AA Ali Ahmed Awan Product · AI · Process
Product leader · AI builder · Lahore, Pakistan

Ali Ahmed Awan

I build AI-driven products that solve real problems, and the teams and habits that keep them shipping.

For ten years I've taken products from a blank page to paying users, and from one market to the next. Today I lead an AI-first product portfolio, build my own venture, and help other teams put AI to work.

  • 01Product leaderIn-house or fractional
  • 02Product consultantZero to one, growth, new markets
  • 03AI transformation partnerFrom use case to production
  • 04Agile & process coachA way of working that ships
Start a conversation See my work LinkedIn
Ali Ahmed Awan working at a laptop in a sunlit café
4 AI-first products
Right now Founder, Ovela Health Making medical travel to Pakistan safe and simple for international patients. Lead Product Manager, Xcellerant Ventures Running four AI-first products, from idea to market.
10+ years turning ideas into products people use and pay for
5 markets Pakistan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, West Africa and the US
−38% AI running costs, with better output quality
4× revenue from Saudi Arabia in a year, after The ENTERTAINER's launch there
How I work

Find the real problem. Prove the fix fast. Build a team that keeps going.

I started out as a business analyst in Lahore, turning customer conversations into wireframes. The products got bigger (portfolios, new countries, production AI), but the instinct hasn't changed. These four ideas guide every engagement.

Product first, always

Continuous discovery, a clear roadmap and fast validation. Every sprint should trace back to something a real user needs.

Where AI earns its keep

I build with the models myself, prototyping alongside engineers to cut validation time and running costs.

Growth through insight

Data tells you what happened; users tell you why. I pair the two to move acquisition, retention and revenue.

Teams that ship

Crisp goals, honest reviews and a culture where design, engineering and business pull in the same direction.

Services

Four ways we can work together.

Inside your team as a product leader, or alongside it as an advisor. Same toolkit, sized to what you need.

01

Product leadership

When you need someone to own the product (the vision, the roadmap, the numbers and the team behind them).

  • A portfolio strategy with one clear north-star metric
  • Discovery and delivery side by side, with MVPs live in under 90 days
  • Hiring and coaching PMs, designers and engineers
In practice I built and lead a 17-person AI product team at Xcellerant Ventures.
02

Product consulting

When a big decision is on the table (a new product, a pricing change, a new market) and you want it pressure-tested.

  • Zero-to-one strategy and positioning
  • Pricing, freemium and subscription models
  • Entering a new market without copy-pasting the old playbook
In practice A move to freemium at The ENTERTAINER doubled paid conversion, from 13% to 26%.
03

AI transformation

When you know AI matters, but not yet where it pays off, or how to use it safely.

  • Finding the use cases worth building
  • Choosing models, connecting them to your data, keeping costs in check
  • Hands-on training, so your team actually uses it
In practice 38% lower AI running costs across a product portfolio, with better output, not worse.
04

Agile & process

When the team is busy, but not shipping what matters most.

  • Clear rules for discovery, prioritization and specs
  • Smooth handoffs from design to QA to release
  • Goals, reviews and rituals that stick after I leave
In practice I designed PakWheels' product process end to end, across three markets.
Selected work

The stories behind the numbers.

A few of the products I've led: what was at stake, what I did, and what changed.

My venture Ovela Health · 2025–now

Making medical travel to Pakistan feel safe and simple

Ovela connects international patients with accredited hospitals and specialists in Pakistan. Instead of launching broad, I started with one specialty, dental care, and designed a concierge service that matches every patient to the right specialist for their budget, so we compete on trust, not just price.

Visit ovela.live
Dentalone specialty first, to concentrate demand and prove the model
3 tierseconomy, standard and premium care, matched by a concierge
JCIaccredited hospital and specialist partners
Xcellerant Ventures 2023–now

Four AI products, one repeatable playbook

I run FastRead.io, Myautobio, Clintwin/Medsim AI and Formulai. Each goes from idea to market in under 90 days, then earns its growth through small, fast experiments.

3% → 11%FastRead.io paid conversion, in one quarter
−38%AI running costs
80%+of new features adopted by users at launch
AI products Product-led growth
The ENTERTAINER · Dubai 2020–22

Getting people to pay, and to stay

I moved a popular lifestyle app from free trial to freemium, replaced one-off purchases with subscriptions, rebuilt the experience around 40+ customer interviews, and took it into Saudi Arabia.

13% → 26%paid conversion
33% → 42%customer retention
3.4 → 4.5app store rating
Subscriptions Consumer apps
Tribal Health · US 2024–25

Off expensive legacy software, into the AI era

A healthcare staffing business was running on a costly legacy Salesforce setup. I led a four-month move to a modern platform, then shipped AI-powered scheduling, onboarding and a resume parser.

$800ksaved every year
31% → 68%users completing tasks successfully
3×faster at filling open shifts
Health-tech Applied AI
PakWheels & ArabWheels 2025

Taking Pakistan's biggest car marketplace to the Gulf

Launching in the UAE and Saudi Arabia meant learning how people buy cars there, not copying what worked at home. I led the go-to-market, the shared platform underneath, and a new layer of trust between buyers and sellers.

3 marketson one shared platform
2×deeper product discovery in the online store
Verifiedusers and seller reputations, to cut fraud and spam
Marketplaces Market entry
Hexkode · West Africa 2022–23

Two new ventures, one new region, six months

Logistics and quick commerce, from zero, in a market none of us knew. I led a product team of five through 50+ user interviews, rapid prototypes and four-week release cycles.

+22%revenue per user, after new pricing
−18%churn within two quarters
85%of features adopted at launch
Zero to one Quick commerce
Vodlix · Integrated Units 2017–20

Where I learned to take a product to market

Vodlix, a white-label streaming platform, was my first product-led launch: roadmap, MVP and go-to-market, then TV apps that opened up a new line of revenue.

5 clientsenterprise customers by the second quarter after launch
+30%revenue from smart-TV apps
+20%new customers after a website redesign
Streaming B2B go-to-market
The pattern

Different industries. Same habit.

Pick the one number that matters, then move it. Each pair below is the same measure, before and after a change I led.

Before and after, on a 0–100% scale
Before After
FastRead.io Visitors who become paying users
3%
11%
+8 pts
The ENTERTAINER Paid conversion, after the move to freemium
13%
26%
+13 pts
The ENTERTAINER Customers who stay, after subscriptions
33%
42%
+9 pts
Tribal Health Users who complete their tasks
31%
68%
+37 pts
AI training for teams

What I teach in a room is what I do in my day job.

I run AI in production every day: systems that combine OpenAI, Claude and Gemini, search over company documents, and routing that keeps costs down. My workshops turn that into practical, safe habits for business teams, from product squads to finance and accounting.

Your team leaves knowing
  1. 01Where AI fits their real work (for a finance team, that's reconciliations, variance explanations and month-end close)
  2. 02What's safe to put into a public AI tool, and how to handle confidential data
  3. 03How to prompt, check and improve answers in Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini
  4. 04How to turn one good result into a process they can repeat
Plan a session for your team
How I build AI systems
Your documents and data
Smart search and model routing
Claude · OpenAI · Gemini
Checked answers, at a lower cost
AI I've put into production
FastRead.ioHelps people write a book with AI
Clintwin / Medsim AIVirtual patients for training medical students
FormulaiPersonalized health profiles
AI resume parserTurns messy, even handwritten, resumes into compliant CVs in under 15 minutes instead of hours
Tools I work with
Claude OpenAI Gemini Claude Code RAG pipelines Vector databases ElevenLabs Python TypeScript React PostHog Mixpanel Figma
The path so far

From Lahore, to five markets, and back to building my own.

Full history on LinkedIn
  1. 2014–2020 · Lahore

    Learning the craft

    From business analyst to product manager at Integrated Units, moving the business to subscriptions and taking Vodlix to enterprise clients.

  2. 2020–2022 · Dubai

    Scaling a consumer brand

    Senior Product Manager at The ENTERTAINER, with a squad of 20 engineers, a new business model and a Saudi launch.

  3. 2022–2025 · New markets

    Building from zero, everywhere

    New ventures in West Africa, a telecom platform for Seamless Distribution Systems, health-tech in the US, and PakWheels' move into the Gulf.

  4. 2023–now · AI-native

    AI products, and my own venture

    Leading Xcellerant Ventures' AI portfolio, founding Ovela Health, and training teams to work with AI.

EducationBS Computer Science, COMSATS University Islamabad
CertifiedICAgile Agile Product Ownership · Google Project Management · Machine Learning Product Management
Blog

Notes from the work.

Short, practical pieces on building products, putting AI to work, and leading teams that ship.

All posts
AINovember 11, 2025 · 8 min read

How we cut AI running costs by 38% without making the output worse

Benchmarking, routing and caching across four AI products. What actually moved the bill, and what didn't.

Read the post
GrowthJuly 30, 2025 · 7 min read

Free trial or freemium? What doubling paid conversion taught me

Lessons from moving a lifestyle app to freemium and subscriptions, and why onboarding mattered more than price.

Read the post
MarketsApril 17, 2025 · 6 min read

Don't copy-paste your playbook into a new market

What launching a car marketplace in the UAE and Saudi Arabia taught me about local buying behaviour.

Read the post
Let's talk

Building something that needs to scale?

Whether you're hiring a product leader, weighing a big product decision, or want your team using AI well, tell me what you're working on. I reply to every message.

Start a conversation
Emailali.ahmed.awan71@gmail.com
LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/aliahmedawan
Phone+92 301 6141992
Based inLahore · working worldwide