v8.0 · current release

Julia Bilad

Director of AI Product Management. The one who reads the data before the deck.

Data science engineer, then analyst, then product manager, now building AI products in fintech. Eight years of shipping, with the release notes to prove it.

8+
years across data science, AI and product
~8%
credit score uplift from a telco data partnership
1st
production AI personalization at Maya
Work with me → See the changelog
README

About

Short version: she likes the problem more than the feature.

Julia builds AI products that serve the people most products forget, with the data to back the roadmap and the taste to keep the interface human.

She started as a data science engineer building NLP pipelines and chatbots, which means she can read the model output, argue with the SQL, and still present the business case to leadership. Since then she has shipped credit scoring, personalization, LLM-powered tools and analytics products, mostly in regulated fintech, working within BSP, CIC, AMLA and Data Privacy Act requirements.

Her focus areas are personalization, LLM and agentic systems, data products, AI guardrails, and AI for good. She works where technology, the sciences and the arts overlap.

Draft · Julia to review
Changelog

Experience

Newest release first. Earlier versions are still compatible.

  1. v8.0Nov 2026

    Director of AI Product Management

    Boost Capital

    Leading AI product strategy and roadmap.

  2. v7.0Nov 2025 – Apr 2026

    Data Product Manager

    Advance.AI · Makati
    • Owned strategy and lifecycle for core credit scoring and credit reporting products, in line with CIC standards.
    • Drove a ~8% uplift in the telco-based credit score through a data partnership, and developed a multi-source scoring concept combining CIC and partner signals.
    • Defined the vision and requirements for an LLM-powered loan pricing assistant with responsible AI guardrails.
    • Led concept and POC evaluation for a collections signals product, and end-to-end deployment of ML models.
  3. v6.0Oct 2022 – Oct 2025

    AI & Data Product Manager

    Maya Philippines · Mandaluyong
    • Led the vision and roadmap for AI and data products across the organization.
    • Launched Maya's first production AI-driven personalization systems, with ~1–2% conversion uplift within two months of launch.
    • Pioneered live A/B testing of AI models through push notification content without app releases, lifting Bills Payment repeat rate by ~2%.
    • Built Maya Business's first merchant analytics feature, reaching ~70% test partner adoption.
    • Established analytics practices that drove ~15% funnel growth in six months.
  4. v5.1Feb – Jul 2022

    Data Analytics Mentor

    Eskwelabs · Remote

    Taught two cohorts through the Data Analytics Bootcamp.

  5. v5.0Dec 2021 – Oct 2022

    Product Manager

    PICK.A.ROO · Taguig

    Owned the Customer App roadmap and led the release of Website Ordering, a major source of GMV growth.

  6. v4.0Oct 2020 – Dec 2021

    Product Manager

    ZAPGroup Inc. · Pasig

    Launched Shopify and mobile apps for order fulfillment across multi-branch restaurants.

  7. v3.0Nov 2019 – Mar 2020

    Data Analyst

    Rappler · Pasig

    Built stakeholder dashboards and campaign reporting using audience network and topic cluster analysis.

  8. v2.0Jul 2017 – Nov 2019

    Data Science Engineer

    Pez.AI Inc. · Mandaluyong

    Built NLP pipelines and ML models powering conversational chatbots, and led the software team.

  9. v1.0origin

    Education

    • BS Computer Science, University of the Philippines Los Baños2017
    • Analytics for Business, Ateneo de Manila University CCE2019
    • Data Analytics Bootcamp, Eskwelabs2021
Shipped

AI Projects & Case Studies

What, how, and what happened. No buzzword bingo.

Case study · Maya

AI personalization, live in production

What
Maya's first production AI-driven personalization systems.
How
Live A/B testing of models through push notification content, with no app release needed.
Result
~1–2% conversion uplift within two months, and ~2% lift in Bills Payment repeat rate.
Case study · Advance.AI

Better credit scores from alternative data

What
Core credit scoring and reporting products for lenders.
How
A telco data partnership, plus a multi-source concept combining CIC and partner signals.
Result
~8% uplift in the telco-based credit score.
Concept · Advance.AI

LLM loan pricing assistant

What
An assistant that generates customized lending plans.
How
Multi-partner financial signals, with responsible AI guardrails designed in from the start.
Result
Product vision and system requirements defined.
Case study · Maya Business

Merchant analytics for SMEs

What
Maya Business's first merchant analytics and insights feature.
How
Built and launched with test partners in the SME segment.
Result
~70% test partner adoption, and a key differentiator for SMEs.
Now taking clients

Consulting

For teams who want AI that ships, works, and stays out of trouble.

Julia takes on a small number of advisory projects alongside her full-time role, for teams that want AI products grounded in real data and real users.

Strategy

AI product strategy

Find where AI actually earns its place in your product, then turn it into a roadmap with a business case behind it.

Build

LLM and agentic products

Scope, prototype and evaluate LLM-powered features, from first POC to something your team can deploy.

Trust

AI guardrails for regulated industries

Design responsible AI into fintech and other regulated products, with compliance, risk and data privacy in the room from day one.

Data

Personalization and data products

Personalization, experimentation and analytics that move conversion, retention and adoption.

Have a problem worth solving?

Send a short note on what you're building and where you're stuck. Advisory calls, workshops and project engagements are all on the table.

jolly.ann.bilad@gmail.com
Start a conversation →
Open questions

Research

The things she keeps thinking about in the shower.

  • AI for goodHow can AI open up access to finance and education for people the system usually leaves out?
  • AI guardrailsHow do you keep agentic systems useful and safe in regulated industries?
  • Personalization for the underservedWhat does good personalization look like for people with thin data trails?
  • Data as a productHow can data be monetized responsibly, with the people it describes in mind?

Papers, notes and talks will be linked here.

Talks, press & articles

Works

Where she's been on stage without a costume.

  • TalkPyCon Philippines · "Put your analysis in a web app using Dash"2018
  • TalkWomen Who Code Manila Tech Summit · Intro to NLP Pipelines2018
  • HackathonWomen Who Code Manila Hackathon · Predicting goods prices with regression2017
  • MentorWomen Who Code Manila · AI/ML and Data Science in R study groups2017–now
The sensible part

Resume

The full version lives on LinkedIn. A PDF is available on request.

LinkedIn → Request the PDF
Core expertiseAI product strategy · LLM applications · Credit scoring and risk models · Personalization systems · NLP · Experimentation and A/B testing · AI governance · ML productization · Fintech compliance
ProductProduct discovery · Customer journey mapping · Roadmapping · Agile · Figma · JIRA · Confluence
TechnicalPython · SQL · R · Pandas · scikit-learn · spaCy · GCP · AWS
AnalyticsPower BI · Tableau · Google Data Studio
Get in touch

Contact

Speaking, judging, advising, or a good problem.

Email
jolly.ann.bilad@gmail.com
LinkedIn
in/jollyanncruzbilad
Based in
Metro Manila
Off the clock

She's also an artist, working under the name Julia Gallos. Different site, different lighting.

Julia Gallos →