Zeeshan Zia

Principal Applied Scientist, AWS · Founder & Former CEO, Retrocausal

I build AI products from zero to one, turning emerging research into applications that solve real-world problems. I love the full cycle: discovering problems with users, rapidly prototyping, testing ideas in the real world, and scaling what works.

Currently, I'm a Principal Applied Scientist at AWS, working on computer-use agents, agent harnesses, reinforcement learning, and reliable execution of complex tasks.

Previously, I co-founded and led Retrocausal, where we brought multimodal AI products from early research prototypes to deployments with leading global manufacturers. I raised nearly $15M in venture capital, scaled the company to 100+ people, and worked directly with customers to turn technical capabilities into useful products.

Earlier at Microsoft, I conceived and shipped Azure Object Anchors, bringing Spatial AI capabilities to enterprise developers. My interests span agentic AI, multimodal learning, and autonomous systems that improve through experience.