In this episode of Conversations with Zena, My AI Colleague, David Espindola sits down with Michael Ulin, co-founder and CEO of Tenki AI, to explore one of the most consequential frontiers in modern decision-making: how humans and AI collaborate under uncertainty.

Michael brings a rare perspective shaped by a decade of building and scaling AI companies across insurance, legal tech, and now probabilistic forecasting. The conversation traces his journey from early “big data” work at McKinsey, through pioneering AI wildfire and climate-risk models, to his current focus on prediction markets—where AI agents scan thousands of markets to surface mispriced probabilities and improve collective forecasting.

Together, David, Michael, and Zena examine how prediction markets work, why humans are systematically biased when making forecasts, and how AI can apply rigorous frameworks that were once limited to PhD economists and elite consulting firms. At the same time, they confront a deeper question: if AI makes markets more efficient, where does human intuition still matter? Michael argues that the future belongs not to AI alone, but to human-AI collaboration—where machine-driven probabilistic baselines are amplified by human creativity, judgment, and insight.

The episode also offers grounded advice for AI entrepreneurs navigating a crowded landscape: why delivering real business value matters more than hype, how to think about differentiation without obsessing over “moats,” and why validating customer pain before building is still the timeless discipline of entrepreneurship.

This is a thoughtful, practical, and forward-looking conversation about forecasting, bias, creativity, and what it really means to build—and decide—in the age of intelligent machines.

Opening to Conversations with Zena.

Music at the the end of each episode

Support the show