---
title: "Ankit Zen - Visiting Faculty, Product & Design in Jaipur | Tal"
description: "Meet Ankit Zen, First Principles Thinker | Engineering, AI & Society | DifferentThanDefault.com based in Jaipur. AI stack includes antigravity and codex."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/ankit-zen/share-image"
---

# Ankit Zen on Tal

## Headline

First Principles Thinker \| Engineering, AI & Society \| DifferentThanDefault\.com

## About

IoT product builder \+ AI systems thinker with 15\+ years experience of systems building\. Started building smart lock hardware in 2014 — before "smart home" was a category in India\. Went deep into conversational AI at Haptik, then returned to hardware to build a full AI\-powered smart device ecosystem \(Awakey\)\. Uniquely positioned at the intersection of physical devices, cloud connectivity, and AI — the exact place where the next generation of smart products is being built\. Have built varied AI\-powered digital products that ship — from conversational AI at scale to full IoT ecosystems\. Equally at home defining vision, product strategy and getting hands\-on with LLMs, agents, and prototypes\.

## Location

Jaipur

## AI stack

antigravity

codex

## Work experience

Visiting Faculty, Product & Design at Pearl Academy, Jul 2023 \- Present · 3 yrs 2 mos

Innovation Consultant at Awakey Labs \(R&D arm of Jainson Locks\), Aug 2024 \- May 2026 · 1 yr 10 mos, Jaipur, > Architected and launched Awakey — full smart lock product ecosystem with iOS & Android apps \(TTLock SDK\), Supabase backend, and cloud\-connected device management\. > Built WorkForce SaaS end\-to\-end using AI\-assisted development \(Lovable, Cursor\) — AI candidate scoring, skill assessments\. Live and deployed at Jainson Locks\. > Designed Field Force automation deployed across 25 salespeople — real\-time tracking, task management, and reporting dashboards\. > Identified inefficiencies in sales hiring, training and performance, then built data\-driven solutions to streamline recruitment and performance monitoring\. > Designed and launched an AI enabled workforce management software to optimize hiring and performance tracking

Interim CEO at NEETPrep GoodEd Technologies Private Limited, Jan 2023 \- Dec 2023 · 1 yr, New Delhi, \- Transformed the company from Founder instinct driven to Data Driven Business Decisioning Setup \- Restructured marketing team, tripled ROAS from 0\.8 to 3x through data\-backed initiatives\. \- Analyzed and optimized product offerings, increasing awareness\-to\-consideration ratio by 55%\. \- Revamped sales processes, team incentives and reporting, boosting sales from ₹7 Cr to ₹20 Cr in 12 months\. \- Built scalable sales & marketing systems focused on performance and continuous improvement\.

Product Manager at Haptik, Jan 2020 \- Mar 2022 · 2 yrs 3 mos, Mumbai Area, India, Led the enhancement part of AI Shopping Advisor for electronic and grocery categories in TataCliq and JioMart \- increased the conversion rate from 0\.8% to 2\.4% over several A/B experiments spread around decreasing dropoffs, increasing engagements, increasing retention, user education, and overall funnel improments\.

Co\-founder & Chief Designer at Designour UX/ UI Studio, May 2017 \- Jan 2020 · 2 yrs 9 mos, Gurugram, \- Hardware & App design operations gave way to a digital product & design studio\. \- Led UI/UX, branding, and app/web design with star colleagues like Sachidanand Vaishnav\. \- Worked with startup who went on big like Counting Well and Renok Adventures\. You can check our projects here: https://designour\.webflow\.io

## Education

B\.tech, Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

CBSE 12th, Science, Maharaja Sawai Man Singh Vidyalaya, Jaipur

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/ankit-zen)

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