No More Crystal Balls Thanks to AI

As once-frantic project managers huddled around their computer screens, an AI assistant flagged a potential supplier risk and swiftly drafted a mitigation plan. Instead of copious amounts of arduous overtime spent trying to solve the problem, the project managers went home on time and all executives involved were happy.

This wasn’t a scene from a utopian sci-fi novel. Rather, it was a scenario demonstrated by Ashar Fatmi (MEM ’24) at Industry Night for Northwestern’s Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program.

“For decades, project teams have relied on hunches, red-flag meetings, and the occasional gut-feel spreadsheet — classic crystal-ball territory,” Fatmi said. “My talk set out to show that we can retire that folklore and let algorithms do the heavy lifting.”

His presentation was aptly called “From Crystal Balls to Algorithms: AI-Powered Risk Management.” The talk was part of a pre-event workshop hosted by MEM that also featured a talk by MEM professor Michael Watson.

Fatmi’s journey from MEM student to innovator embodies the program’s mission of translating academic theory into industry impact. Just one year ago, he sat in Watson’s classroom, absorbing the intricacies of transformer models. At Industry Night, he stood beside his former teacher, demonstrating how those same concepts solve everyday project headaches.

The core of Fatmi’s presentation revolved around Risk Wingman, an AI platform he helped develop at HexaOne Associates, a company he co-founded with MEM professor Yuri Balasanov. The tool aims to revolutionize risk management by making it proactive, data-driven, and user-friendly.

“Risk can be run like clockwork, not whack-a-mole,” Fatmi said. “With AI-powered helpers, you can spot weak signals, get an automatic heads-up when a supplier goes south, and see one live risk list instead of 20 siloed spreadsheets.”

The numbers speak volumes. Teams piloting Risk Wingman have reported a 50 percent improvement in risk visibility and a 30 percent reduction in impact severity, Fatmi said. These gains come from the ability to act before issues snowball into crises.

But Fatmi’s vision extends beyond mere efficiency gains. He sees AI as a catalyst for cultural transformation in risk management. By automating mundane tasks, AI frees professionals to focus on strategic decision-making, turning dreaded risk meetings into data-driven strategy sessions.

This shift from reactive to proactive risk management resonated strongly with the Industry Night attendees. Project leads, operations managers, and supply chain professionals met with Fatmi after his talk, eager to explore how they could implement similar solutions in their workflows.

For Fatmi, the event was a full-circle moment.

“Northwestern’s MEM program shaped my own toolkit,” he said. “Coming back as an alum with a working solution felt like closing the loop, proof that the theory we learned can leave the classroom and start paying real dividends on the shop floor.”

In his current role as an AI analyst at software developer OpenBet, Fatmi works as what he calls a “full-stack AI whisperer,” overseeing AI projects from conception to deployment. This end-to-end involvement is directly informed by his MEM experience.

“MEM drilled into me that you can’t improve what you don’t measure,” Fatmi said. "So every feature ships with a key performance indicator baked in — decision-making efficiency, risk visibility index, mitigation success rate — the same metrics we track inside Risk Wingman to prove value fast.”

As AI reshapes industries, Fatmi combines cutting-edge technology with sound management principles. His journey from MEM student to industry innovator illustrates the program’s success in bridging the gap between academic theory and practical application.

Fatmi concluded his Industry Night reflections with an invitation to the MEM community.

“If you’re curious about putting AI to work on real-world problems," he said, "let’s connect and build the next version together.”