Saad Ansari - From Hajj to Humane AI: Building Tech That Optimizes for People

Saad Ansari has had one of the more unusual paths in AI.He shares what it was like serving as an advisor inside the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, helping guide digital transformation for one of the largest recurring events in the world. We talk about how AI intersects with government systems, why execution looks different across countries, and what it takes to modernize legacy infrastructure.Then we shift to his new company, Partake.ai, where he’s focused on reinforcement learning that optimizes for human outcomes rather than engagement metrics.We cover:Why today’s AI systems optimize for attentionWhat “human-aligned” AI might actually meanPokémon Go as the most successful fitness app everWhether AI can nudge people toward healthier behaviorEdge inference and privacy tradeoffsAnd whether companies can build something that is both profitable and goodIt’s a thoughtful conversation about AI, incentives, and what kind of systems we actually want to live with.