Technical Talks

Hamel Husain

Machine Learning Consultant | Parlance Labs

The Model is Not the Product

Foundation Models

Hamel Husain challenges the common misconception that having a powerful foundation model equals having a successful AI product, drawing from his extensive experience building AI systems at companies like GitHub, Airbnb, and DataRobot. This talk examines the crucial gap between model capabilities and product success, exploring the engineering, user experience, and business considerations that determine whether AI applications actually solve real problems for users.

Machine Learning Consultant

Hamel Husain

Parlance Labs

Hamel was previously an entrepreneur-in-residence at fast.ai, where he built software development tools like nbdev. Currently, he runs Parlance Labs as an Independent Consultant helping companies build AI products, serves on the R&D team at AnswerAI, and scouts for Bain Capital. With over 20 years of experience, Hamel has worked as a machine learning engineer at companies like Airbnb, GitHub (where he contributed to Copilot), and DataRobot. You can find more about Hamel on his personal site or his company site at parlance-labs.com.