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Management consultant, technologist, and product manager with 20 years of experience in…
Articles by Farshid
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Optimization in process and rule based systems using machine learning
Optimization in process and rule based systems using machine learning
Traditional process and rule systems The traditional approach to optimization in process and decision support systems…
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Farshid Ketabchi posted thisPer Amodei, AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, pushing U.S. unemployment to 10-20%. The industries most at risk are finance, consulting, law, and tech, where entry-level jobs involve tasks that AI is getting quite good at: research, document review, data analysis, and reporting. https://lnkd.in/gUATwCYA
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Farshid Ketabchi shared thisMore adoption of AI in Hollywood. Netflix acquires Ben Affleck's AI film-tech firm, InterPositive. https://lnkd.in/ggdPCmYN
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Farshid Ketabchi shared thisJust finished Agentic AI Architecture Foundations: Designing Autonomous AI Systems, and its 3 prerequisite courses on predictive and generative AI. Somewhat different methodology from what's used in the agentic AI literature nowadays but valuable none the less. https://lnkd.in/g_XrFgEb
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Farshid Ketabchi shared thisNew agent protocol for commerce Google announced Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) for AI agent-based shopping, developed with companies like Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart, supports the end-to-end buying process. https://lnkd.in/gehJ6DeGGoogle announces a new protocol to facilitate commerce using AI agents | TechCrunchGoogle announces a new protocol to facilitate commerce using AI agents | TechCrunch
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Farshid Ketabchi shared this"Recent reports and studies from 2025 confirm that even graduates from elite programs like Stanford’s computer science department are facing a significantly more difficult entry-level job market. This shift is primarily driven by the rapid adoption of AI coding tools, which have reduced the need for junior developers." https://lnkd.in/gcsi_XxtStanford computer science graduates are struggling to find entry-level jobsStanford computer science graduates are struggling to find entry-level jobs
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Farshid Ketabchi posted thisAccording to a recent MIT study, AI is already technically capable of performing tasks equivalent to 11.7% of the U.S. labor market, or about $1.2 trillion in wages. This figure represents technical capability rather than an immediate prediction of job displacement. The study has used the Iceberg Index simulation tool. https://lnkd.in/g7k6Yhjq
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Farshid Ketabchi shared thisSalesforce has cut 4,000 support roles decreasing the count from 9,000 to 5,000 by leveraging AI agents. Benioff's comment suggests that this focuses on outbound interactions following up with leads, which apparently they were never able to cover 100%. This seems like a good use case for agentic AI to follow up with leads and qualify them. #agentw #agenticai #genai #contactcenter #conversationalaiSalesforce CEO Marc Benioff says his company has cut 4,000 customer service jobs as AI steps in: ‘I need less heads’Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says his company has cut 4,000 customer service jobs as AI steps in: ‘I need less heads’
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Farshid Ketabchi shared thisWith accelerated coding and faster turnaround for prototypes and MVPs using gen AI, product mgmt. has become the real challenge. #ProductManagement #GenAIAndrew Ng says the real bottleneck in AI startups isn't coding — it's product managementAndrew Ng says the real bottleneck in AI startups isn't coding — it's product management
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Farshid Ketabchi liked thisFarshid Ketabchi liked thisToday, we achieved a remarkable milestone at Civilization Ventures — our realized returns to investors hit $150M, meaning we have returned far more capital than we have invested to date. This milestone is doubly meaningful given the general malaise that the #biotech and #health sectors are just now emerging from. How did we get here? Two factors that I'd like to celebrate. First, we think different. While nearly all #biotech funds focus primarily on therapeutics, we go beyond and back the convergence of technologies like #AI, genetic engineering, and multi-omics insights powering new #diagnostics, software, and drugs. This contrarian strategy has supercharged our returns and 17 exits. Second, just as important as the technologies we backed are the #founders behind them. In traditional bio investing, young first-time founders are often overlooked in favor of "seasoned" executives. We, by contrast, embrace emerging leaders—first-time founders and CEOs—who have gone on to transform industries. Founders like Oguzhan Atay, PhD, Jake Chabon, Sean Duffy, Shakked Halperin, PhD, Gaurav Shah, MD, Paul Johnson 🇬🇧🇺🇸 and many more who have reinvented their sectors through innovations they built with their own hands alongside extraordinary teams. It is to them that we give our deepest gratitude. Let's continue to build the future of #medicine and human health together!
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Farshid Ketabchi liked thisCongratulations to the one and only Parisa Tabriz! Google’s Browser Boss, Security Princess and just a bad @$$ all around!Farshid Ketabchi liked thisWe're declaring today Parisa Tabriz Day and World Password Day! Under the leadership of Parisa Tabriz, Google Chrome adopted HTTPS. And in 2015 less than 50% of Chrome traffic was encrypted, and by 2019 that had risen to 73–95% across all of its platforms. She led Project Zero, Google's cybersecurity research group dedicated to finding zero-day vulnerabilities before the bad actors do. She also pushed to make cybersecurity more inclusive and approachable — by printing "Security Princess" on her business card instead of "Information Security Engineer." Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.
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Farshid Ketabchi liked thisFarshid Ketabchi liked thisTomorrow, the City of Vancouver has a chance to back local businesses, make streets safer, and show that Canadian-led innovation starts and belongs here. The City Council will vote on a program to allow autonomous sidewalk delivery robots, including ours at Serve Robotics. For me, this is personal. Vancouver is home to me. It’s where I went to university, learned about robotics, got my undergraduate and graduate degrees, and founded my first startup. Vancouver is also home to incredible local businesses, from my favorite Taishoken Ramen in Downtown that introduced me to ramen, to the amazing Persian cuisine at Delara Restaurant in Kitsilano, and of course my weekly breakfast at Patisserie Lebeau… these businesses give neighborhoods their character, create local jobs, and keep dollars close to home. Roughly 90% of the merchants we work with are small, independent businesses. Our robots can help businesses like these make nearby delivery more affordable and accessible, keeping commerce local. They replace short car trips and get cars off the road, which aligns with Vancouver’s Vision Zero objective: eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries. Serve robots have less than 1 / 1000th of the kinetic energy of a car, and have operated since 2019 with a stellar safety record of never causing a serious injury. Reducing car trips also can help reduce traffic in Canada’s most congested city, electrify transportation and reduce emissions, while supporting the local economy. And Serve's robots also create local jobs in robotics, mapping, and field operations. This vote is a chance to put our elbows up, re-energize Vancouver’s business community, and make room for Canadian-led innovation that improves daily life. I’m calling on the Council to vote yes. Fellow Vancouverites should reach out and share their thoughts, too: https://lnkd.in/gUZb8FdS
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Farshid Ketabchi liked thisFarshid Ketabchi liked this🚨 Anthropic and OpenAI both launched new companies and just declared war on the consulting industry. Both companies made the same move on the same day. Anthropic launched a $1.5 billion company with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and Hellman & Friedman. OpenAI launched The Deployment Company. $10 billion. 19 investors. Both companies are sending their own engineers to hospitals, factories, and mid-sized businesses. To build. To sit with the real workers. Learn the real workflows. Put AI at the center of how those businesses actually run. This is what Palantir figured out years ago. Don't just sell the tool. Get so deep inside the company that removing you becomes impossible. And the investors they picked are not random. Blackstone manages $1.3 trillion. Goldman Sachs oversees $3.7 trillion. Apollo, Sequoia, General Atlantic, and hundreds of companies between them. Every one of those portfolio companies is now a warm customer waiting. Anthropic's CFO said demand for Claude has outpaced. So they stopped stretching the old model and built a new company instead. Both AI labs are saying the same thing without saying it: Building the best model is not enough anymore. You have to get inside how the world works. Follow Endrit Restelica for more.
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Farshid Ketabchi liked thisFarshid Ketabchi liked thisProud to share a professional milestone: I passed the California Bar Exam! I’m thankful for the mentors, colleagues, and experiences that helped shape this chapter, and especially appreciative of the practical legal experience that has strengthened my skills in litigation preparation, legal research, case analysis, and advocacy-focused writing. I’m excited for what’s ahead and motivated to keep growing and advancing in this field.
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Farshid Ketabchi liked thisFarshid Ketabchi liked thisThe mass production of humanoid robots in the U.S. has officially started. - Every hour, another one gets “born.” Just 120 days ago, Figure was producing 1 humanoid robot per day. Today, it says its BotQ facility can produce 1 robot per hour, a 24x manufacturing jump in under four months. The company says it has already built 350+ Figure 03 robots, produced 9,000+ actuators, and now runs over 150 networked workstations to scale production. Each robot goes through 80+ functional tests before deployment. If you haven’t watched any humanoid robot movies yet, well… it might be too late. Just watch real life now. It is slowly turning into the plot. It might feel strange because humans have never created something this physically capable at scale before. They will become part of every physical industry that still depends on human labor. It feels strange to us now because we are watching the first generation being built. We may have just started giving birth to another kind of worker. One that can be updated, upgraded, repaired, improved, copied, and eventually manufactured at a scale humans have never seen before. Let’s just hope they keep us around too :) Follow Endrit Restelica for more.
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Farshid Ketabchi liked thisFarshid Ketabchi liked thisIn the last 120 days, Figure scaled manufacturing 24x - from 1 robot/day to 1 robot/hour We will manufacture 55 humanoid robots this week. BotQ has now manufactured 9,000 actuators across >10 distinct SKUs Today we're giving an update on scaling up F.03 robots at BotQ: https://lnkd.in/eiMHnGbn
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Farshid Ketabchi liked thisFarshid Ketabchi liked thisPeople pleasing is not about concern for others. It’s about concern for their acceptance and approval. Kristen Bell is still working on it 😆
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Farshid Ketabchi liked thisFarshid Ketabchi liked thisSlalom’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) Connect practice is making a significant investment to grow our practice and extend our relationship with AWS. As part of this growth, we are hiring Connect experts at all levels: 💠 Connect Practice Leader (Director) 💠 Connect GTM Leader (Director) 💠 Connect Architects – Sr. Principals, Principals, Senior Consultants All roles require expertise in Connect & excellent client interaction skills. Consulting experience is preferred. Slalom is a hybrid organization. These positions can be based in most major US markets and must be a commutable distance to a Slalom office. If you are interested in exploring, or know someone who is, please reach out to me directly.
Experience
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Education
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Univ of Minnesota
3.76
Activities and Societies: Internship at IBM - RTP, NC Teaching assistant for programming classes like LISP
- MS project: Implementation of an ATMS (assumption-based truth maintenance system) on CM-2 (Thinking Machines Connection Machine 2 with 64K processors)
- Minor in Mathematical Logic -
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Licenses & Certifications
Publications
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Social Platforms for Business
TekMarketing
See publicationAn overview of the enterprise social platforms (e.g. Jive, Yammer), their capabilities, the market trends and the vendors.
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Social Platforms for Businesses
TekMarketing
See publicationAn overview of enterprise social platforms for business (social networking software for business) -- background, market trends and key players.
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Building and Marketing a Product: Product Management vs. Product Marketing
TekMarketing
See publicationDefines product management and product marketing and explores the differences between them and how they relate to other functional areas such as engineering and sales.
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File Sync and Share, and Collaboration in the Cloud
TekMarketing
See publicationAn overview of the so-called file sync and share space with vendors such as Dropbox and Box, that also extends to file and team collaboration.
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Competitive Intelligence Process and Best Practices
TekMarketing
See publicationAn article on how to do competitive intelligence (CI), a process-centric approach and best practices
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Introduction to Competitive Intelligence
TekMarketing
See publicationAn introduction to competitive and market intelligence, with focus on B2B and software
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A top 1% most viewed LinkedIn profile in 2012?!
TekMarketing
See publicationMy piece on having a top 1% most viewed LinkedIn profile in 2012
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Marketing as an Integrated Business Process
TekMarketing
See publicationA process-centric perspective of the end-to-end marketing function, from research and strategy to lead gen and sales support to take a product from concept to sales. Originally written in 2011, heavily edited in 2014.
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Getting Started: Metadata, Tagging and Twitter Hashtags
SocialMediaToday.com
See publicationon metadata, tags and Twitter hashtags, originally published on my blog TekMarketing.net
Courses
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Marketing research, UC Berkeley Ext
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Positioning and branding, UC Berkeley Ext
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Product Management for the Internet of Things (IoT), Stanford University
BUS 145
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Software Product Marketing, UC Berkeley Ext
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Strategic Marketing, UC Berkeley Ext
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Languages
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English
Native or bilingual proficiency
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Sean Hardy
Most teams don’t struggle with AI agents because the technology is immature. They struggle because prompting is not treated with design discipline. An agent prompt is not a single instruction. It’s a system of assumptions, constraints, and decision rules. When those aren’t explicit, reliability breaks down fast. That’s why two teams can use the same models and get completely different outcomes. This guide breaks down how to design agent prompts the way operators design systems. Intentionally, repeatably, and with scale in mind. Full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/gzhuQgRW #Agents #Prompting #AI
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Dhiraj Jain
Salesforce Acquires Informatica for $8B: A Strategic Move or a Step Backward? Salesforce’s recent $8 billion acquisition of Informatica has certainly made headlines. But is this move a visionary leap into the future or a nostalgic nod to the past? Imagine a horse trader acquiring a wagon maker to compete in the burgeoning automobile industry of the early 20th century. While both were titans in their time, the world was rapidly shifting beneath their feet. In today’s era of Generative and Agentic AI, agility and innovation are paramount. Nimble, AI-first startups are redefining the technological landscape, delivering unprecedented solutions at speed and scale. In contrast, legacy giants like Salesforce and Informatica, despite their storied histories, may find themselves encumbered by outdated infrastructures and slower innovation cycles. Generative AI is like the the Hulk: immensely powerful but requiring careful handling. To truly harness its potential, it must be paired with cutting-edge technologies that have evolved rapidly—technologies that differ vastly from those of the past three decades. Attempting to make one elephant dance is challenging enough; orchestrating a duet between two could be a comedic spectacle. Enterprises today seek the grace and agility of a trained ballerina, not the cumbersome movements of legacy behemoths. This acquisition prompts a critical question: Are we witnessing a strategic evolution or a nostalgic consolidation? The future will favor those who adapt swiftly, not those who cling to past glories. What do you think? https://lnkd.in/gPVXsnVY
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Fabio Lullia
The era of the Agentic Enterprise is officially here, but with it comes a new challenge: Agent Sprawl. As organizations rapidly deploy specialized AI agents across different platforms, maintaining visibility and governance becomes critical. I’m excited to share how the new MuleSoft Agent Fabric is solving this with automated discovery. Whether it's Salesforce Agentforce, Amazon Bedrock, or Google Vertex AI, we now have a single control plane to catalog, manage, and scale AI agents securely. Check out the full story on how we’re bridging the fragmented AI landscape #Salesforce #MuleSoft #MuleSoftAgentFabric #AI #DigitalTransformation
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Sanish Mathews
Introducing the Tricentis Agentic Quality Engineering Platform, powered by the new Tricentis AI Workspace and team of AI agents 🔥 David Colwell, Tricentis VP of AI, explains the 👉 who, what, where, when, and why behind this first-of-its-kind platform! Learn more: https://gag.gl/O8VsBU #TricentisAI #AIWorkspace #AI #AgenticAI
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Joyce Parton
Insightful article from Salesforce on cohesively managing your human team and your AI agents in this rapidly changing workforce. It’s a leader shift in thinking about managing the skill set of your AI agents like a human employee, similar thought leadership around setting productivity goals, defining the parameters (job description) and solving problems for the Agent (such as inserting new data sets when the results aren’t optimal). Simultaneously building confidence and trust of your human employees by investing in upskilling. Great read.
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