Episode 39 | Babar Bhatti's Journey from Japan's Precision to Dallas AI Leadership

Description

On the Caravan podcast, Babar Bhatti (founder of Dallas AI and Chief AI Officer at Prism Skills) discusses why “technology is never neutral,” how AI’s recursive improvement is creating rapid change, and why society and policy are not moving fast enough to address risks like bias, misinformation, erosion of trust, surveillance, and warfare. He recounts building Dallas AI from 2017 with a focus on authentic, vendor-neutral, high-quality events, consistent meetups, and practical learning for both technical and non-technical attendees despite early low support. Bhatti explains Prism Skills as a 15-minutes-a-day microlearning platform that personalizes AI literacy by role and industry and helps companies manage AI adoption and change management. He also shares his background studying and working in Japan, early internet-era experiences, founding a 2010 social media analytics startup, and lessons from selling it for under $2M. 00:00 Technology Is Not Neutral 02:57 Why Dallas AI Started 03:47 Building Meetups That Matter 05:41 Early Struggles And Support 10:29 Bootstrapping Quality Events 13:12 From Deep Learning To ChatGPT 16:11 What Prism Skills Does 20:10 AI Jobs And Change Management 23:03 Risks Misinformation And Power 30:15 Policy Education And The Future 32:39 Life Abroad Japan Chapter 33:25 Studying Japan in 1992 34:10 Learning Japanese vs Chinese 35:43 Work Culture Lessons 36:58 Why Move to America 38:39 Bilingual Skills Mindset 40:52 Culture Shock Comparisons 42:29 Internet Era Inspiration 47:05 Startup Idea Social Analytics 49:30 Social Media Dark Side 54:34 Bootstrapping and Early Sales 59:06 Exit and Acquisition Lessons 01:01:55 Closing Thanks and Wrap