About me
I’m Ravi Ayyala, AI implementation partner.
AI licenses or pilots aren’t enough. AI has to go live, get adopted and make more than it costs. As founder of SmartProduct, ex-LinkedIn, ex-Blacklane (acquired by Uber) and ex-Moonfare (PE investment platform), I review AI portfolios, take the best workflows to production, and make sure teams actually use them.
Companies I’ve worked with
Across product, analytics, and AI.
Why this, why me
Everywhere right now, someone is showing off what AI can do. Very few say whose problem it solved, what that was actually worth, or what happened to the time and money it freed up. Capability without a real result isn’t progress, it’s a demo.
The part that bothers me most is the assumption that AI will replace people, and that people are along for the ride at best. I don’t accept that as inevitable. I’ve watched up close, at LinkedIn and since, that even the smartest tech only pays off when the people using it are brought along, not handed a tool and left to figure it out.
I’d rather spend my career proving there’s a version of this where AI makes people more capable, not just cheaper to remove. Being disciplined about which problems are actually worth solving with AI, and which aren’t, is how we get there instead of by accident.
Background
Numbers, not job titles.
(world’s biggest professional network)
110M users
Shipped enterprise API integrations delivering personalized content to millions of users.
(premium ridesharing, acquired by Uber)
3x rides
Built B2B platform from zero and grew it.
(Private Equity investment platform)
€1B AUM
Built & led 7-person Product team, scaled B2C, launched B2B, to grow assets under management.
(AI, product, analytics agency)
310+ businesses
- Built & shipped analytics migration & data continuity tool used by 310+ companies during GA4 transition.
- Recent AI work: production systems saving 30+ hours a week per employee.
How I work
A few things that do not change from project to project.
Evidence, not assumptions
What “working” means gets defined before anything gets scored, built, or fixed.
If it’s not worth doing, I say so
Keep, fix or stop: a stop recommendation is worth as much as a go. Life is too short to build things people won’t use.
Take workflows live, then hand over.
Your team runs them without me. A support plan is available if you want one.
Fixed fees, not hourly rates.
No incentive to stretch an engagement.
Three ways to work with me
Know exactly which workflow needs work? Go straight to the delivery sprint. Weighing a few, or not sure where to start? The value review picks it for you. Need someone to own all of it? That’s the fractional AI lead.
AI value review
- Find out which of your AI workflows are worth it, or where to start: keep, fix or stop, in your own numbers.
- A “workflow” is a business process where AI does part of the work and your people check the results.
AI delivery sprint
- One AI workflow live, adopted and proven against a baseline, from a process to automate, a pilot that never went live, or one few people use.
- A “sprint” is a fixed-length piece of work with a measured result.
Fractional AI lead
Someone who owns your AI two days a week: the portfolio, the next workflows, and usage, cost and risk reported every month.
Who I work with
Ravi leads each engagement, supported by senior advisors and experienced specialists selected for the workflow.
Ravi Ayyala
Founder and product AI lead
- I lead each engagement, supported by senior advisors ad experienced specialists selected for the AI implementation.
- Ex-LinkedIn, ex-Blacklane (Uber) product leader.
- MBA (Oxford), AI trained (Stanford), Engineering (NUS)
Linde Scheers
Marketing and growth advisor
- Advises SmartProduct and selected client work on positioning, adoption and distribution.
- Former Google leader and former CMO at eBay Germany.
- Currently CMO at ING Germany.
Shankar AVSB
Finance and strategy advisor
- Advises SmartProduct and selected client work on investment thinking, business outcomes, and technology.
- Technology investor with experience at ABB and Infosys and study at Stanford.
Is your AI making more than it costs?
Start with a real answer, not another strategy deck.