# Soulaiman Itani

> Soulaiman Itani is a Lebanese engineer, founder and technology executive based in Mountain View, California. Trained in electrical engineering and computer science at the American University of Beirut and MIT, he founded augmented-reality company Atheer, later led fast-growing and applied-AI work at Google, helped launch Incantor AI, and now serves as General Manager and head of Middle East at Applied Intuition, where his remit connects physical AI with mobility and industrial projects across the region.

- **Role:** General Manager and head of Middle East at Applied Intuition
- **Organizations:** Applied Intuition, Incantor AI, Accenture, Google, Atheer, StoryGiants, GiveVision, Hookline, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, American University of Beirut
- **Nationality:** Lebanese
- **Education:** PhD, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Master's degree, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, BE, Computer and Communications Engineering, American University of Beirut
- **Known for:** Founded Atheer and helped develop an early mobile, gestural 3-D computing platform before major consumer mixed-reality products reached the market., Built an early Atheer team of 18 people and developed low-power hand- and gesture-detection technology, according to his public professional biography., Demonstrated Atheer’s mobile holographic interaction system onstage at the 2013 D11 conference.

## Career timeline

- **2002-2004** — Worked as a research assistant at the American University of Beirut.
- **2004-2009** — Worked as a research engineer at MIT while completing graduate degrees in electrical engineering and computer science.
- **2009-2013** — Held a postdoctoral role at UC Berkeley and worked on computational modeling.
- **2012** — Founded Atheer to develop gestural, near-eye augmented-reality computing.
- **2013** — Demonstrated Atheer’s mobile 3-D interface at the D11 conference and began steering the company toward enterprise uses.
- **2014-2017** — Served as founder and CTO of Atheer, leading product, intellectual property and technology partnerships.
- **2017-2018** — Returned to the CEO role at Atheer and later remained connected as a board member.
- **2018** — Joined Google as a software engineering manager and also took board roles with GiveVision and Hookline.
- **2023** — Was presented by StoryGiants as its technology lead and as a leader of applied-AI work at Google.
- **2025** — Announced Incantor AI, an AI localization company, as a co-founder while continuing work with Accenture.
- **2026** — Became General Manager and head of Middle East at Applied Intuition.

## Achievements

- Founded Atheer and helped develop an early mobile, gestural 3-D computing platform before major consumer mixed-reality products reached the market.
- Built an early Atheer team of 18 people and developed low-power hand- and gesture-detection technology, according to his public professional biography.
- Demonstrated Atheer’s mobile holographic interaction system onstage at the 2013 D11 conference.
- Co-authored research on dynamic systems, vehicle-routing problems, causal networks and biomolecular pathways.
- Completed both master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.
- Led Google teams in applied AI and fast-growing products; a StoryGiants biography credits one ads product with growing from $64 million to $1.5 billion in one year.
- Helped launch the first user-facing instance of LaMDA, according to his StoryGiants biography.
- Co-founded Incantor AI and helped develop an audiovisual localization and lip-sync product based on a light fractal model.
- Now leads Applied Intuition’s Middle East business during its expansion into large-scale physical-AI programs in Saudi Arabia.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Applied Intuition and HUMAIN announced a strategic collaboration targeting thousands of autonomous trucks on Saudi logistics corridors by 2030, with later expansion contemplated for robotaxis, ports, mining, manufacturing, agriculture and construction.
- **2026-09** — Itani publicly identified himself as General Manager and head of Middle East at Applied Intuition and promoted the company’s Saudi physical-AI partnerships.
- **2026-09** — Echelon and Applied Intuition announced a partnership to support physical-AI programs in Saudi Arabia across mobility, ports, mining and industrial automation.
- **2025-12** — Published a New York Times opinion essay about helping children retain independent thought and learn to verify AI-generated information.
- **2025-10** — Announced Incantor AI and its audiovisual localization and smart lip-sync work with co-founders and collaborators.

## Links

- Website: https://www.appliedintuition.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soulaimanitani
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/soulaimanitani
- GitHub: https://github.com/soulaimanitani

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/soulaiman-itani
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27