PlantPal is an innovative iOS app designed to identify plants and provide AI-powered care advice through on-device processing, eliminating the need for internet connectivity and ensuring user privacy. The app leverages Couchbase vector search, MobileCLIP, and Apple's on-device AI frameworks to deliver instant and accurate plant identification and personalized care recommendations. The development journey included overcoming challenges such as reducing the app's size from 800MB to 14MB by pre-computing plant embeddings, migrating to MobileCLIP for improved accuracy in distinguishing similar plants, and implementing Couchbase's vector search for efficient similarity matching. PlantPal exemplifies how sophisticated AI applications can be developed with a focus on local processing, privacy, and performance optimization, achieving a seamless user experience without relying on cloud servers.