Matt Phillips

"People thrive on purpose, not pressure."

1. Mar 2026 to Present

   Director of Intelligent Engineering & AI Strategy

   Artisan Studios

   Building and scaling the GenAI practice at a full-service technology consultancy, with client work across Government, Food Service, and Supply Chain. I architect repeatable AI delivery frameworks that compress time-to-pilot for non-technical operators, prototype directly with Claude Code, AWS Bedrock, AgentCore, and agentic workflows, and lead vendor evaluation for client AI initiatives, from scorecards and live-data pressure tests to AI-specific contract terms.

2. Nov 2024 to Mar 2026

   Director of AI Transformation & Strategy

   Asurion

   Led enterprise AI adoption and change management across a $10B+ subscription business serving 300M+ consumers through 50+ carrier partnerships. Scaled an AI Champions network to 133% of its adoption target, built a Responsible AI governance framework aligning 20+ stakeholders across security, legal, and operations, and shipped AI voice simulation for sales training (23% sales lift for the pilot team) and IVR AI interactions (43% increase in call containment).

3. Mar 2023 to Nov 2024

   Director of Generative AI Product Strategy

   Asurion

   Launched Asurion's first Expert Copilots, LLM-powered tools for technical support agents, and designed the LLM evaluation framework used to benchmark frontier models on latency, cost, accuracy, and task fit. Presented AI strategy and future-of-support prototypes to the Board of Directors, unlocking investment in GenAI infrastructure.

4. Sep 2019 to Mar 2023

   Director of AI/ML Product Management

   Asurion

   Led AI product managers, ML engineers, and data scientists to scale real-time speech-to-text from prototype to production with a 55% accuracy improvement, securing $2M+ in investment that became the foundation of Asurion's AI services. Championed a secure on-prem AI cluster that generated $12M in documented value over two years, and established Asurion's first Technical PM and ML Engineering career tracks.

5. Oct 2017 to Sep 2019

   Senior Product Manager, Analytics

   Asurion

   Rebuilt knowledge base search across 30+ carrier partners, cutting call handling time by 27 seconds and saving $1M+ annually. Launched an internal data education platform with 150+ courses and 200 recurring users, and implemented same-day device delivery reaching 85% of the U.S. within a 50-minute drive.

6. Sep 2012 to Oct 2017

   Senior Product & Marketing Manager, Client Solutions

   Asurion

   Evangelized and commercialized a new messaging platform that delivered $58M in EBITDA, and drove 1.5M subscriber net adds, 20% app adoption, and a 15% churn reduction through partner marketing across retail, customer care, and digital.

7. Earlier career

   Earlier career

   Cincinnati Bell

   Product and partner marketing in wireless, managing the prepaid business and helping launch early smartphones with OEM partners, which grew into a career-long focus on turning new technology into customer value.

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Photos by Kevin Mei

• A truly exceptional leader and visionary in the realm of AI strategy and product development. I had the privilege of working under Matt's guidance for several years, during which time I learned a great deal about being an inspirational leader and partner.

  Chelsey (Paulsen) Rogers

  AI Products Leader

  Reported to Matt directly at Asurion.

• I highly recommend Matt as a leader and builder in the space of machine learning and AI products. He has a talent for bringing out the best in his team and fostering a positive and collaborative work environment.

  Jorge Grisman

  Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer

  Reported to Matt directly at Asurion.

• Matt and I worked together to deliver new AI applications, collaborating on at least a weekly basis for over a year. I looked forward to our syncs because Matt kept them both kind hearted and incredibly productive.

  Adam Streeter

  Founding GTM

  AI applications partner to Matt at Asurion.

• Matt's skills have enabled Asurion to deliver GenerativeAI solutions at scale in record time and ahead of the industry. He could do that because of his curious nature, detailed and systematic approach to analysis, and ability to influence and inspire others to see the potential.

  Amin Haidar

  Leading AI-Native Enterprise Products at Workiva

  Worked with Matt on a different team at Asurion.

• I was beyond impressed with how quickly he expanded his tool set and became a thought leader in driving AI solutions... As a leader, Matt did a great job of giving the team space to work and solve problems but provided guidance when needed. He held team members accountable for results and gave us great frameworks to achieve success.

  Matthew Hoty

  Product & Data Leader

  Reported to Matt directly at Asurion.

• Over the course of 7 years, Matt's role has grown and his scope has expanded significantly. I witnessed his passion, skills and wisdom... A family man, Matt brings a lot of empathy to the workplace, making our team 'remarkably human'.

  Peng Xie

  Leader, Innovator, Data Scientist

  Senior to Matt at Asurion; worked closely together for 7 years.

• Matt is also customer and data obsessed, and is able to gain a deep knowledge and understanding of not just simple requirements, but the underlying problems and goals that his customers have, and how to best measure against those goals.

  Maya Shoval

  Senior Product Manager at DoorLoop

  Same team as Matt at Asurion for 4 to 5 years.

March 29, 20262 minute read

Start here

What Is This Crazy Place

Why I started writing: an internal GenAI community that grew to 600+ people, and a belief that AI succeeds when we bring people along with us.

• Start Here
• Community

May 19, 20264 minute read

The Next Real Differentiator in Agentic AI Isn't Capability. It's Refusal.

Reading the Amazon and Perplexity court fight as an early AI governance signal: user permission is not the same as the full set of constraints an agent should honor. Enterprise winners will be agents that know when to stop and ask.

• Agentic AI
• Governance
• Trust

May 13, 20264 minute read

From Bench to Building: My AI Delivery Pattern (Part 2)

The build story behind a World Cup pick'em app, and the repeatable pattern behind it: frame in chat, produce in a work agent, ship in Claude Code.

• AI-Native Delivery
• Claude Code
• Building

May 13, 20262 minute read

From Bench to Building (Part 1)

A career spent adjacent to building, and the moment that changed. The barrier to shipping software is no longer knowledge, it's the willingness to stay in the problem.

• Career
• Builders
• Mindset

April 30, 20264 minute read

Purpose Over Pressure: Why Most AI Adoption Fails (And What Actually Works)

What a Microsoft field experiment with Gap Inc. employees suggests: mindset and repeated use beat rigid protocols and access alone. Leaders have to design for learning, not mandate it.

• Adoption
• Research
• Leadership

April 23, 20264 minute read

How do you keep up with all of this?

Can anyone keep up?

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Education

• B.S. in Marketing, Northern Kentucky University

Featured certifications

Awards

• 2x Leadership Award, Data & Analytics Org (Q4 2021, Q3 2023)
• 2nd Place, Asurion Hackathon 2025
• Top Partner Marketing Team (2015)

• Nashville AI Week

  "AI at Scale"

• GenAI Summit, Santa Clara

  "AI Led with Human Oversight"

• Microsoft Silicon Valley HQ

  Voice of the Customer, Copilot launch

• Asurion AI Storylines (LinkedIn and YouTube)

  "Turning Data Into Faster, Smarter, More Personal Tech Care"

Signature topics

• Purpose over pressure: leading AI adoption without fear
• Constraint-aware agents: governance as a product feature
• From pilot to production: making AI pay off in regulated operations
• The builder-leader: why AI strategists should prototype

I'm always up for a conversation about AI strategy, agentic systems, or bringing teams along through AI transformation.

• LinkedIn
• Substack
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