Ali Zahid Raja · Applied AI Architect
AI systems that survive production.
I take customer problems from discovery to production. I help teams find the right technical approach, design the system, build the integrations, and get AI working inside real workflows.
Two ways to hire me
The same capability, two entry points: a production AI architecture engagement, or a focused provenance assessment.
Applied AI architecture
Discovery to production
Customer discovery, technical direction, system design, integration and deployment for RAG, agentic and voice AI systems — then evaluation and iteration after launch.
Discuss an engagement →Provenance Assessment
two weeks · one pipeline · $5,000 for the first 2 design partners, €7,500 after
A technical readiness review: inventory, provenance, logging and documentation for one system — mapped to the duties that apply to you.
See the two-week process →A technical readiness review — not an Article 43 conformity assessment and not a notified body.
Every number links to where it came from
The two results that matter, with the caveats printed next to them.
Hadith benchmark · κ = 0.87
The ISNAD grading rule run against 575,060 scholar-graded hadith chains. κ = 0.8714 (1 = perfect, 0 = chance) — agreement with a rule-based convention (Ibn Hajar's 12 tiers), not ground truth. Inter-scholar agreement on the same material sits at κ = 0.33. The 577,024 figure is the raw corpus, not the benchmark N.
Full breakdown →RAGTruth transfer · κ = 0.4345
On 1,800 responses from 6 models: 96.0% hallucination recall at 60.4% precision (recall ≠ precision). 96.8% parsed; the 3.2% that did not parse are scored fail-closed, not excluded. Read as the honest, not the flattering, number.
Read case #0 →From customer problem to production system
Claim-level provenance
ISNAD grades every source, scraper, model and agent behind an answer, caps the chain at its weakest link, and signs the record — adapted from 1,200 years of hadith transmission science.
Explore ISNAD →Evidence architecture
The logging, provenance and documentation an auditor can actually open — inventory, risk classification, decision logs, and the human-oversight trail.
See the evidence layer →Production AI systems
Voice AI, knowledge systems, backend orchestration and workflow automation that survive real users and real load — built for teams with expensive problems.
View the systems →Research & writing
Independent, single-author research — published, benchmarked, and written up so practitioners can check the work instead of taking my word for it.
Read the writing →Work that ships
ISNAD
BuiltOpen-source, claim-level provenance framework. 1,000+ tests, published paper (arXiv:2607.24117), PyPI package v3.1.7.
Explore ISNAD →Islam & AI
Outcome145,000+ people across 190+ countries. Bootstrapped — funded by donations.
Full story →Entropic
Past ventureAn AI Operating Brain for founder-led agencies — built and shipped production AI before it wound down.
See the record →Glacis — Voice AI
OutcomeDispatcher-heavy logistics flows moved to live voice automation in production.
All systems →From people I've worked with
"Ali is an exceptionally talented software engineer with deep expertise in end-to-end system design and a passion for advancing AI and ML technologies. His ability to design and build AI systems is outstanding."
Noah Marra
Sr. Machine Learning Engineer, AMD · Former teammate
"Ali Raja is an exceptional and talented data scientist that possesses great entrepreneurial and technical abilities. Working with him is always a pleasure."
Ali Almussa
Entrepreneur & Project Management Consultant
"Really enjoyed the session today. It was very casual and easy to follow, but at the same time packed with practical and informative insights. Loved how you shared your own experience with the agents, and I genuinely took away a few things I'll be trying myself — like automating my code base for testing."
Danish Elahi
Topmate session · Sep 2026
"Thank you for explaining your AI work model to us. You made a great point about not getting caught up in every trendy AI term or tool; instead, we should concentrate on what works for our specific use case."
Anees Iqbal
Topmate session · Sep 2026
4.8/5 · 106 ratings · 565 bookings · 90 testimonials on Topmate
Also, if neither is the fit
Advisory
Positioning, strategy and research-distribution for technical founders and researchers who've built something real and can't get it seen.
Learn more →Global Tech Leverage
A private network for experienced engineers moving from local markets to global remote roles. “Talent is global. Opportunity is not.”
Learn more →Let's find the right technical approach for your problem.
Tell me what you're trying to ship. If it's not a fit, I'll say so on the call.