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Abdelrahman Osama

Head of Design · Mal — AI-native banking

Products that work for people. Built on systems since 1999, amplified by AI.

Head of Design at Mal, which raised the region's largest seed round: $230M. I design the system underneath: the rules, patterns and models that hold across every screen. From founding startups to Scale AI, now an AI-native bank.

Worked with

  • Mal
  • Scale AI
  • Toptal
See selected work Get in touch

25+

Years of design since 1999, from the first websites to Head of Design

$14.8B+

In funding and exits at companies I've designed for: Scale AI's $14.3B Meta investment, Mal's $230M seed, the region's largest, Geophy's ~$290M acquisition

5

Companies founded or co-founded: Simpleia, Conix, Hive Ride, Provin, Brono.ai

Top 3%

Toptal Elite: vetted into Toptal's top 3% of freelance talent, with long-running engagements since 2020

Selected work

AI people trust enough to use. Trust is the product.

01Agentic bank concept · Fintech

The agent is the home, not a feature behind a swipe.

The problem

“Showing every product all the time is not discovery. It is noise people learn to ignore.”

The system

A stable structure underneath, a personal lens on top. The agent can reorder sectors, never relocate them.

Where it stands
3levels every product lives on: sector, flow, action
8personas it was worked through, from new to trader
Conceptnext: a task test against the current home
Read the Agentic bank case study
9:41
$
Balance$Cash and savings
Money · Balance ›$
Agent Today, 09:14
Calculators · TaxYour tax year ends on 14 Oct.Estimated tax: $1,304.51 on $52,180.40 held.Review and payHow it's worked out
Money · GoalsYour salary landed. I moved $950 to your emergency cushion.UndoWhy $950?
PFM · SpendingFood delivery is up $340 on August.$1,020 in September, against $680 in August.
Reply, or ask anything
Guidance, not regulated financial advice

The home is the thread. The agent posts first: what it did, what's waiting, what it noticed. There's no other screen.

More work

All 14 case studies
Boubyan Bank cover

Boubyan Bank

Boubyan Bank · Banking · 2018

Cross-device Islamic banking for Kuwait's most loved bank.
medOne cover

medOne

medOne · Healthcare · 2022

An EMR and practice management platform for US hospital systems, designed against the category's tradition of dense tables and one-size-fits-all chrome.
Evra cover

Evra

Geophy · PropTech · 2021

Making ML-driven property valuations legible — by linking every number to the spatial evidence underneath it.
EFG 360 cover

EFG 360

EFG Hermes · Investment · 2019

Investment analytics made usable for one of the region's largest banks.
Elmenus cover

Elmenus

Elmenus · Simpleia · 2019

Rate the dish, not just the restaurant: a rating and tagging system that let people search Cairo's menus by what's good.
ClawBox cover

ClawBox

ClawBox · Consumer AI · 2026

The onboarding, paywall and setup for a consumer AI agent, designed in five hours.
Nimble Smart Wallet cover

Nimble Smart Wallet

Nimble Innovation Ltd · Fintech · 2018

A cryptocurrency wallet for new crypto enthusiasts — built around trust and learning, not feature breadth.
Repoze cover

Repoze

Repoze · HR tech · 2021

A blind-hiring job platform: qualifications first, identity only at the interview, on both sides of the market.
Preneurs.ai cover

Preneurs.ai

DXWand · Applied AI · 2024

An AI fundraising co-pilot for founders, built around the activation problem: founders don't understand the value of pitch feedback until they see it.
Provin cover

Provin

Provin · Co-founder · 2024

Technical interviewing by industry experts: a co-founded product that turned a hiring gut call into a structured report.

Series

Design by AI

A practical series on building products with AI.

AI helps build. Designers make the calls.

01Design by AI · Part 1

Using AI to design AI.

“I use AI to design AI products. The useful part is not the model.”

· LinkedIn

Read on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)

All 5 parts

Approach — how I lead

I think in systems. Research leads, craft follows, and the rules come before the screens: one model that holds across every surface, every role and every case. AI serves the user's actual decision; it isn't the product's front door.

  1. 01

    Research leads, craft follows.

    Interviews and SESRI survey data turned Kawader away from a chatbot.

    Kawader
  2. 02

    AI serves the user's decision. It isn't the front door.

    Made the case for agentic forms over chat-based AI, approved for Job posting.

    Agentic forms
  3. 03

    Systems before screens.

    Evra: one rule held on every surface. Every number traces to its evidence on the map within two clicks.

    Evra
  4. 04

    Build the practice, not just the product.

    At Mal: establishing the design team, system, and product direction ahead of launch.

    Mal

How I deliver

Idea to live product. In days, not months.

AI is the engine. Experience is the steering wheel. I direct AI at every step, so strategy, design and code move together, and each step ships something you can use and closes with feedback.

Traditional delivery 3–6 months
Amplified by AI Days
Your experience AI · the same in both What ships

A clean system, three times the size, in days.

A small system diagram goes into the AI and comes out three times larger. An expert's clean diagram comes out clean; a junior's misaligned one comes out with every flaw magnified.

Same AI in both. It amplifies whatever experience it's given: hand it to a junior and you get a junior's work, bigger and faster, mistakes included. Hand it to an expert who knows what good looks like, and you get that, in days.

  1. 01

    Discover

    Find what matters.

    AIKickoff transcripts, PRDs and research pulled into one brief, every claim with its source.

  2. 02

    Shape

    Strategy and design in one pass.

    AIFlows built in Figma from the real design system, through MCP. I question every step and every screen.

  3. 03

    Build

    Working software early.

    AIPrototypes played tap by tap the way a reviewer would, then fixed, before a person reviews.

  4. 04

    Launch & learn

    Ship, measure, improve.

    AIEvery correction becomes a rule, so the next version starts from what we learned.

Selected clients and partners

Writing

Notes on designing with AI.

All posts on LinkedIn
Talk · BrainsMingle AI SummitOct 2026 Success in AI products is people fixing it less, not using it more. Trust is built in steps, the AI belongs inside the task, and one home screen for everyone is the wrong home for everyone. Read on LinkedIn PostOct 2026 Approving a purchase in a chat isn't the merchant accepting it. Agentic checkout means keeping three things apart: what I authorized, what the merchant accepted, and what happened to my money. Read
Featured · Post and live prototypeAug 2026

AI native ≠ chat box.

AI should be built into the task, not slapped on as a chat. Here a group chat becomes a confirmed dinner plan: the AI reads the conversation, fills what it's sure of, asks about the one thing it isn't, and leaves once a person says yes.

  • Blue while AI actsEverything the AI filled in looks like the AI filled it in.
  • Ask onceOnly the field it isn't sure of asks for a tap.
  • Gone on confirmOnce a person commits, every trace of the AI leaves.
Read on LinkedIn How it's built Try it yourself ↗

Blob animation by Ahmed Khaled

The prototype, start to finish

About

Abdelrahman Osama, smiling, in a cap and glasses

Cairo · Head of Design at Mal, Abu Dhabi

Abdelrahman Osama is a product design leader based in Cairo, Egypt, with more than twenty-five years of craft, since 1999, across enterprise, government, and consumer products.

He spent the first half of that as a founder and consultant — co-founding Conix, a GenAI platform for architects, before the term existed, and leading Simpleia's engagements for McKinsey & Co, Johnson & Johnson, and Qatar Foundation.

That trajectory led to Scale AI, where he led design on Kawader, Qatar's national workforce AI platform, and made the case for agentic forms over chat as the interaction model for public-sector AI. In 2026 he joined Mal, an AI-native Islamic digital bank headquartered in Abu Dhabi that raised the region's largest seed round, $230M, as Head of Design — building the design function, system, and product ahead of launch.

The thread is consistent: he thinks in systems. Research leads, craft follows, and the model comes before the screens: the rules, patterns and vocabulary that hold across every surface and role. AI is treated as a tool in service of the user's actual decision, not as the product's front door.

Founder of Simpleia, through which he has led product design engagements since 2012.

Experience

  1. 2026 — Present

    Mal Head of Design

    Head of Design for an AI-native Islamic digital bank that raised the region's largest seed round, $230M, joining ahead of launch. Establishing the design practice — team, design system, and product direction across accounts, personal finance, and financing.

  2. 2025 — 2026

    Scale AI Lead Product Designer (International Public Sector)

    Led design on AI-enabled flows for Kawader, Qatar's national workforce platform, in partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and Compact Government Body (CGB). Made the case for agentic forms as an alternative to chat-based AI, and shaped the interaction model.

  3. 2020 — 2021

    Conix Co-founder / CPO

    Co-founded a GenAI-powered architectural platform, taking it from prototype to MVP with product-market fit in AI-for-architecture before ChatGPT. Full rebrand, user-centered product, $1.3M pre-seed raised.

  4. Since 2012

    Simpleia Founder & Product Design Consultant

    Founded and lead Simpleia — delivering product design engagements for McKinsey & Co, Johnson & Johnson, Bank Boubyan, Qatar Foundation, EFG Hermes, Elmenus, and Hotdesk. Healthcare, finance, and technology.

  5. Earlier

    King Saud University Head of Web Dept.

    Overhauled the Research Chairs Program portal — information architecture, interface design, automated researcher workflows, and reporting dashboards.

  6. 1999 — 2012

    Where it started Web and interface design

    Building websites and interfaces from 1999, long before product design had a name. The craft under everything that followed.

More roles Brono.ai · DXWand · Geophy · Toptal · Hive Ride · Noor Technologies

  1. Aug 2025 — Jun 2026

    Brono.ai Co-founder

    AI-powered design tool. Rapid prototyping platform for product teams.

  2. Jul — Nov 2024

    DXWand Fractional CPO

    Led product strategy and MVP delivery for Preneurs.ai, a DXWand product — an AI-driven fundraising co-pilot for founders. User discovery, investor-matching scope, and feedback-loop design took the concept from strategy to paying users.

  3. 2021

    Geophy Lead Product Designer

    Lead Product Designer on Evra, Geophy's real-time property-appraisal platform. Designed core flows and interactive map overlays. Geophy was acquired by Walker & Dunlop for ~$290M.

  4. Since 2020

    Toptal Lead Product Designer

    Lead Product Designer on engagements across the US and Europe through Toptal's top 3% network, including Geophy and Alan's Factory Outlet.

  5. 2018 — 2020

    Hive Ride Co-founder / CPO

    Co-founded a ride-hailing service for safe school transportation. Led a team of 25. Raised $400K pre-seed.

  6. 2017 — 2018

    Noor Technologies Head of Product

    Senior product designer on enterprise applications.

Speaking & mentoring

Mentored designers through Designlab and industry programs, ran UX workshops across Cairo, Alexandria and Kuala Lumpur, and spoke at GDG, IxDA, World Usability Day, GEW, RiseUp and MAGIC Malaysia.

  • 15+UX workshops
  • 250+attendees
  • 3cities
  • Abdelrahman on stage at RiseUp, AUC, giving the talk Product Lovability, the book Lovability on the screen beside him
    Product Lovability · RiseUp, AUC
  • Abdelrahman leading a UX workshop in Kuala Lumpur, attendees on beanbags, a slide of user, technology and business
    UX workshop · KL, Malaysia
  • Abdelrahman speaking with a microphone at IrisX, The Greek Campus
    IrisX · The Greek Campus

Contact

Always glad to talk design leadership, applied AI, and building from zero.

Message me on LinkedIn

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