About the Author

Glen Ansell is a South African technology executive, entrepreneur and lifelong builder who works where ambitious technology meets operational reality. He wrote his first code at seven, founded his first IT business at 23, and has since spent more than two decades building businesses and systems across software, cloud, automation, data, industrial IoT and artificial intelligence.

As Chief Commercial and Operations Officer at Tangent Solutions, Glen helps organisations turn AI from a boardroom talking point into useful tools, integrated platforms and measurable business outcomes. He has also founded and built technology ventures—including industrial IoT company Scymyn—giving him the perspective of both an executive deciding where to invest and a practitioner responsible for making the technology work.

His academic background combines an MSc in Research Psychology with a Harvard certificate in artificial intelligence. That combination has shaped his interest in evidence, human judgement and the increasingly complicated relationship between people and intelligent machines.

Glen is neither an AI evangelist nor a doomsayer. More Than Parrots, Less Than Gods is written from the middle of the mess: by someone who has seen genuinely valuable systems, expensive failures, inflated promises and the uncomfortable gap between an impressive demonstration and technology that survives contact with a real organisation.

He lives in South Africa with his daughter and four dogs. When he is not building businesses or technology, he plays tennis and padel—and has a habit of turning supposed side projects into entirely new ventures.