Ali Asif
Ali Asif standing in a grey suit and tie against dark drapery
March 2026

About

Ali Asif

Ali Asif is the founder of Procul Solutions, a Saudi AI company he owns outright, and general manager of Northlane Solutions, an aviation infrastructure company in Al Khobar. He is a Kellogg MBA, Class of 2027.

Audit trains you to ask where a number came from. I ask it of my agents all day.

I'm an AI-native operator. I run companies by writing down how the work should go and then directing AI agents to do it, with a person signing off on anything that matters. I'm a Kellogg MBA, Class of 2027, I'm general manager of Northlane Solutions in Al Khobar, and I own Procul Solutions.

Where I started

My first business was an online shop in Saudi Arabia, which I ran from 2017 to 2022 and then sold. During those years I studied for ACCA and finished a BSc in Applied Accounting at Oxford Brookes, working full time. I started at Marafie Consultancy in Riyadh, went to PKF in Dhahran, then spent three years at PwC in Al Khobar and was promoted to assistant manager. I'm a CPA, an ACCA member and a CFA Level I candidate.

That background matters to everything below. Audit trains you to ask where a number came from. I ask it of my agents all day.

What I built

In March 2026 I set up Northlane Solutions. It bids on airfield lighting and helipad packages for Saudi clients and works to GACA, ICAO Annex 14 and FAA standards. I built its operating model on AI agents from the start. Today there are 26 role-specialized agent definitions, 13 of them on Northlane bid, client and compliance work. A person approves every price and every document that goes out. About 90% of my own operating workload runs on the system.

Procul Solutions is where my accounting background becomes a product. Many Saudi companies still close their books by hand, month after month, with ZATCA e-invoicing and Zakat on top. After three years at PwC I know how much of that work is matching and tidying that agents can do. So through Procul Solutions I'm building ProCul, an agent-native accounting product: it keeps its own double-entry ledger, matches payments to invoices, prepares the VAT return and the monthly close, and leaves every entry as a draft for an accountant to approve. It's the kind of AI-native ledger Rillet is building in the US, made for Saudi rules. It's in early build with no customers yet. Alongside it, my first outside client at Procul Solutions is a 400-person engineering group where 17 estimators now use a drawing-to-costing system I designed.

How I actually work

I don't write code by hand. I design systems and direct AI tooling, mainly Claude Code, to build them. I decide what gets built, how the parts connect, which model does which job, and where a human has to approve. Small models extract and classify, the strongest model judges, and nothing publishes without a verifier.

I test the agents harder than I'd test a person. On one review task, a model scored its own draft about 11 points higher than a blind panel did. That is one task, so I treat it as a warning and not a law. Since then, blind panels gate anything that ships.

I also keep a running log of the AI field. I read model cards, repos and lab posts, not tweets about them. That log is the AI radar on this site.

Fig. 1 The method in four steps, drawn from the agents I actually run

Now

I'm at Kellogg for my second year, majoring in Finance and Strategy, and splitting time between Chicago and Al Khobar. I'm building the link between US venture and Saudi capital: founders, funds and operators who want a person on both ends who has run real work. If that's you, start at work with me.

What I’ve done

from Riyadh to Evanston

Building companies

Four businesses I started or run, from a one-person online shop to an aviation infrastructure company.

  1. 2026to present

    Procul Solutions

    Founder and owner · Al Khobar

    My second Saudi company, registered with MISA and owned outright.

    • MISA investment registration issued 25 July 2026.
    • Sells AI systems to Saudi companies, starting with an engineering group's drawing-to-costing tool.
    • Home of ProCul, the agent-native accounting product I'm building.
    See the builds
  2. 2026to present

    Northlane Solutions

    General manager · Al Khobar

    An aviation infrastructure company that bids on giga-projects and government work, run on an AI operating model.

    • Leads a team of 7 (3 full-time, 4 part-time), plus specialists brought in per bid.
    • Named bid pipeline exceeding SAR 60M (about $16M). That is pipeline, not revenue.
    • Heliports and helidecks, airfield ground lighting, obstruction lighting and aviation equipment, to GACA, ICAO and FAA standards.
    • Reached the final four of 30 bidders on a multimillion-dollar helideck package for a giga-project.
    How the agents work
  3. 2022to 2024

    Bicoli.sa

    Founder · Saudi Arabia

    A bootstrapped print-on-demand clothing brand that I ran with a small team.

    • Ran it for two years with a 4-person team, including designers.
    • Sold its own clothing designs through its own sales channels, with marketing alongside.
    • Turned down a $300K investor commitment to focus on a corporate career.
  4. 2017to 2022

    Online consumer e-commerce business

    Founder · Saudi Arabia

    I built and ran my first company, an online consumer business, for five years before selling it.

    • $3K to $5K in monthly revenue across multiple stores and more than 50 sales channels.
    • Distribution partners at home and in two other countries, with imports from two countries.
    • Sold in 2022 to focus on a corporate career.

AI and technology

Systems I design and direct AI tooling to build, and the daily reading that keeps them current.

  1. 2026to present

    ProCul accounting product

    Founder · Al Khobar

    An agent-native ledger for Saudi companies: agents post, match and prepare the close, and a person approves.

    • Daily matching, VAT preparation and the monthly close run as agents, with ZATCA e-invoicing built in.
    • Every entry stays a draft until an accountant approves it. Nothing posts on its own.
    • Built by directing Claude Code. Early stage, no customers yet.
    See the build
  2. 2026to present

    Northlane agent model

    Designer and operator · Al Khobar

    About 26 role-specialised AI agents do the reading, sourcing and estimating behind every bid.

    • About 90% less manual operations work than before the agents.
    • A person approves every outbound step. Nothing leaves the building on its own.
    • Directed through Claude Code and MCP servers, with the right model routed to each job.
    Read how it runs
  3. 2026to present

    Drawing-to-costing system

    Designer · Saudi Arabia

    A system for an outside engineering group that turns drawings into a reviewed estimate.

    • Drawings to a reviewed estimate went from weeks down to about a day (client-reported).
    • Estimators drop drawings in a folder and get prior rates, with sources, by email.
    • Built for an engineering group that came to me by referral. Described anonymously.
    See the build
  4. 2025to present

    The AI log

    Author · Online

    A running log of the AI field, read from primary sources and written up with my own take.

    • Daily reading of model cards, repos, lab posts and papers since September 2025.
    • Weekly roundups back to the start, labelled as written now.
    • Short posts up to three times a day, each linking the primary source.
    Open the log

Finance, valuation and deals

Seven years of advisory, valuation and reporting work in Saudi Arabia, from Riyadh to Al Khobar.

  1. 2022to 2025

    PwC

    Senior Associate, then Assistant Manager · Al Khobar

    Three years in Valuations and Advisory, ending as Assistant Manager.

    • Led PwC's team through a listed insurer's loss-recovery program, rebuilding capital reporting behind a $43M rights issue, 25% ahead of plan.
    • Directed 3 teams (14 staff) through an industrial client's auditor transition across 10+ entities, landing 11 financial controls.
    • Aligned 40+ stakeholders in Germany, the UAE and India on that transition.
    • Advised large industrial clients on procurement and spend controls.
  2. 2020to 2022

    PKF International

    Senior · Dhahran

    Senior, promoted in my first year, on reporting conversion and valuations.

    • Promoted in year one.
    • Advised a steel manufacturer on two-way US GAAP and IFRS conversion, with monthly reporting packs and quarterly reviews.
    • Built valuations for that manufacturer's investments and acquisitions in Saudi Arabia.
    • Worked on an 11-person issue-resolution engagement.
  3. 2018to 2020

    Marafie Consultancy

    ACCA apprentice · Riyadh

    Advisory work during my ACCA apprenticeship.

    • Improved liquidity visibility by 30%.
    • Cut spend by 12%.
    • Lifted margin by 8%.

Growth and marketing

Paid acquisition for other people's stores, and the sales channels of my own.

  1. 2020

    E-commerce web store

    Growth marketer · Online

    I ran the marketing side for an online store doing six figures a day in revenue.

    • Paid social and search across Facebook, Instagram and Google.
    • Ran the marketing side of a business at six figures a day in revenue.
  2. 2017to 2024

    My own businesses

    Founder and marketer · Saudi Arabia

    The same channel work, done for my own shop and my own clothing brand.

    • More than 50 sales channels run for the first business.
    • Marketing for Bicoli.sa's own clothing designs.
    • Distribution partners across three countries.

Education and credentials

The MBA, the degree I earned while working, and the professional qualifications.

  1. On paper

    Professional qualifications

    CPA and ACCA member

    Two accounting qualifications that sit behind the finance work.

    • CPA.
    • ACCA member.
  2. On paper

    CFA Program

    Level I candidate

    Working toward the CFA charter.

    • CFA Level I candidate.
  3. On paper

    AI certificates

    Anthropic and Google

    Formal grounding to go with the hands-on work.

    • Anthropic AI Fluency.
    • Google AI Essentials.
  4. 2025to 2027

    Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern

    MBA, Class of 2027 · Evanston

    Full-time MBA with majors in Finance and Strategy, now in my second year.

    • Majors in Finance and Strategy.
    • Asset Management Practicum: weekly equity position reviews for the student-run fund.
    • Member of the AI Club, the Consulting Club and the Venture Capital Lab.
    • Splitting the year between Evanston and Al Khobar.
    More on Kellogg
  5. 2018to 2022

    Oxford Brookes University

    BSc Applied Accounting · Distance, while working

    Earned alongside full-time work in Saudi Arabia.

    • Completed in four years while working full time.
    • Taken in parallel with ACCA.

On paper

Education

  • Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern UniversityMBA, Class of 2027, Expected 2027
  • Oxford Brookes UniversityBSc Applied Accounting, 2018 to 2022

Credentials

  • CPA
  • ACCA member
  • CFA Level I candidate
  • Anthropic AI Fluency
  • Google AI Essentials