From Code to C-Suite
and Back Again
How AI unlocked a version of me I thought I'd lost — and why it's your greatest advantage.
Humza Teherany
Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer | MLSE
A Kid from Toronto
My parents immigrated to Toronto when I was three. My father from Iran, my mother from Pakistan — they met in London and came to Canada with about $1,000 to their names.
They started a travel business from nothing. My dad would always say: “There's no substitute for hard work!”
I'd fire back: “Yeah, but you can work smarter.”
Growing up in Toronto, I fell in love with the sports culture of this city. My parents arranged travel for some Raptors players through their business — and I got to meet them as a teenager. I didn't fully understand MLSE as a kid, but I knew I loved the teams. And I'd later realize just how much I loved technology.
Dad's Rule
“There's no substitute for hard work.”
My Addition
Hard work + working smart = magic.
That tension — hard work vs. working smart — has defined my entire career. AI is the ultimate answer to both.
Memorization was tough.
I'm a hands-on learner.”
On a family vacation, I couldn't stop tinkering with AI. It felt like going back to my 25-year-old self.
The Opportunity Gap
The gap = your head start
88% of organizations use AI somewhere — but only 32% in project management.
25 Years of Building & Leading
The most exciting moment happened in the last 18 months — when I started building again.
Telecom
Bell, Allstream
Technical foundations in enterprise technology.
Compass Digital Labs
Founded & CEO
Transformed a $25B company into a digitally-driven powerhouse.
MLSE — CSIO
Chief Strategy & Innovation
Leading the largest tech team in professional sports.
Canada's No. 1 Sports &
Entertainment Organization
Top 10 most valuable sports organizations in the world — Forbes 2024
Celebrated Teams
Maple Leafs • Raptors • Toronto FC • Argonauts • Raptors 905 • TFC II
Cultural Spaces
Scotiabank Arena • BMO Field • Coca-Cola Coliseum • Training Facilities
Culinary
Real Sports • Hot Stove Club • e11even • Air Canada Signature Club
Every game, every concert, every ticket — runs through technology. The largest tech & digital team in professional sports. PM is at the heart of all of it.
FIFA World Cup 2026 — Toronto is a Host City 🏟️
This summer, the world comes to our city. BMO Field, Scotiabank Arena, the entire MLSE ecosystem will be on the global stage. The technology, operations, and fan experience for one of the largest sporting events on earth — that's the kind of challenge where innovation and project management aren't just nice to have. They're everything.
2
hours a day
Not at work. Commute. Evenings. Weekends.
YouTube. X. Building things. Nobody assigned this. Nobody gave permission.
80% of workforce needs AI upskilling by 2027
32 Projects in 18 Months
A C-suite exec who hadn't coded in 25 years. Not a genius. Just curious.
Build Velocity — Projects Per Quarter
3
Q1
5
Q2
7
Q3
8
Q4
5
Q5
4
Q6
Each project builds on the last. The pace compounds.
MLSE AI
DeepDive
IdeaGen
Events
ImageGen
News
Researcher
Brain
Transcribe
Fan Access
ShiftMetrics
F1 Dash
SportsAI
Biomech
MLS Stats
StoryWorld
GO Train
MetaFuel
NBA App
BahamasBot
LeafsAudio
Bluebird
MLSE Tix
Deepgram
Vega
YT Insights
Deep Research
Agent Research
Stream Deck
Voice Dict
PersonalGen
Zero ⭐
Imagine what YOU can do — starting now, at your age.
Meet Zero
Saw an AI assistant go viral. Didn't trust it — too many variables. Built my own.
3,397
lines of core code
75
modular skills
$600
Mac Mini at home
Morning
Weather, calendar, emails, lights, coffee
Commute
Voice through earbuds. Cloned voice replies.
Comms
4 email accounts, WhatsApp, AI phone calls
Health
Nutrition, WHOOP, Fitbit, gym logging
Building
"Need a deck" → builds, deploys, sends link
Research
Deep research, web, YouTube, X/Twitter
Smart Home
Lights, coffee, thermostat — voice control
Enterprise
MLSE datalake, Salesforce, Ticketmaster
“A pilot knows every button.
They're rarely steering manually.
But they could if they had to.”
80%
PM tasks → AI by 2030
≠
80% fewer PMs
80% less busywork
Today, PMs spend 60% of their time on status chasing, unnecessary meetings, and switching between tools.
AI doesn't replace you. It promotes you.
91% of PMs believe AI will change their job.
Only 21% are using it today.
The window is wide open.
Execution is Cheap.
Judgment is Scarce.
AI agents didn't eliminate PMs, designers, or engineers.
They eliminated implementation as the bottleneck.
The constraint now is taste, system thinking, and review capacity.
Proof Point
Last week I built a production voice AI app — wake word detection, push-to-talk, streaming responses, 21 versions shipped in one day. From my phone. On vacation. No laptop.
The AI did the execution. I provided the judgment.
Real Proof: One Person, One Day
Contract Generator
Legal asked "can AI do this?" Built it the same day. Deterministic assembly from approved templates.
CLO: "Unbelievable."
Build in a Day
Anyone submits ideas. Peers vote. Top 3 built in one day. Demo next morning.
CEO wants it company-wide.
Video Alchemy
Multi-modal AI tags footage, compiles clips. Natural language search across our entire video library.
Won the NBA Innovation Award.
What It Actually Looks Like
Real platforms. Real dashboards. Built by a team of one + AI.
MLSE AI Platform
12 AI tools for the entire organization
Research
Analysis
Content
Video Search
Transcribe
DeepDive
Any employee can research a topic, analyze data, generate content, or search every video MLSE has ever produced — using natural language.
Zero — Personal AI Dashboard
Built on a $600 Mac Mini at home
Voice Control: Talk → AI responds through earbuds
Smart Home: Lights, coffee, thermostat — automated
Email + Calendar: 4 accounts monitored, triaged, drafted
Health Tracking: WHOOP + Fitbit → daily coaching
75 skills. 15+ integrations. Always on. Accessible from phone, web, or voice — anywhere in the world.
IdeaGen + Build in a Day
Democratizing innovation at MLSE
Step 1: Anyone submits an idea
Step 2: Entire org upvotes / downvotes
Step 3: Top 3 ideas → built in ONE DAY → demo next morning
CEO saw the results — wants it adopted company-wide.
DeepDive — Research to Presentation
From question to executive deck in minutes
Research
Report
Deck
Ask a question → AI researches across web, internal data, and documents → generates a written report → builds a presentation deck → deploys to a live URL. All in one flow.
None of these required a dev team. One person. One vision. AI as the co-builder.
“If you were starting your company today — knowing everything you know — how would you build it?”
The gap between what's possible and what's adopted — that's where your careers will be built.
The Adoption Gap
$5.7B
AI in PM market by 2028
80%
PM tasks → AI by 2030
30M
PMs needed by 2035
Monday Morning: Before & After
8-Hour Workday Breakdown
Before AI
After AI
Before AI — 5.5 hours
Pull data from 3 systems
45mWrite exec summary, format deck
60mCheck resource allocation
30mDraft 2 stakeholder versions
45mRisk review — sprint data
60mVendor prep — research + terms
45mAfter AI — 30 minutes
"Pull health, flag risks, draft report"
10mExec + tech updates, auto-tailored
5mResource conflicts flagged overnight
0mRisk prediction from sprint velocity
5mVendor brief — filings + leverage
10mThe other 7.5 hours → the hard problems only humans solve
What AI Frees You To Do
Organizations waste $1 million every 20 seconds on inefficient project management. AI handles the repeatable. You handle the irreplaceable.
Scheduling, tracking, status reports
Strategy and vision
Risk analysis and forecasting
Creative problem-solving
Resource optimization
Team leadership & motivation
Data crunching & dashboards
Stakeholder relationships
Compliance & documentation
Innovation and new ideas
Prototype building in hours
Deciding what's worth building
The AI-Enabled Project Manager
You don't have to be a developer. You have to be curious.
The Augmented PM — start this week
AI as your thinking partner. Not technical — just asking better questions.
Meeting prep & summaries
First-draft reports
"What am I missing?"
Stakeholder email drafts
Tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini — whatever you have access to
The Automated PM — build in 30 days
Wire tools together. Automate the repetitive. You're not coding — you're connecting.
Auto status reports
Meeting → action items
Risk pattern detection
Project knowledge base
Tools: Fireflies, Otter, Notion AI, Asana AI, Perplexity, Teams Copilot
The Agentic PM — the future is here
AI agents run entire workflows autonomously. You define the goal. The agent executes.
What everyone can do →
Use Perplexity to research a vendor in 10 minutes instead of 2 days
What I built at Level 3 →
Live transcription → AI analysis → deck changes → voice feedback loops → all from my phone
“The pilot doesn't fly the plane manually. But they know every button — and they decide where to go.”
Three Principles
01
Solve Problems, Not "Do AI"
"It's got to be solving a problem."
Siemens used AI agents to predict equipment failures and autonomously renegotiate supplier contracts — cutting maintenance downtime by 25%. They didn't "adopt AI." They solved a supply chain problem.
02
Start With Meetings
"Every PM has meetings. Automate that first."
Record one meeting this week with a free tool. See the transcript, the action items, the follow-ups — generated in seconds. That's your first win. Then scope the next one.
03
Be The One Who Tries
"One PM said let's try this."
A healthcare network reduced admin delays by 40% and manual reporting by 88%. It started with one project manager who raised their hand. That person is now indispensable.
A young person with curiosity and a laptop
= a team of 10 engineers.
Not a prediction. Today. And 75% of knowledge workers already use AI at work.
Emotional Intelligence
Reading the room. Managing conflict. Motivating teams.
Creative Problem-Solving
AI optimizes known paths. Humans find new ones.
Bridging
Tech ↔ Business translation. The 10x skill.
Change Management
The PM makes adoption actually happen.
Your Career Path
New Roles Emerging
AI Project Coordinator
Data Analytics PM
AI Ethics Manager
Automation PM
AI Integration Specialist
PMI-CPMAI — Certified Professional in Managing AI Projects
What to Learn NOW
Start Here (Free)
ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude — master prompting
PM + AI Tools
Connect Jira, Amplitude, Notion — query in natural language via MCP
For Builders
Cursor, Claude Code, Codex
Kill the Queue
PMs waste 5-6 hrs/week waiting for data. AI gives you direct access.
“Ask the AI to teach you. Most patient tutor in the world.”
What's Coming
Voice-First
Talk to AI on your commute. It responds through earbuds. No screen needed.
Autonomous Agents
AI that monitors, decides, executes while you sleep. Months away.
Solo Founders
Billion-dollar companies built by one person. That could be you.
1.1B Jobs Transformed
Not eliminated — transformed. Creative parts stay.
New Technologists
Systems thinkers who never coded can now build. No CS degree needed.
Start This Week
All free. All today. No permission needed.
Prep your next meeting with AI
Paste the agenda into ChatGPT or Claude. Ask: “What questions should I prepare for? What risks should I flag?”
Record a meeting with Fireflies
Free tier. Let it transcribe, extract action items, and tag decisions. See what you've been missing manually.
Ask AI “What am I missing?”
Paste your project plan into Claude or ChatGPT. Ask for blind spots, risks, and dependencies you haven't considered.
The PMs who start now will define the profession for the next decade.
“I built an app for my 5-year-old daughter. She describes a story — a princess and a dragon in a magical valley. AI generates it with images that look like her, like her grandparents, like me.”
If a five-year-old can create... what's stopping you?
✅
Try It
Open ChatGPT or Gemini. Ask it to help you plan a project.
📚
Learn It
Ask the AI to teach you. Most patient tutor in the world.
🔨
Build Something
Even small. A tracker. A bot. Anything.
AI is the great unlocking —
the door is wide open.
Humza Teherany
CSIO, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment
What's YOUR idea?