Amazon

Director, Software Development

Senior Software Development Manager

Software Development Manager - SCOT

Sr. Technical Program Manager - GIPA

Amazon Payment Services

As the leader of the global technology function at Amazon Payment Services, I am both passionate about and dedicated to re-imagining digital payments for customers and merchants throughout the Middle East and Africa region. 

My responsibilities encompass tech pre-sales and solutioning, merchant integration, software development (for new and existing products), infrastructure management, technical operations, information security, and data engineering. Additionally, I oversee the technology function responsible for delivering seamless payment products and experiences for Amazon shoppers throughout MEA stores (UAE, KSA, EGY, TR and ZA). 

Together, our aim is to provide simple, affordable, and trusted payment experiences for merchants and customers across the MEA region.

Head of Technology

Direct Energy

Promoted to build and lead 5-member team in designing, developing, and managing decision-support application and tools for front-office trading group, integrating with trading/supply, operations, risk management, pricing/structuring, settlements organizations.

IT Manager - Decision Support Tools, Supply

Extended inward-focused IT capabilities to external customers. Developed capabilities that underpin key business processes within the industry lifecycle including trading, scheduling, asset management and optimization, demand-side response, and settlements. 

* Challenged with building team, processes, and systems to support organic business growth into new market space with demand response management product (multi-million dollar project). 

* Leveraged technology to empower several key, new revenue streams for the business unit.

* Handpicked by senior leadership to course-correct and manage delinquent security appliances workstream of major datacenter migration that had put entire project at significant risk of missing deadlines. 

* Invited to join M&A (and other structured deal) due diligence teams after demonstrating thought leadership in both technology and operations to commercial stakeholders. 

* Updated business continuity program to eliminate operational risk from disruption to business-critical systems.

IT Manager - Digital Marketing, Upstream and Trading

Managed IS development and support function for variety of business-enabling systems across US power markets. Built and directed team of 6 IT professionals.

* Functions Supported include:

   a) ISO Settlements (NEPOOL, NYISO, PJM, CAISO, MISO and ERCOT) / nMarket Allocation  Manager and custom SSRS reports
   b) Scheduling and ISO Trading / nMarket Power
   c) Upstream Power / OSIsoft PI System and various other systems
   d) ERCOT Asset Optimization and 24 Hour Real-Time Trading Desk / nMarket Power
   e) ERCOT Asset Dispatching / OSI Monarch GMS

* Major Initiatives Lead:

- Texas Nodal Market Transition (Go-Live and Post Go-Live Support)
- Generation Management System (GMS) Implementation (Inception to Operations)

* Managed Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery plans for Direct Energy Upstream & Trading

IS Manager - Power Asset Optimization, 24-Hour Real-Time Trading Desk, and Upstream Power

* Developed a 3 year architectural - enterprise message bus centered - vision  for our Upstream and Trading business unit

* Developed a Data Integrity business case for our Upstream and Trading business unit

* Developed an interface for gas pipeline data with Bentek Energy

* Managed a Market Data Service initiative to consolidate Market Data into a single repository

* Managed environments to support our Proprietary Trading applications

* Managed testing environments for the Texas Nodal Initiative and various other initiatives

* Supported Proprietary Trading applications

Senior Analyst - Architecture and Proprietary Trading IS

* Lead the design, implementation and testing of the Trade Capture migration from a Java based API to a FIX based system with the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)

* Developed various solution components in Java and TIBCO

* Supported DealCapture and E-Confirm applications

* Developed Retail Credit Risk BI solution to support B2B business better evaluate/assess credit exposure

Senior Analyst - Wholesale/Retail Interface IS

* Provided technical leadership over design, implementation and testing of the SAP HR implementation project, to replace existing PeopleSoft implementation

* Actively participated in the business blueprinting of to-be HR processes, and translating the processes into system functional requirements

* Provided technical leadership over design, implementation and testing of the Canadian Benefits outsourcing project as well as coordinating the Payroll Outsourcing Project 

* Initiated SAP ECC 6.0 upgrade recommendation and laying project foundation

* Lead the testing and training for the Scanning Solution of the Procure-to-Pay project

Senior Analyst - Corporate IS

British Gas

* Led a project to develop an absence management system and managed its deliverables

* Collected the requirements, designed and implemented system using an agile customer centric development methodology

* Successfully sold the system to different areas of the business which is now being rolled out across British Gas Residential IS as well as British Gas Business IS

* Supported and administered the system in production for 100 users, with about 1,000 users being targeted for the short term

*Delivered project benefits estimated to save 0.5 FTE in each of the areas that it is rolled out to

Senior Analyst

* Collected the requirements, designed and implemented a deal capture system to automate energy trade entry from ICE and NGX into the company’s risk management system

* Supported the system in production, providing second level support

* Developed a front end application to the system to make it self-administrative

* Delivered project benefits estimated at: saving 2 FTE, reducing the error entry rate to 0.5% and the Value at risk by $2.5 Million

* Researched Natural Gas storage fundamentals in North America and investigated potential of its use within the Wholesale’s group portfolio

Senior Analyst - IS EMG

Integrated Voice Communications

* Managed the installation of new equipment and periodic updates (both software and hardware)

* Marketed and sold new VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) routes to various international destinations around the globe

* Programmed Cisco Routers and CPM (Computer Protocol Malaysia) voice gateways

* Maintained a set of Windows NT servers and Cisco gateways

* Managed 24/7 customer support (both technical and sales) by email/phone/fax

* Maintained excellent written and verbal communication skills as well as rigorous documentation

* Coordinated with team members in different countries to ensure quality voice service

Founder and Managing Partner

Tech Director at Amazon Payment Services | Follow for posts about Leadership Development and Career Growth | Leadership & Career Mentor | Author Of Leadership in 60 Seconds

I ​am a global technology executive with over 20 years of experience. I am currently Director of Software Engineering at Amazon, leading the Technology function for Payments across the Middle East and Africa. In this role, my aim is to make the payment experience of our merchants (Amazon Payment Services) and customers (Stores) the most simple, affordable, and trusted.

Over my career, I'm honored to have delivered award-winning transformational initiatives that have created competitive advantage, enabled business growth, and exceeded customer expectations.

Known as a forward-thinking problem-solver ― skilled in both business and technology strategy ― I adapt and plan for evolving market needs, delivering initiatives with speed and agility. I am also deeply passionate about building, developing, managing, and leading high-performance teams. A strong communicator and relationship builder, I partner effectively with cross-functional stakeholders and am a trusted advisor within the company.

Ever since I stepped into my first managerial role, more than a decade ago, I quickly realized the profound impact strong leadership has on individuals, teams, and organizations. From that moment, I made it my mission to empower others in their leadership journeys, guiding them to reach new heights in their careers.

In support of this mission, I have developed a community on LinkedIn of over 70K+ like-minded professionals with whom I actively support, engage, and share daily content on leadership, management, and career. I have been recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice (Blue Badge) and ranked #1 LinkedIn Arab World Creator in Management and Leadership. 

Outside of work, I am passionate about everything automotive, especially F1 racing (Forza Ferrari!). I enjoy sports in general, both playing and watching. I also have a keen interest in collecting fragrances, working out with a focus on strength training, and all things food—from learning about it and exploring new cuisines to preparing dishes and hosting gatherings. However, my favorite pastime is spending quality time with my family. 

Languages: English 🇺🇸 Arabic 🇱🇧 French 🇫🇷

Omar Halabieh

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

I help AWS public sector customers innovate and use the cloud to transform the way they work. Change is hard, I inspire leaders and executives to realise the potential for their organisation. I run workshops, speak at events, write articles, and I am always open to new engagement ideas.

Manager - Customer Innovation Programs EMEA

I am responsible for executive visioning engagements in EMEA. I deliver enterprise strategy days for senior customer executives to help them frame their business challenges in terms of customers and plan achievable outcomes.

Executive Visioning Lead EMEA

Whether you’re looking for compute power, database storage, content delivery or other functionality, AWS has the services to help you build sophisticated applications with increased flexibility, scalability and reliability. Find out more here: https://aws.amazon.com/

Digital Transformation BDM

Rackspace, the #1 managed cloud company

In this consultative role I help customers and prospects develop a digital strategy, from the release of a new application to full business transformation. I have a strong focus on delivering outstanding customer experience and measurable business benefits. I call on a wealth of experience from working with large enterprises to high growth start ups. I am an advocate of automation and DevOps culture to deliver efficiency.

Chief Digital Technologist

Using proven cloud and virtualisation technologies I was responsible for designing high performance, resilient infrastructure solutions for transactional workloads. These were typically for ecommerce platforms such as Hybris, Magento, WebSphere and Oracle ATG.

Solutions Architect (e-commerce specialist)

PEER 1 Hosting

In this role I was responsible for the UK technical pre-sales function at Peer1. I was responsible for developing high performance, redundant hosting solutions - primarily leveraging the VMware technology stack.

Solutions Engineer

IT Lab

Primary technical contact for contracted clients.
Responsible for technical support escalations, annual IT strategy, ICT solution design and technical pre sales.

IT Manager / Technical Project Manager

MITIE Group PLC

IT infrastructure project delivery, IT strategy, process development

Project manager

SITA

Provided seamless global support on a 24-hour basis, for a wide range of remote access software. Worked with Asian and US teams and supported foreign language customers.

Application Support Specialist

Innovation at Amazon • I post about work effectiveness • Follow me for daily productivity tips 🚀

Hi, I'm Mike 👋

I have 25+ years experience in the IT industry. Today, I help AWS customers innovate and transforming their culture so they can use technology effectively. I lead a high-performance team in EMEA.

You might find me speaking at executive briefings, conferences, or running team workshops. I share innovation insights and success stories that inspire others to experiment.

I'm going on a journey of self-discovery and personal transformation. I share everything that I learn in daily posts. If you are struggling to get things done or you want to take back control of your time, I'm here to help.

Say hello, I'd love to hear from you!

Mike Bainbridge

Did you miss me? The break is over.

The era of polite LinkedIn productivity content is over.

For the last three years, my daily posts focused on crushing procrastination and winning back 30 minutes in your day. Productivity was the game.

But the rules have fundamentally changed.

I recently spent time talking with friends and colleagues across the tech industry. We all agree: AI is rewriting the rules of professional value.

• A report that took a day to write can be done in an hour
• You can build a professional website from scratch with no coding skills
• Need a project name and logo? Done in minutes

I’m sure you’ve all been blown away by what is possible. Sometimes AI feels like magic.

But now, the real competitive edge isn’t finding 30 extra minutes. It’s figuring out how to survive the 20% headcount reduction your company is quietly planning with AI.

AI investment demands a clear return. Cost reduction, often through "staff optimisation", seems to be the name of the game. We are already seeing the cuts.

The good news? Everyone starts equal. Nobody has ten years of experience using this technology. Now is the time to act decisively.

My new content will focus on the three pillars you need to master for success:

1. Tactical AI Adoption: Moving past the free tier and building a clear, repeatable habit of using premium tools daily.

2. Continuous Learning: Why doing nothing is the biggest career risk, and how to build an experimentation and learning discipline.

3. Redefining your Value: Shifting your professional focus from predictable execution (which AI excels at) to human-led context, judgment, and connection.

Are you ready to talk about the reality of AI adoption?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one. Let me know in the comments.

And I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

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li_at

Talks about #growth, #innovation, #leadership, #development, and #transformation

I remember the first time I facilitated a workshop.

I was terrified. 😬

It was the fear of the unknown:

• What if the content didn't land?
• What if the customer didn’t understand the activity and I couldn’t explain it clearly?
• What if we ran out of time and missed the key impact? 

In the end, it all worked out, but every time I run a new high-stakes session, I have to be ready to pivot and put in a ton of work in advance.

The best workshops are designed before the first attendee walks in the room. 🏗️

Before AI, pre-gaming an executive workshop meant painful internal rehearsal, second-guessing the agenda, and desperately trying to anticipate pushback. It was high-effort, high-anxiety work.

I recently built an AI workflow that turns that exhausting preparation into a focused 45-minute session. Here’s my approach:

(1) The Critical Co-Pilot: I feed the tool my full agenda, desired outcomes, and participant roles. I then ask it to "Act as the most sceptical CIO in the room and find three weaknesses in this plan." 🤖

(2) Facilitator Notes: I use the AI's output to create targeted facilitator notes and "if-then" scenarios for potential discussion deviations. These help me plan a smooth workshop with great transitions.

(3) Delivery Practice: The AI critiques my framing and even writes the harsh counter-arguments I need to be ready for. This forces me to sharpen my answers and means I'm ready for anything.

I walk into the room knowing where the pressure points are, and how to pivot smoothly when the discussion goes off-script.

The outcome is pure confidence. 💪

It's a great example of using technology to dramatically improve your human skills.

If you’re thinking, "but I don’t run workshops," you can apply the same approach to meetings, customer calls, or team brainstorming sessions.

The real difference is: Rather than telling your AI chatbot to build something, work with it to take a critical look at your work.

Have you tried using AI to push you and take on the role of a customer? I’d love to hear about your own experience. Let me know in the comments (or even DM if you're a little shy 😉)

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The 3 step workshop plan

The real barrier to mastering AI isn't the skill set. 

It's the cost of a cinema ticket.

Most people I speak to (easily 3 in every 4) are not paying for a premium AI tool and just use the free tier. This is the first mistake.

A cinema ticket costs £10 for two hours of passive entertainment and we’re happy to pay, yet we’ll avoid a £20/month tool that could significantly change our career trajectory. 🎬

The irony is stark.

You might think I’m being a little dramatic with “significantly change our career trajectory” but I honestly believe this.

It's not about being cheap. It's about not appreciating how critical this investment is. This is like turning up to work with an old Nokia phone when everyone else is running the iPhone 17 Pro. 📱

You're at a strategic disadvantage from the start.

The hidden catch of the free tool is obsolescence, poor quality, and limits.

I currently subscribe to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to ensure I'm testing the best. My biggest advantage is reliability and cutting-edge features. 🚀

Premium tools unlock new models (like GPT-5.1), allow web access, and handle massive volumes of data. That translates directly to a faster, higher-quality output.

But the real benefit for me was the motivation hack.

When you commit money, you commit time. Just like booking a session with a personal trainer, paying for the tool forces you to show up and practise.

Commitment drives adoption.

When I'm paying, I want to make sure I get something in return!

Even if your company provides a paid tool for work, I'd encourage you to use your own paid environment for personal, risk-free experimentation and side-projects. This self-driven learning is how you build an internal moat.

The biggest career mistake is waiting for your employer to enable you.

Your colleague who commits the $20 today is building expertise that you are funding with your own inaction.

Stop waiting. Start acting.

I challenge you: Invest in the market leader today. Sign up for ChatGPT Plus. This is how I got started. It's $20 per month, you can cancel anytime, and it's the fastest way to get ahead.

(BTW This is not a paid promotion, sadly!) 😂

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Welcome to the knowledge trap ⚠️

Your best competitive edge as a tech seller is dead.

For years, solution architects, business developers, and technical sellers built their careers on an informational edge. Knowing the products, understanding features, and sketching complex cloud architectures faster than anyone else. 

That knowledge was power.

And I should know - I’ve been doing it for over 10 years.

Today, your customer can prompt an AI chatbot 🤖 to instantly compare 15 vendor solutions, reference every public use case, and even draft a basic architecture.

Your hard-earned knowledge is now a commodity.

Your value is no longer about what you know. So what’s the new approach?

It’s about how well you understand your customer and their challenges 💡

The best SAs and tech sellers are transitioning their time from information recall to context and trust:

• AI handles the architecture. You handle the internal politics, budget cycles, and strategic needs that the model cannot see.

• AI provides the data. You provide the judgment and the empathy needed to translate that data into a credible, winning vision.

I know what you’re thinking. Hasn’t this always been the case? The best SAs and sellers have always done this.

Right - but with the power of AI your engagements are super-charged ⚡

The proof? A colleague I know used AI to do pre-meeting deep customer research. They synthesised public financial data, competitive analysis, and industry trends to understand the challenges their customer was facing. This information didn’t help them sell more, but allowed them to listen better on the call, join the dots, and demonstrate they could provide real contextual value.

The goal isn't just to be fast. It's to be more relevant.

Use the speed from AI to buy back time for deeper human connection 🤝

My suggestion on how to get started?

Next time you prep for a client meeting, write down 3 things that are not related to technology that could lose the deal (e.g. budget, politics, timing).

One for the tech sellers - what do you think?

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The biggest career risk in 2025 isn’t AI replacing your job.

It’s you falling behind.

It’s your colleagues quietly becoming twice as valuable — without you noticing. ⚡

Most people imagine AI disruption as a dramatic, visible moment.

• A layoff announcement
• An automation replacing a team
• A new tool rolled out across the company 🛠️

In reality, the danger is far more subtle.

Last month, I watched a colleague transform the quality of his customer meetings. Not because he worked harder - but because he changed how he worked.

Here’s his workflow: 
• Every customer discussion is recorded.
• Transcribes the full conversation.
• Feeds it into an AI tool that analyses the transcript, extracts patterns, identifies risks, and highlights opportunities.

The output? 
A structured, strategic, insanely thorough report that would have taken hours to produce - if he ever had the time at all. 📑

Suddenly, he’s showing up with insights none of us were generating:

(1) His recommendations are sharper.
(2) His customer conversations go deeper
(3) His preparation looks world-class

He hasn’t just become faster. This is not about speed or saving time.

He’s producing a level of quality he never had time to reach before.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth:

• That quality advantage becomes a perception advantage. 
• He now appears more prepared, more thoughtful, and more valuable in every meeting.

And customers feel it.✨

Better insights lead to clearer decisions. 
Clearer decisions lead to trust. 
Trust wins deals.

This is value erosion in the real world. 
Your work stays the same - but the benchmark quietly moves upward.

The good news? 
Today, maybe 5–10% of people are doing this. 
There is still time to act.

Try this once: 
Record → Transcribe → AI Analyse → Synthesis Report. 
Do it this week. You’ll never prep the old way again.

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The typical approach to AI:

Find tool → Force it into workflow → Frustration 😱

It's typical human nature - we love solving problems, enjoy the challenge, and immediately focus on solutions.

You see this everywhere when you start to identify it.

And it's showing up in the way people are using AI:
• “Write this.”
• “Fix this.”
• “Summarise this.”
And then they’re disappointed when the output is average.

The problem isn’t the AI.
The problem is skipping straight to the solution without exploring the workflow and thinking about what you're trying to achieve.

The habit that actually builds AI fluency starts much earlier: 
👉 Break down the task first.
👉 Explore the problem.
👉 Then co-design the solution.

I call this the Workflow Discovery Conversation - and it’s the simplest, most effective daily habit you can build.

Here’s how it works:

1. Pick a real task you’re already doing.
Don’t invent anything! For exampel: a reporting doc, a meeting summary, or a customer email.

2. Ask the AI to map your workflow.
Prompt:
“Walk me through the steps I would normally take to complete this task. Highlight the decision points, research steps, and areas where I usually get stuck.”
This reveals blind spots and structure you didn’t know you had.

3. Then ask: “Where could you help me reduce 80% of the effort?” 💡 
This is problem discovery. 
AI will help you uncover which part of the task is bottlenecking your progress.

4. Co-design a reusable prompt.
Prompt: 
“Based on that workflow, help me write a reusable prompt that reliably produces the output I want.”
Now you have a blueprint 📝 — not just a one-off prompt.

5. Test it in a clean chat (this is the pro-upgrade).
Try it out in a new chat to check the result. This eliminates hidden context and validates that your prompt actually works. 

Save your best prompts in a “Prompt Library.” 📚 
This becomes the foundation of your AI habit - small, structured, compounding improvements.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to build the experiment loop that keeps this habit improving every week.

Today?
Check out the Workflow Discovery in action with my 2025 reflection example.

A simple 15 minute task that will help you reflect on what you've accomplished in the year.

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AI Workflow Discovery: end of year review

Many people use AI for random tasks.
A prompt here. A draft there.

They get excited with the results, but don’t use an experimental approach to reuse their work and double-down on it.

No structure. No repetition. No improvement.

That’s why they never see transformational results.

The 5–10% who are pulling ahead aren’t doing more with AI. They’re doing one high-leverage workflow deeply, consistently, and well.

Not sure where to start?

Here’s the one I recommend for everyone, it’s pretty universal:

Use AI to pre-plan every important customer meeting.
• It’s simple
• It’s fast
• And it helps you with repeatability.

Here’s the exact workflow (5 steps):

1. Paste your meeting description + context
> Give the AI the agenda, who’s attending, what you know about them, and the purpose of the meeting.
(Example - “This is a 30-minute call with a CIO exploring X. Here’s what I know...”)

2. Ask for “expected scenarios”
> AI will map 3–5 likely conversation paths, including the ones you’re not expecting.
This forces you to plan beyond the happy path.

3. Ask: “What are the critical questions they may ask that I’m not thinking about?”
> AI surfaces the uncomfortable questions you rarely prepare for - the ones that might usually catch you off-guard.
(This was the big change for me.)

4. Ask for “objections + counter-arguments”
> This gives you a cheat sheet of the hottest pressure points.
Use the AI to challenge you like your toughest customer would.

5. Generate a “Meeting Success Checklist”
> AI summarises your priorities, outcomes, risks, and signals to watch for.
You now have a 1-page plan that sharpens your thinking before you say a word.

The result?

You walk into the meeting confident, prepared, and already ahead.

This is what the top 5% are doing.
Not because it’s trendy - but because it works.

Try this workflow for your next call. You’ll feel the difference immediately.

BTW - no prompts today, just some guidance. If you need help, ask the AI and be amazed at the results.

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The fastest way to learn AI skills isn’t practice.

It’s people.

Most professionals treat AI like a solo learning project. They "tinker" alone.

• They watch a few YouTube videos.
• They try a prompt once, get mediocre results, and move on.
• Their AI skills never stick. Because they're alone.

The people who are quietly improving week after week have one thing in common:

They’re learning as part of a team.

But my experience with colleagues shows the ones who learn together move much faster.

I have two colleagues at AWS who experiment with AI constantly. They analyse their work and find use cases for automating and improving what they do. 

We've started to meet regularly. There is no fixed agenda but we share:

• “What are you trying this week?”
• “What did you build that actually works?”
• “What broke, and how did you fix it?”

Every time I walk away with something that raises my bar. ⬆️

But most importantly, it motivates me to learn more.

It’s the same principle every career mentor teaches:
 
• Work with people who are slightly ahead of you.
• You don’t need a course.
• You need a community. 🏡

Here’s how to build your own micro-community this week (2 or 3 people is enough):

1. Find two curious colleagues.
People who ask questions, try things, and don’t mind experimenting.

2. Plan a weekly breakfast or coffee meet, just 15 mins.
Keep it tiny and consistent.

3. Share one thing each.
A workflow, a failure, a prompt, or something you built.

4. Collect the best ideas in a shared doc.
This becomes your evolving “team prompt bank”.

5. Experiment with the lessons from your group.
This is where real skill is formed. ⭐

AI is not a solo sport.

Build with people who pull you upward.
Your progress will accelerate more than you expect.

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The greatest lie about learning a new skill?

That discipline comes first.

We're all told that mastering a new skill requires commitment, struggle, and discipline.

Ever heard the saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks?"

We assume that learning is difficult, especially if you're comfortable or already have tenure.

The real first step to learning is getting interested and excited in the topic. And it's even more important for building your AI fluency.

If you rely purely on discipline, you quit the moment you hit the inevitable wall of complex features or confusing interfaces.

You need genuine curiosity to keep you interested and motivated.

I've broken down the practice of continuous AI learning into three key pillars:
 
• Be Interested and Excited (The Motivation) 🔥 
• Build a Daily Practice (The Habit) 🗓️ 
• Find Your Community (The Accountability) 🤝 

This week, let's focus on the first pillar. How do you hack your own motivation? 

Try these:
(1) The Non-Work Test: Stop trying to solve your hardest spreadsheet problem immediately. Ask the AI to help you with a passion project, a fantasy sports team analysis, planning your next holiday or helping you write a short story. 🕺

(2) The Immersion Game: Actively seek out engaging content like short YouTube videos on new AI features or signing up to a mailing list. Consuming exciting, novel content fuels curiosity and motivation. 🔎

(3) The Tool Safari: Explore a new AI tool per week (e.g., a music generator, a creative image editor, or a NotebookLM project). The objective isn't mastery, but discovery and sparking ideas. There are hundreds out there! 🚀

Find the fun first. The commitment comes easily once the excitement takes hold. 

Next week, we build the daily habit. I'll tell you how I've done it. 

Here are some fun personal projects I've used AI to help me with:

• Rebuilding my approach to Spotify playlists (took a while but it helped me re-create iTunes smart-playlists and have fun discovering new music). 

• Planning a city tour with stops for rarely seen historic sights and coffee shops that offer great pour-over with a variety of different beans.

• Learning the rules to a new card game that you play in a restaurant bar while you're waiting for your table to be ready (I always get there early!) 

What about you? Do you use AI to help with things outside of work? 🤔

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Have you noticed how fast "best AI practices" are becoming outdated? 🤔

We’re in completely uncharted territory.

New models, new capabilities, new behaviours, showing up every single week. ⚡

What felt cutting-edge in Q1 or Q2 2024 already feels strangely old.

And here’s my favourite example from my own workflow:

For most of 2024, my go-to prompting framework was 👇

Persona → Task → Context → Format → Example

It was everywhere.

• Every AI guide taught it.
• Every workshop included it.
• And for a while, it worked beautifully.

But now?

Half of that framework doesn’t matter anymore.

Modern models don’t need a persona.
They’re not "pretending" to be a strategist, advisor, or consultant anymore. They infer tone, intent, and voice from context.

In fact, persona prompting often hurts the output by over-styling it. 🚫

The big shift now is moving to deeper context and framing.

2025 Prompting:
Tell the model what you’re doing, why it matters, and exactly what "great" looks like. 🔑

The real skill now isn’t memorising a framework.
It’s adaptability. 🏃♂️

Because the tools are changing faster than any static method can survive.

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We love to talk about the success we're having.

Not so much the things that don't work.

Here’s a story from last week.

I tried to automate part of my calendar using AI (I have a work calendar in outlook and a personal one on Google).

The idea felt simple:
→ Take a screenshot of my schedule
→ Save it in a folder
→ Let AI extract the events
→ Push the data into a workflow
→ Create new events so I have a single calendar view

It failed miserably!

• The model misread half the text.
• It guessed events that didn’t exist.
• It struggled with time-zones.
• The Zapier automation broke.

And I realised I was trying to automate something the AI simply wasn’t ready for.

However, this failed experiment taught me more than any successful prompt.

It forced me try new things:
• Break the workflow into smaller steps
• Think like a systems developer
• Debug prompts line by line
• Learn how Zapier thinks

The people who are quietly getting ahead right now aren’t the ones avoiding failure, they’re the ones who are running experiments.

With a sense of curiosity. They're pushing the AI tools to the limits.

So here’s my suggestion for today:
• Pick one task.
• Try to automate just one step of it.
• Expect it to break.
• Ask the AI why.
• Let it teach you what’s missing.

Our new AI tools are great learning buddies!

Success builds confidence.
Failure builds capability.

And capability is what will matter in 2026.

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The Battle

Omar Halabieh

Mike Bainbridge

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taplio

The Battle

Omar Halabieh

Mike Bainbridge

Followers

Posts

Engagements

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Mike Bainbridge's LinkedIn Performance

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