Cherie Young
I build at the place where technology meets the nervous system.
Voice agents that know someone vulnerable might be calling. Tools that regulate instead of overwhelm. Systems designed with the knowledge that a human body, with a history, a threshold, a need to feel heard, is always on the other end.
My work lives at the convergence of artificial intelligence, psychology, human-centered design, and presence. Not because those things were combined deliberately, but because I cannot think about one without the others.
This is what I make. This is why it feels different.
Field work
Just Before
Nervous system regulation tool. justbefore.ca
The question that built this was not “what should people do when they’re overwhelmed?” It was “what are they already doing, and can we make space for that?” Just Before is a 90-second reset built around anapana breath awareness, the simple act of noticing the breath without changing it. Three pillars: Work, Relationships, Study. Every editorial decision filtered through one question: does this tell the user how they should be, or does it reflect what they’re already doing? The technology is simple. The philosophy behind it took years.
Voice Architecture
AI voice agents for healthcare and local business. Ajax Web AI
Most AI phone systems are built to sound impressive in a demo. This one was built knowing that the person calling might be scared, confused, or in pain. The architecture handles seven industry verticals with surgical routing, PHIPA and PIPEDA compliance, crisis guardrails with Ontario-specific resources, and after-hours urgency detection. Haven, the health navigation agent, was built with one question underneath every decision: what does it feel like to call when you don’t know who else to reach? The difference between a template system and this one is not the technology. It’s the awareness that a human nervous system is always on the other end.
Nothing Missing
A mirror. Published May 2026
This book was written to be found, not sold. The original vision was park benches — leaving copies for the right people to discover. What shifted wasn’t the intention but the grip on it. Releasing it to Amazon meant releasing the idea that arrival had to look a certain way. Published on a holiday Monday, outside, under an umbrella, birds and music and seeds falling from trees. Living the exact texture the book emerged from. Sometimes the work and the life it describes become the same moment.
