Leading Through Transformation: A Conversation on Building AI-Ready Teams
Change is exciting. It's also terrifying. And when that change involves artificial intelligence reshaping how your entire team works, the stakes feel impossibly high.
But what if AI transformation doesn't have to be a source of stress? What if, with the right approach, it could actually energise your team and unlock new levels of creativity?
We sat down with Ali Fateminia, Director of Engineering at Apsis, to discuss how he's leading his team through one of the biggest shifts in software development history. His perspective is refreshingly optimistic, practical, and deeply human.
From Developer to Leader: Understanding the Human Side of Tech
Let's start at the beginning. How did you get into leadership?
Ali: "I started as a software developer. And while there's something genuinely satisfying about building things, I kept hitting the same ceiling — one person can only do so much. If I wanted to build something bigger, something more complex, I needed a team. That's what drew me toward leadership.
I've also been fortunate to work across very different environments: Iran, Singapore, Denmark, and now Sweden, and in companies of all sizes. Startups are exciting but fragile. Large enterprises are stable but slow. What I found is that the sweet spot for me is somewhere in the middle: a company like Apsis, where you still have room to make a real impact without the ground constantly shifting under your feet."
What's the most surprising thing about being a technical leader?
"You'll probably be surprised to know there's more focus on human relationships than the technical side, which I really like!
There's a lot of negotiation, a lot of what I'd call 'good politics' — learning how to read situations, build alignment, and create the conditions for progress. It's less about directing and more about enabling. Removing blockers. Setting direction. Keeping things moving.
That said, stepping back doesn't mean stepping away. You should always lead by example, staying close enough to the work that your team knows you understand what they're dealing with."
Embracing the AI Era: Opportunity, Not Threat
AI is the topic on everyone's mind. How are you approaching this with your team?
"We're in the age of AI — that's not up for debate. As an engineering leader, it's one of the most important things on my radar right now. The question isn't whether to move, it's about moving in the right direction at the right speed.
Think of it like a fast-moving train. You need to board at the right moment — too early and you're betting on the wrong track, too late and you've missed it entirely.
In practice, that means a few things. We're actively integrating AI tooling into how we work — not as an experiment, but as a shift in how the team operates day to day. I encourage people to explore, make mistakes, and share what they learn. And I try to frame it consistently as opportunity, not threat — because the engineers who learn to work with AI will be the most valuable people in the room, not the ones it replaces."
That's a refreshingly positive take. How do you maintain that optimism?
"I genuinely don't see this as dark or threatening. Yes, we're going through a massive transformation, but transformation has always been part of technology. If you look back 40 or 50 years ago, programming was done in assembly language – zeros and ones. It would take ages to write a piece of logic.
When programming languages like C came along, people who were writing zeros and ones thought, 'This is crazy! I'm losing control!' But looking back now, that was absolutely the right move. We wouldn't have made all this progress if we'd stuck with assembly. We have had many more of such transformations ever since along the way.
It's the same with AI. There will be roles and ways of working that change or disappear. New opportunities will be born. It's just a different way of doing things – delegating repetitive work to machines and taking care of more important decisions as humans."
Creating a Culture of Experimentation
How do you encourage your team to embrace AI and experiment with new tools?
Ali: "When you're learning something new, when you're making such a massive shift, you need to create a safe-to-fail environment. It's like somebody learning to walk – you can't expect them to walk perfectly the first time!
We focus on small experiments. You don't need to do a massive experiment that takes a year. You can do an experiment where you know the result within two weeks. Time-box it, try it, learn from it."
What happens when experiments fail?
"That's the brilliant part – we celebrate learning, not only success! Even if an experiment results in failure, the long-term achievement is that the team has learned something. They've learned at least one way that doesn't work, which means they won't repeat that mistake next time. That's already progress."
How do you balance structure with creative freedom?
"I believe strongly in giving the team autonomy and ownership. I want to give them as much autonomy as possible, so they have a feeling of ownership. Once you create that culture, experimentation is born naturally.
I don't believe in saying 'you have 10% time to do experiments.' I believe in creating an environment where people have the courage, energy, and motivation to do it themselves. When you get that right, sometimes people go beyond – they'll experiment outside office hours, during weekends, because now it's their passion."
The Power of Trust and Motivation
That sounds wonderful, but surely not everyone is self-motivated?
True, and that's where leadership really earns its place. My job is to connect people to purpose: making sure they understand why their work matters, not just what they need to deliver. When people see the impact of what they're building, motivation tends to follow. And when it doesn't, that's usually a signal, wrong role, wrong challenge, or something worth a honest conversation.
How does trust play into this?
"Once that trust is built, once people feel you really care about them, they naturally want to reciprocate. They feel 'this person cares about me' and they want to contribute their best.
For those who genuinely aren't engaged, my job is to understand why. Sometimes the root cause is that the person doesn't like what they're doing. You need to understand what they're passionate about and find the overlap between their passion and what gives value to the business. Once you put them in that sweet spot, they'll outperform everyone else!
I'd say 95% of the time, I'm very lucky to have a self-driven team. It's important to give people space and not micromanage them. Once you build that trust, the results speak for themselves."
Redefining What Developers Do
How is AI changing what you look for when hiring developers?
Ali: "When I was younger as a manager, I hired for knowledge. I'd ask technical questions, push candidates hard, and if someone didn't meet the bar — that was a no.
Over time, I realised that's the wrong filter. Knowledge is learnable. I'm living proof — I studied chemical engineering, spent time growing cancer cells in a lab, and somehow ended up in tech. What got me here wasn't a CS degree. It was curiosity and the drive to figure things out.
That's what I hire for now."
So what do you look for now?
"Attitude is the most important thing. If you have the right attitude, you'll learn whatever you need to learn.
But we're also at a different time. What's becoming critical now is the ability to verbalise your needs, to express requirements in a language that machines can understand. The line between a product manager and a software developer is blurring – they're merging into each other.
As a developer today, it's good to know technical foundations, but you don't necessarily need to spend years learning programming languages. The machine will do that better than you. What you need is a holistic view of the system and the ability to express your needs so the machine can do the development."
That's quite a shift. How are developers responding?
"Think of it like Microsoft Excel. Nobody manually draws bar charts anymore — you let Excel handle that and focus on what the data is actually telling you. AI in development works the same way.
Machines are better than us at certain things. They don't get emotional, they don't have blind spots, they don't tire. But that so-called 'inefficiency' of being human? That's also where creativity lives. Machines optimise for known solutions. Humans imagine entirely new ones.
The future isn't human versus machine. It's human and machine — each doing what they're built for."
Lessons from Leading Through Change
What's the biggest mistake you've made in your career?
"Micromanagement. When you come from a development background, you carry a certain perfectionism with you — a strong pull toward doing things your way. The moment you step into leadership with that developer mindset, you start pushing people toward your solutions rather than empowering them to find their own.
But leadership requires letting go. There will be moments where something feels completely wrong to you — and you have to sit with the discomfort of realising that's just your opinion. It might not be wrong at all.
The real shift happens when you accept that your ideas aren't always the best ones in the room. Once you genuinely embrace that, everything changes: you feel healthier, the team feels ownership over the work, and the outcomes are often better than anything you'd have dictated."
Key Takeaways for Leaders
From our conversation with Ali, here are the core principles for leading teams through AI transformation:
- Embrace experimentation – Create safe-to-fail environments with small, time-boxed experiments (aim for two-week cycles)
- Build trust through autonomy – Give your team ownership over how they adopt and use AI tools
- Celebrate learning outcomes – Success and failure are both valuable when you're learning something new
- Focus on attitude over knowledge – Hire for curiosity, adaptability, and communication skills
- Stay close to customers and team – Don't lose sight of what matters whilst pursuing new technology
- Learn from history – Every major tech shift has felt threatening at first, but adaptation creates opportunity
The Future Is Collaborative
As we wrapped up our conversation, Ali left us with this thought: "This is a massive transformation, and we need to understand what is ahead of us. Most companies don't have that vision yet. Everybody says, 'I want AI, AI, AI,' but few talk about the human aspect."
At Apsis, we're choosing to talk about it. We're building a culture where AI amplifies human creativity rather than replacing it, where teams feel empowered rather than threatened, and where transformation is an opportunity for growth.
Technology will continue to evolve rapidly. But human fundamentals – trust, autonomy, curiosity, and care – remain constant. Get that right, and the transformation becomes something to embrace rather than fear.
About Ali Fateminia
| Ali is Director of Engineering at Apsis, where he leads technical teams through the exciting challenges of modern software development. With experience spanning four countries and industries from academia to hardware to MarTech, he brings a unique perspective on what makes teams thrive through change. |
