing access to a decentralized mobile solution serving actors within the system that are at the bottom of the supply chain and historically marginalized. Our research and design decisions prioritize accessibility, transparency, and immediate value for miners previously excluded from fair market participation. This aligns with the Participatory Technology Development framework, which focuses on equity, inclusion, and meaningful stakeholder engagement throughout the technology development process. For this project, we’ve prioritized transparency, respect, partnership, two-way knowledge exchange, and capacity building—core principles that guide our work with miners.

Design Process

1. Baseline Information

Early fieldwork showed that smartphones were common in Kono and Sierra Leone, but technical literacy varied among miners. Traditional diamond assessment tools such as Diamond Master and CARATRATE served dealers, requiring specialized gemological expertise and costly subscriptions. Market analysis showed that professional solutions, such as Sarine’s scanning technology, made diamond valuation feasible but inaccessible to miners. Security concerns made centralized valuation facilities impractical, and the combined factors of understanding the socioeconomic challenges within Kono’s mining communities, along with the supply chain power imbalances and miners’ technological capabilities, all helped in grounding our approach within the local context.

2. Design Research & Strategy

I employed a mixed-methods approach, using a participatory technology development approach to research and contextual interviews with miners across various sites. These sessions revealed their workflows, pain points, and technology usage patterns. Participatory design workshops with 25 miners helped reveal the diamond assessment knowledge gaps and barriers miners faced. Collaboration with gemological experts helped distill complex valuation principles into accessible interactions.

3. Summary of Findings

Research findings revealed knowledge fragmentation in miners’ relationships with diamond valuation. While miners shared basic diamond knowledge, they struggled to link these qualities to market value and optimal cutting strategies. This gap perpetuates power imbalances when middlemen such as local dealers and foreign buyers exploit this information asymmetry. This study identified some barriers to fair valuations. These include:

Limited technical literacy despite smartphone access
Intermittent connectivity in remote mining sites
Deep mistrust of centralized valuation systems due to historical exploitation
Reliance on local pricing networks that often undervalue stones by 30-70%

Working with gemologists and miners, we developed three strategic pillars:

Simplified Interface Design with visual-first interactions requiring minimal technical knowledge, translating complex gemological concepts into intuitive assessments.
Built with an offline-first architecture ensuring accessibility in remote regions through locally cached data and full functionality without internet connectivity.
Integrating viewing, imaging, and pricing into a unified AI-powered analysis system democratizes valuation expertise and translates simplified inputs into trustworthy price estimates that miners can leverage during negotiations.

4. Prototyping & Implementation Strategy

Conceptual and experience design flows, starting with basic wireframes, were tested with miners to understand our intervention within infrastructure limitations and cultural contexts. The initial prototypes highlighted the need for clear visual guidance during diamond scanning and clear value reports suitable for mining conditions. Current tests focus on the offline optimization of the AI model for mobile devices that can be installed in our office. Enhanced features refined from miner feedback include real-time visual guidance for optimal image and video capture, automated value estimation using Rappaport data translated into simpler understanding, and downloadable reports for negotiation support. Limited AI literacy suggests a 50-80% accuracy rate in field conditions but can still have successful use cases with a simplified UI assessment approach. Successful implementation may indicate new opportunities for technology transfers that can expand functionality to other minerals, such as diamond and gold, in place-based content, potentially benefiting artisanal mining communities.

Reflections & Impact

Impact (Short-term)

By making professional valuations accessible through smartphones, we hope to help miners become more informed participants in the diamond trade, reshaping local diamond markets, improving knowledge-sharing networks among miners–and addressing deeply rooted market inequities. The deployment of this offline app aims to equip over 5,000 miners with independent valuation capabilities that will increase their confidence in price negotiations.

Impact (Long-term)

Successful short-term impacts can improve global discussions of fair market access. The technology framework provides a foundation for expanding into other gemstones and minerals, potentially impacting millions of artisanal miners globally for similar small-scale interventions across the artisanal mining sector in different regions. Due to these design interventions, more burden will be put on buyers and dealers who have had the upper hand with knowledge asymmetry to market pricing and will be forced to adjust practices to accommodate more informed miners working with apps. As with any other system, with this change, I acknowledge the feedback loop of bad actors. This reinforces one of my key attributes of any acts of design being practiced–that “design” always distributes burdens and benefits to its actors within the designed system.

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Fas Lebbie