# João Diogo Falcão

> João Diogo Falcão, known as JD, is the technical co-founder and CEO of AiFi. A Cornell robotics graduate and Carnegie Mellon PhD, he led AiFi’s engineering and spatial AI development before becoming CEO in September 2025. His work connects computer vision research with autonomous retail and the broader ambition to make physical spaces searchable.

- **Role:** Technical co-founder and CEO at AiFi Inc.
- **Organizations:** AiFi Inc., Carnegie Mellon University, Xilinx, AFM Tech
- **Education:** Bachelor’s degree, Instituto Superior Técnico, Master of Engineering; robotics, Cornell University, PhD; focus on cyber-physical systems, Carnegie Mellon University, Silicon Valley
- **Known for:** 2024 Progressive Grocer GenNext Award honoree., Led development of AiFi’s proprietary spatial AI platform and engineering teams., Co-organized the inaugural AutoCheckout Competition in 2020 with researchers from AiFi, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford and UC Merced.

## Career timeline

- **2014-2017** — Research assistant at Carnegie Mellon University.
- **2017** — Photographed with a drone for CMU’s VIPER research project; joined AiFi as Software Engineer and Technology Lead in November.
- **2018** — Became Director of Engineering in July; co-authored research on wireless emergency alerts.
- **2019** — Became VP of Engineering in January.
- **2020** — Became CTO in October; helped organize the inaugural AutoCheckout Competition; co-authored the FAIM inventory-monitoring paper.
- **2024** — Named a Progressive Grocer GenNext honoree.
- **2025** — Appointed CEO on September 10, succeeding Steve Carlin.

## Achievements

- 2024 Progressive Grocer GenNext Award honoree.
- Led development of AiFi’s proprietary spatial AI platform and engineering teams.
- Co-organized the inaugural AutoCheckout Competition in 2020 with researchers from AiFi, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford and UC Merced.
- Co-authored peer-reviewed work on autonomous inventory monitoring and wireless emergency alerts.

## Latest updates

- **2025-09** — AiFi announced his appointment as CEO on September 10.
- **2026-04** — Microsoft profiled AiFi’s Azure-based spatial intelligence platform, reporting more than 370 deployments, 40 clients and more than 60 million human interactions analyzed monthly.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaodfalcao

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/joao-diogo-falcao
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-13