Alec Maki

About Alec Maki

Two decades studying how humans think. Now applying that lens to AI. I\'ve spent my career at the intersection of cognition, measurement, and systems — building things that last. A survey platform that ran 13 years in production. Mobile research methodology recognized by Harvard Business Review. Work that earned an EXPLOR Award for marketing research innovation and AMA \"4 under 40\" recognition. When AI emerged, I didn\'t see a new technology. I saw a new form of cognition — one that superficially resembles human thinking but operates on entirely different principles. The same cognitive science that informed my research career revealed why AI agents keep failing: we\'re treating them like faster humans. They\'re not. The space is moving fast with plenty of opinions, but best practices are few — and often borrowed from traditional software or human management. Neither fits. Now I\'m building Maxism to pioneer Agent Experience Management (AXM) — the discipline of making AI agents trustworthy. Building best practices from first principles. Instead of hoping models get smarter, architecting for how AI actually thinks. Bounded workflows. Zero-trust verification. One agent, one goal, one step. The industry promised the Year of the Agent. Reality delivered compounding failures. Maxism is building the discipline, frameworks, and infrastructure that make agents actually work. Open to connecting with enterprise leaders navigating AI reliability, investors focused on AI infrastructure, and anyone thinking seriously about where this is heading — especially partners interested in forging the discipline of AXM together.

Experience

1. Founder

   Maxism

   Jan 2026 — Present · Winston-Salem, NC, US

   Pioneering Agent Experience Management (AXM) — the discipline of making AI agents trustworthy. What we\'re building- Defining AXM as a category, just as CX defined customer experience management- AXIS: Universal scoring framework for AI agent performance (\"the NPS of AI\")- Quest Blueprints: Design methodology that works with AI cognition, not against it- Scalable Thought Architecture: Infrastructure for bounded, verifiable agent workflowsThe problem we\'re solving: 2025\'s \"Year of the Agent\" became a reckoning. Many enterprises struggled to answer this basic question: can we trust AI agents to do their job well with reliability and security? Many times, the answer is no because LLMs have architectural and mathematical limitations. The economics don\'t scale. Enterprises are stuck in pilot purgatory. Our Approach: We don\'t make AI smarter; we make it systematically reliable. Zero-trust verification. Right agent, right context, right step. Designing for how AI actually thinks, not how we wish it would. Early traction- Whitepaper:\"AI in the Trough of Existential Crisis\"- Building partnerships with enterprises who want to shape AXM as a discipline- Thought leadership establishing the foundational frameworks for AI agent trust- Working agentic software development proof of concept that applies AXM principles to automate development from specification to working code with zero trust gates, full traceability, and AXIS measurement

Education

• Carnegie Mellon University

  N/A, Computer Engineering

  1994 — 1995

• Oregon State University

  Master, Business Administration

  2001 — 2003

• Oregon State University

  B.S., Computer Science and Philosophy (Double Major)

  1996 — 2000

• Oregon State University

  Master, Computer Science

  2003 — 2004

Skills

• Consumer Behavior
• Marketing
• Leadership
• Entrepreneurship
• Customer Insight
• Social Media Research
• Business Planning
• Product Launch
• Segmentation
• Analytics
• Growth Strategies
• Business Strategy
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Competitive Intelligence
• Marketing Strategy
• Digital Media
• Strategic Partnerships
• Market Research
• Product Innovation
• Consumer Behaviour
• Social Media
• Digital Innovation
• Innovation Consulting
• Strategy
• Consumer Products
• Quantitative Research
• Marketing Research
• Consumer Insights
• Market Analysis
• Product Development
• Mobile Devices
• Fmcg