Sam Dhesi

Sam Dhesi is a Cambridge-trained data scientist and product leader of South Asian heritage whose career has spanned clinical medicine, government technology, and artificial intelligence. He began his professional life as a surgeon in the NHS, before transitioning into tech after building a viral app during the COVID-19 pandemic that connected healthcare workers with volunteer support — an experience that fundamentally changed his view of what technology could do for large-scale, human-centred problems.

That pivot led Sam to become Head of Emerging Technology to the UK Government during the COVID-19 crisis, where he oversaw AI and data science initiatives deployed at national scale. He subsequently moved into product director and research engineering roles in the private sector, working at the intersection of healthcare data and value-based care. His time at Lantum, a healthcare workforce platform, deepened his understanding of how broken talent processes were costing organisations and workers alike.

In 2023, Sam co-founded Popp AI alongside James Cochrane-Dyet and Ilyès Benmansour, driven by the same observation: that recruitment — particularly at volume — was failing both employers and candidates by stripping human connection from the process. As CEO, Sam has built a platform that uses conversational AI to enable recruiters to engage thousands of candidates simultaneously in meaningful, personalised dialogue, while automating the administrative burden that consumes most of a recruiter's day.

Under his leadership, Popp AI has partnered with some of the world's largest staffing firms, including Randstad, and was showcased by Randstad's SVP of Talent Advisory at the AI4Talent conference. The company closed a £3.6 million seed round in November 2024, received a Breakthrough Culture Award, and has been independently audited for AI fairness by Warden AI. Sam is a vocal advocate for responsible AI in hiring and a regular contributor to conversations about the future of work.