Bernadette Smail

AI Product Lead & Builder · Agentic Systems · AIaaS

Professional profile

AI product leader and hands-on builder with 20+ years turning complex customer and operational problems into useful, adopted products. Founder of SYSTEMshift and product lead for Human2ai.ca (H:AI), an AI-as-a-Service platform combining brand-locked account-manager agents, specialist agents, custom tools, connected accounts, approval gates, and reusable client workflows. Brings enterprise AI discovery and service-design experience from IBM iX and product leadership from TD together with current delivery across agentic systems, conversational AI, voice and video agents, intelligent automation, and multimodal media. Builds from discovery through deployment with Claude Design, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, VS Code Copilot, and the Anthropic and OpenAI APIs.

Professional experience

Founder & Principal Consultant

Jan 2024 – present

SYSTEMshift AI Strategy Inc. · Toronto, Canada

• Own product strategy, discovery, architecture, hands-on build, and release decisions for Human2ai.ca (H:AI), an AI-as-a-Service platform for small and mid-sized businesses. • Translate founder and operator needs into brand-locked account-manager agents, specialist-agent workflows, custom client tools, connected accounts, approval gates, and reusable services. • Build and ship with Claude Design, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and VS Code Copilot across the Anthropic and OpenAI APIs using TypeScript, React, Node/Express, PostgreSQL, Cloudinary, and Render. • Originated and technically developed Klara Klartext with OMAS GEGEN RECHTS Hürth; co-built the Matti student-facing video-agent kiosk PoC with Toni Michel / Kung[foo]. • Built H2AI’s Higgsfield integration for approval-gated social video and product-campaign workflows, including provider routing, worker orchestration, and artifact lineage. • Shipped ElevenLabs voice agents for inbound reception and outbound appointment booking with calendar, Cal.com, n8n, and Odoo integrations.

Senior Manager, Service Design

Jun 2022 – Apr 2024

TD Bank / TD Invent · Toronto, Canada

Led the intrapreneur build of a UX Research Repository as Product Owner, Service Designer, Product Design Lead, and Developer. Served 400+ HCD staff, iterated through 50+ prototypes, unlocked 12 years of research artifacts, saved approximately 234 hours per researcher annually, avoided $120K in licensing, and received the Above and Beyond Award in 2023.

Senior User Experience Consultant

Feb 2016 – Jun 2022

IBM iX · Toronto, Canada

Led enterprise AI use-case discovery and North Star visioning with C-suite stakeholders during the Watson era across banking, education, airlines, and government. Built a reusable CCaaS enablement framework for 60+ TD lines of business and delivered strategy, research, service design, architecture, and product direction for Canada.ca, TD, BMO, RBC, Elections Canada, and IBM i2 Analyst’s Notebook.

Senior Information Architect

Oct 2010 – Dec 2015

Grip Limited · Toronto, Canada

Led research, information architecture, and usability work for Honda, Acura, Budweiser, Taco Bell, McCain, Splenda, Neutrogena, and Wonderbread.

Information Architect / Creative Team Lead

Jan 2009 – Oct 2010

Affinity Health · Toronto, Canada

Designed the end-to-end information architecture for a secure U.S. military portal and mentored the team in qualitative human-centred-design methods.

UX Designer / PHP Developer

Nov 2006 – Dec 2008

Netex Enterprises Inc. · Toronto, Canada

Built a patient-management system for the Elkie Adler Assistive Technology Clinic at Baycrest and Sunnybrook and a full-stack digital-signage platform using PHP and ActionScript 3.

Selected AI and design technology builds

Product Lead & Hands-on Builder

Owner-approved AI business team and client portal for SMBs combining brand-locked account-manager agents, specialist agents, connected accounts, custom tools, client-specific skills, approval gates, and reusable workflows. Uses Anthropic and OpenAI APIs and runs independently on a production web stack.

Originator & Technical Product Lead

Developed with OMAS GEGEN RECHTS Hürth and launched into public test in March 2026. The multilingual assistant supports political-statement analysis, responses to populist slogans, news interpretation, and age-appropriate educator materials. Product work spans discovery, conversational modes, guardrails, public launch, brand and campaign systems, and H2AI workflow integration.

Matti — student-facing video-agent school-kiosk PoC

2026 – present

Co-builder

Early multilingual technical PoC built with Toni Michel / Kung[foo]. Matti gives pupils a low-threshold first step for conflict, bullying, exclusion, digital harms, uncertainty, or asking for help, then prepares an explicit handoff to an authorized adult. Pedagogical, privacy, provider, and escalation decisions remain approval gates.

H2AI × Higgsfield media workflows

2026 – present

Product Integration Lead

Approval-gated integration for social video, product animation, and campaign-media generation, preserving brand, product, source-asset, and generated-artifact lineage.

Education

Credential of Readiness (CORe)

Harvard Business School Online

Business Analytics · Economics for Managers · Financial Accounting

2024

Staatlich geprüfte Grafikdesignerin

Richard-Riemerschmid-Berufskolleg

Berufsausbildung

1995

Geprüfte Multimedia-Designerin

InMedia Bildung

Berufliche Weiterbildung

1998

Credentials

IBM AI Product Manager Professional Certificate

IBM / Coursera · 2025

ID 018G1TX5X0YV

OKR Certification: Leadership and Goal Setting

Measure What Matters · 2024

Enterprise Design Thinking Co-Creator

IBM · 2018

Design Thinking Practitioner

IBM · 2016

Certified Experience Researcher

Akendi · 2014

ID 131240260

Recognition

Above and Beyond Award

TD Invent · 2023

Bee Epic Coach

IBM Canada · 2022

Delivery Excellence Award

IBM · 2020