Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Azam Khan co-founded Trax, building-code compliance software, after a research career in simulation and design. His take on AI in product development skips the productivity-hack talk most founders default to.
One of his programmers put it best: "building the product will probably take just as long with AI as without it." The real benefit is that you find out what you're building within days instead of months, so you're de-risking the idea early rather than saving time later.
Trax's own product proves the point. Its automated code-checking system runs a building permit application through by-law, zoning, applicable law, and building code checks, with an initial read-out in about 15 seconds. That's for municipalities and building departments who, as Azam tells it, have been using the same manual workflows for decades because nobody had ever built software for them.
Azam frames the AI-build process as two cycles: an expand phase, where you can generate huge volumes of options fast, and a contract phase, where you narrow down to something tested and reliable enough to hand to a government client. Skipping the second cycle is the mistake he sees founders make most. If you're building for a "highly reliable organization," as he puts it, the exploration phase is the easy part.
His closing point reframes the whole AI conversation: what makes AI impressive isn't the technology itself, any more than a printing press was impressive as a machine. It's the demand for language, and how much you can do once you can process it at scale.
This one's for anyone building AI-powered tools for slow-moving, overlooked industries, and for founders trying to figure out what AI actually changes about how they build.
What do you think of what Azam had to say? Tell us by leaving a comment.
Watch more talks: youtube.com/c/TechTorontoOrg
Upcoming events: techto.org/events
Events calendar: luma.com/TechTO-Events
Newsletter — The read on Canadian tech: blog.techto.org
Membership: techto.org/memberships
#TechTO #TorontoTech #CanadianTech #Startups
Azam Khan co-founded Trax, building-code compliance software, after a research career in simulation and design. His take on AI in product development skips the productivity-hack talk most founders default to.
One of his programmers put it best: "building the product will probably take just as long with AI as without it." The real benefit is that you find out what you're building within days instead of months, so you're de-risking the idea early rather than saving time later.
Trax's own product proves the point. Its automated code-checking system runs a building permit application through by-law, zoning, applicable law, and building code checks, with an initial read-out in about 15 seconds. That's for municipalities and building departments who, as Azam tells it, have been using the same manual workflows for decades because nobody had ever built software for them.
Azam frames the AI-build process as two cycles: an expand phase, where you can generate huge volumes of options fast, and a contract phase, where you narrow down to something tested and reliable enough to hand to a government client. Skipping the second cycle is the mistake he sees founders make most. If you're building for a "highly reliable organization," as he puts it, the exploration phase is the easy part.
His closing point reframes the whole AI conversation: what makes AI impressive isn't the technology itself, any more than a printing press was impressive as a machine. It's the demand for language, and how much you can do once you can process it at scale.
This one's for anyone building AI-powered tools for slow-moving, overlooked industries, and for founders trying to figure out what AI actually changes about how they build.
What do you think of what Azam had to say? Tell us by leaving a comment.
Watch more talks: youtube.com/c/TechTorontoOrg
Upcoming events: techto.org/events
Events calendar: luma.com/TechTO-Events
Newsletter — The read on Canadian tech: blog.techto.org
Membership: techto.org/memberships
#TechTO #TorontoTech #CanadianTech #Startups
