One day in 2024, software developer Hafizuddin Sharif Umar Sharif was looking for ideas to build an app as a personal project. He asked his wife, Nur Iffah Abdul Halim, if there was an app she wanted.
“She talked about how we have grocery items at home but by the time we decide what to cook, some of the ingredients may have already expired.
“She said, ‘If only there’s an app that could suggest what to make based on ingredients we have at the time’. And not just any random recipes but from creators or videos that she actually likes,” says Hafizuddin Sharif during an interview in Kuala Lumpur.
Not long after, the idea hit closer to home. While trying to recreate a tom yum pasta recipe from a social media video, Nur Iffah found herself constantly pausing, rewinding and replaying clips just to keep up with each step.
As he could hear Nur Iffah’s video looping in the kitchen, Hafizuddin Sharif realised that the issue wasn’t finding recipes: “Nowadays, most people turn to social media for recipe ideas. The ingredients and instructions are in the video, but there usually isn’t a clear, step-by-step guide you can follow while you’re cooking. You end up replaying the same video over and over.
“That’s when I thought, ‘What if I could extract the cooking information from the video and turn it into an easy-to-follow guide in an app?’”
So Hafizuddin Sharif decided to start developing the app for his wife.
“I have to decide on the app’s core features, with the first being the ability to import or extract recipes from social media platforms. Second is the meal planning feature so you can select a recipe to cook for a particular day and let the app generate a list of things to buy under Groceries. Then the third is the Browse feature to see recipes from content creators in Malaysia,” he adds.
He believes featuring recipes by local creators gives the app a unique flavour and helps set it apart from other recipe apps in the market.
It took about a year for Hafizuddin Sharif to develop the app, from writing the code to finding the right artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help with generating the recipes and ingredients list on the app. He also worked closely with his wife by incorporating her ideas and feedback.
“We named the app Kerisik: Recipe Manager. She has been an integral part of the development process. During the early prototype stage, I’d show her early versions of the app to get her feedback and to see if she was okay with the design and features. Essentially, I’d call her the product owner,” he says.
Kerisik: Recipe Manager was released to the public in 2025 and has been downloaded more than 10,000 times on the Google Play Store. Hafizuddin Sharif says the app has received positive feedback from users, particularly during Ramadan. “Remember when Khairulaming’s recipes for Ramadan went viral on social media?
“I saw users saying the app helped them buy the ingredients they needed and follow the recipes more conveniently. They thanked us for making cooking at home easier. It’s amazing to think that an app which has gone on to help so many people started with an idea from my wife,” he says.
Touch of code
Freelance software programmer Ahmad Saiful Bahri Mat Amin has spent years building applications such as digital systems for clients in the small and medium enterprise segment. But he had never thought of his wife as a client since he started freelancing in 2016.
Then one day, Ahmad Saiful Bahri found himself thinking about how he could help his wife, who would often spend evenings working on her lab reports after dinner time at home.
“She works at a hospital in Selangor where the test results are generated by different machines that have not been fully integrated into a single system. So she had to manually gather results from each machine and compile them into a report,” he says.
As the process can be time-consuming, Ahmad Saiful Bahri started looking into how he can help her automate the process.
“Why don’t I use AI to help my wife? Before AI, you could use OCR (optical character recognition) to scan a document and extract the text, but it did not understand what the text represented or what the document was about.
“With AI, the system can read and understand the document, identify important information and place it into the correct data fields. So when you ask it to enter the information into a system, it knows where each piece of information belongs,” says Ahmad Saiful Bahri.
Because the documents contain confidential lab data, he says that he set up a local AI model on his wife’s computer instead of relying on an online service.
He developed a program called AI Document Scanner, which runs on her PC, allowing her to upload a document, extract the relevant information using AI and generate a lab report without the data leaving the computer.
“This process that used to take her about an hour can now be done in less than 10 minutes. Of course, she still has to validate the data because I’ve told her AI can make mistakes. More importantly, she gets more time to rest at home,” he says, adding that the program, developed in 2024, is only for his wife.
Ahmad Saiful Bahri has also developed a web-based application called Certificate Generator to help his wife with her additional duties at work.
“She would help organise training sessions and then had to prepare certificates for participants. It was a time-consuming process because she had to manually key in each name.
“So I created this application for her, which allows users to create certificate templates, import participant names from an Excel spreadsheet or existing database, and automatically generate certificates. She can even use the tool to email the certificates directly to participants,” he says.
Certificate Generator has been released to the public in 2024 as well, where he would add new features based on responses.
The third solution he developed for his wife was designed to simplify expense tracking. It allows her to scan receipts, while AI reads the details and automatically categorises the spending to help manage finances.
The feature has become part of a web-based application called Invois.Online which is available for the public as well.
“I thought about how if it works well for my wife then it could be useful to others as well. So I released the apps, charging a monthly fee of around RM20 for users to get features like no limit on the number of times (one can) generate new files, and more storage space,” he adds.
Good vibes
At a cafe in Puchong, Selangor, self-professed full-time vibe coder Christopher Cheah Wen Feng is excited to share how he uses Cursor – an AI platform – to develop, test and review code that he can turn into a mobile app.
“Since AI became more accessible, I got to explore some tools and make apps that I personally want to use,” says Cheah, whose prior professional background was in the animation industry.
He explains that his process starts by talking to ChatGPT and sharing his ideas for an app with certain features or functionalities.
“Essentially, vibe coding is all about giving prompts. The AI will come up with a structure and from there we will start developing this app. I will test it on devices like my smartphone. AI can help you build an app in a short period of time but fast doesn’t mean good. So you have to keep testing and work with AI to figure out the flaws,” he says.
In 2025, Cheah shares that his wife Moon Hor had a health issue and was recommended surgery. At the time, she also needed to take medication regularly.
“My wife keeps forgetting to take her medicine on time. She also can’t remember if she already took them. Then she felt bad because her medication at the time was not cheap,” says Cheah.
He says that Hor tried some reminder-type apps but didn’t like how most of it looked and also didn’t want to pay to use the features.
“Then she asked if I can create an app with a similar feature,” he says.
He came up with Smart Reminder, an iOS app that pushes notifications for reminders such as when to drink water and of course, take medicine. There’s an extra feature to check off the task in the app once it’s completed. According to him, it was a simple app so it took only two days for him to develop and have the app ready for Hor.
“There’s real satisfaction in building an app that solves everyday problems, no matter how small. I think it’s wonderful to see my wife using the app,” he says.
At her request, Cheah says he has also developed CaloriAI, an app that uses AI to analyse calories and nutritional intake in food photos.
“Yes, there are other apps like this in the market. But she just wants something that is her own and I can develop it for free,” he laughs.
Cheah has also developed another app for his eight-year-old son, called SketchHanYu, to help him learn how to write and read Chinese characters.
“My son goes to a Chinese school and I made this to help him with his studies where it has an AI tool to recognise handwriting and audio features to help him pronounce the characters,” he says.
Cheah’s apps are available for other users to download for free in the Apple App Store.
“When you’re creating something that matters, you naturally want to share it with everyone. But I do recognise that there are already many similar apps out there. As I’m also not creating something truly special, keeping it free is a practical choice,” he says, adding that the apps come with ads.
Real value
While there is no cost for their wives to use the applications, the husbands say the projects still require ongoing investments in software subscriptions, web hosting and other development tools.
“There is some cost. For example, it’s only RM50 monthly to pay for web hosting. Of course, you have to pay a subscription fee for some of the AI tools if you want the more advanced features,” says Ahmad Saiful Bahri.
For Hafizuddin Sharif, one of the ongoing costs for Kerisik: Recipe Manager app is maintaining the server infrastructure that powers the app, processes user requests and supports its AI features.
“It goes through a server as you don’t want the user’s phone to do all that ‘heavy work’. The cost is about RM500 monthly,” says Hafizuddin Sharif, adding that Kerisik: Recipe Manager has a Pro plan with features for users to access the app on iPad.
He shares that the Pro plan costs RM5 monthly, or users can opt for a one-time payment of RM60.
As for Cheah, he says one of the biggest costs is to pay for the AI tools, particularly for access to advanced features.
“I also have to pay for the server costs for each project. Some have features that will autoscale the bandwidth to support more users. I pay about a few thousand ringgit per month. It’s not cheap as I’m also doing app development projects for clients, not just for maintaining the apps that my wife wants,” Cheah says.
Next, Cheah says his wife wants a gaming app.
“She likes those rush-style games in a kitchen setting and has actually paid to get features like extra time. So she said I should develop one for her. I think it’s an exciting project but it’s going to take time,” he adds.
For Ahmad Saiful Bahri, the experience with his wife has reinforced the importance of creating technology with a purpose by developing solutions that genuinely improve people’s lives.
“We’re always thinking about developing technology that we believe can help people. But we never really thought about whether it would actually benefit others beyond our own needs.
“When I see hundreds of people using the applications I developed for my wife, I realise that I’m not just helping her, but others as well. I’m really thankful to my wife because she’s the reason I had these ideas,” he says.
As for Nur Iffah, she never expected her husband to develop Kerisik: Recipe Manager app or any other tools for her.
“When he first showed me the app, he said ‘Sayang, look at what I’ve made’, and I was impressed. I was also touched to know that he would integrate my feedback or preferences into his work,” she adds.
Nur Iffah says the app is “perfect” and has no notes for additional features, adding that she’s also aware that her husband is currently working on another app.
“So I want him to just focus on that,” she adds.
But Hafizuddin Sharif says he’s always open to new ideas or feedback for the app he made for her.
“My wife is my No. 1 user. If there’s anything she wants, I’ll get to work right away!”
