Inside One GM’s AI Experiment: From a Legacy Portal to a Team of Digital Agents
We’ve recently started running a series of AI roundtables to share what teams across Perseus are building, and what’s working. In our latest roundtable, Pranav Sood, General Manager of Aspen walked through how his team uses AI tools.
As an avid sneaker collector, Pranav first started using AI to catalogue his inventory. It was a simple experiment, but it quickly highlighted how powerful these tools can be when applied to repetitive, manual workflows.
That experience sharpened Pranav’s view on where AI could have real impact inside his business unit. So, he began exploring how these tools could be applied to Aspen’s flagship product. Starting with the front end, his team used AI to refresh a legacy customer portal UI, decoupling it from backend dependencies. By focusing on front-end changes, they were able to release visible improvements immediately while continuing to build a best-in-class user experience.
4 Early Lessons for Software Leaders
From their work, a few patterns have started to emerge:
- UI-first is a practical entry point: if you’re trying to get traction with AI-assisted development, starting at the front end lowers the stakes and shortens the feedback loop. You ship something visible, learn from it, and build confidence before touching the backend.
- Screenshots beat written descriptions in QA: when something breaks or looks wrong, showing the issue is faster than describing it. Visual context cuts the back-and-forth, saving further time.
- Use different AI tools for different jobs: Pranav’s team plans in ChatGPT and builds in Cursor. The combination creates a workflow that’s both structured and fast, and it’s a good reminder that there’s no single tool that does everything well. The value comes from knowing which one to reach for.
- Progress compounds: what started as a portal refresh expanded into standalone tools, analytics builds, and early work on autonomous agents.
Curiosity as a New Technical Requirement
Beyond the specific tools and tactics, Pranav described a shift underway in how software teams are structured. In his view, the scarcity that once defined engineering talent is changing. What’s becoming more valuable, he argued, is creative thinking. A product-oriented person with access to today’s AI tools can build things that previously required a dedicated technical team.
Pranav is explicit that this shift isn’t about replacing engineers, but rather, it’s about expanding who can contribute to building product. His goal is to get non-technical people involved in the process, and to make sure that everyone on his team has an AI workflow that makes their day-to-day easier and more effective.
He segments his team into three rough buckets: early adopters who picked it up immediately and ran with it, a larger curious middle who’ve tried the tools but haven’t fully integrated them, and a small group who haven’t engaged yet. Right now, he’s focusing his energy on that middle group, trying to understand what’s holding them back and helping them build new habits.
Addressing Customer’s Needs Faster Than Before
In most software businesses, there comes a point where the roadmap and the customer fall out of sync. Expectations move faster than development cycles.
Pranav’s team has been working to close that gap by changing how they operate. With the right tools and a willingness to rethink process, they’ve started delivering meaningful improvements to their customers in a matter of mere days. For founders used to managing that trade-off, it’s a different way of thinking about speed and responsiveness.
Final Thought
For founders thinking about what comes next for their business, the AI conversation can feel abstract or even unsettling. Pranav’s framing offers a more useful way to think about it: teams that will be in the strongest position are the ones that treat experimentation as part of the culture, the ones that try things, share what they learn, and keep moving.
At Perseus, that’s exactly the kind of culture we look to foster. When a leader like Pranav figures something out, our whole portfolio of businesses benefits.
We look forward to sharing additional insights from future roundtables!
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