For nearly three decades I've worked at the collision point between transformative technologies and their civilisation-level implications. Not the incremental stuff — the engineering challenges where the stakes are real. AI. Autonomous systems. Safety-critical software in aerospace, automotive, medical devices, and defence — the sectors where "move fast and break things" collides with "move slow or people die." Understanding these domains requires holding technical depth and strategic breadth simultaneously. --- ## Current Work I am **Head of AI and Principal Strategic Advisor at [QA-Systems](https://qa-systems.com)**, where I focus on how large language models change the economics and safety calculus of testing safety-critical embedded software. This means working at the edge — where AI capability meets aerospace, medical, and automotive regulatory reality. Before that: embedded systems, aerospace, nuclear. Environments where failure is not an option, and "move fast and break things" is a genuinely dangerous idea. --- ## Advisory & Research **HiPEAC** — Contributing author, [HiPEAC Vision 2025](https://www.hipeac.net/vision/2025/) (European computing research priorities); contributing author, HiPEAC Vision 2026 *(forthcoming)*; contributor to the [HiPEAC Magazine](https://www.hipeac.net/news/magazine/#/) **TechNexus** — Co-chair of the TechNexus Programme (European technology collaboration) **LSE Executive Education** — Guest lecturer on AI governance and the strategic implications of transformative technology --- ## Writing & Thinking I write about technology as a civilisational force, not as a product category. My newsletter *[The AI Monitor](https://theaimonitor.substack.com)* reaches 2,500+ technical professionals and policymakers. Co-authored *[Embedded Software Testing: Developing Reliable Software from Fundamentals to AI-based Techniques](https://www.amazon.com/Embedded-Software-Testing-Developing-fundamentals/dp/936589428X)* (with Stephan Gruenfelder, [BPB Publications](https://bpbonline.com), 2026). Cover article accepted at [heise iX](https://www.heise.de/ix/) — Europe's largest technical computing magazine — forthcoming. I'm writing *AI for Dinosaurs* — narrative nonfiction following engineers, executives, and regulators through the real situations where AI meets the physical world. --- ## Speaking I've spoken at [One Young World](https://www.oneyoungworld.com) (Bath, 2025), [ERTS](https://www.erts-toulouse.fr) (Toulouse, 2024), and [Embedded World](https://www.embedded-world.de) (Nuremberg, 2026) — *Embedded Software Testing with fundamental skills and AI*. My talks focus on AI, autonomous systems, and the safety-critical domains where getting things wrong has real consequences. --- ## Background **MEng** — [University of Bath](https://www.bath.ac.uk) **28 years** working in advanced technology and safety-critical systems Published author, international speaker, conference keynote --- ## The Other Side I also write science fiction — longer-form work exploring the futures I spend my days analysing. That lives at [azmackay.com](https://azmackay.com). --- *"I'm not trying to predict the future. I'm trying to understand the forces that make certain futures more likely — and to help people act intelligently inside that uncertainty."*