Was Rahman

Was Rahman – Professional & Personal Profile

Hi – thank you for visiting the AI Prescience website, I hope you’re finding it informative, useful and perhaps even enjoyable!

I set up AI Prescience to help business leaders improve business performance using AI.

A Little About Me Professionally

I’ve worked with executives at some of the world’s leading corporates over the years, including Virgin, British Airways, Unilever, Telstra, BT,  T-Mobil Poland, T-Mobil Hungary, Liberty Media, CMC Vellore Hospital, Shell, MOL (Hungarian oil major), RBS, ICICI Bank and H&R Block.

I’ve held leadership positions in global technology companies including Accenture, Wipro, Razorfish and Infosys. I’ve also worked with and for several startups, including two of my own, and have both raised VC funding and helped investors with due diligence. I’ve been an advisor and technology sector specialist for the UK government, a Founder Member of Cambridge Wireless and a TiE Charter Member and mentor. 

My AI qualifications have been carefully chosen, and are from what I regard as leading institutions in the spaces that matter to me. These include Stanford (Machine Learning), Johns Hopkins (Data Science) and deeplearning.ai (Deep Learning). I’ve also studied slightly more niche topics including H.V. Jagadish’s Data Science Ethics course at Michigan University, and Jordi Vallverdú’s fascinating programme on the Philosophy of Emotions at Barcelona’s UAB. I’m trained and certified in various disciplines at AWS and Google, and familiar with the Microsoft and IBM counterparts.

I’ve written and spoken extensively about technology and business, including papers in business and technology journals, a book on the history of the global IT services industry, and an introduction to IT for accountants. I’ve delivered conference keynotes and moderated panel discussions for organisations including FT, IoD, Cambridge Wireless, NASSCOM and TechUK. I’ve taught sessions at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, Cambridge’s Judge Business School and Coventry University, and attended the World Economic Forum’s inaugural Young Global Leaders event.

While my AI focus is business and strategy, I’m an unashamed geek, and was brought up in the era when understanding how technology works was part of learning how to use it effectively. In my time I’ve developed code generation and analysis tools, designed data structures and databases, and built computing and communications hardware. I’m literate (but no longer fluent) in a number of programming languages, databases and development environments. I build my prototypes and run my experiments on local Macs and/or AWS & GCP Linux cloud setups.

A Little About Me Personally

I was born and brought up in the UK, but have lived and worked in over a dozen countries across 4 continents. And following a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Antarctica with National Geographic in early 2019, I’ve now stepped foot on every continent!

My personal passions include music & hi-fi, photography & cameras, coffee & coffee making, and driving & classic cars. I also appreciate the written word in all its forms.

  • My musical tastes are eclectic, but what I know best is popular music of the 70’s and 80’s. I’ve built up a music system that started on my 16th birthday, and use it to listen to artists including Joan Armatrading, Stevie Wonder and David Bowie.
  • Like my music, my photography is mostly digital now, but I still enjoy analogue occasionally. My most recent work was recording the Antarctica journey.
  • If you were to visit me at home and ask for a cup of coffee, you’d have a choice of 7 different types of preparation, including vietnamese filter. The current favourite is an idiosyncratic, inconsistent but breathtakingly beautiful Pavoni Europiccola 🙂
  • I have a 1974 Alfa Spider which used to be everyday transport, but is now in need of complete overhaul. So daily transport is a plug-in hybrid until I can make the time to start a new long-term project properly.
  • I read almost anything, and my choice depends on my mood. I tend to have 2 or 3 books on the go at the same time, and enjoy Scottish crime fiction as much as I enjoy classic Russian literature. My favourite author varies over time, but Graham Greene is usually in the top 3.;

I’d be as interested to hear from you about any of these subjects as I would to know about your AI needs!