Technology today influences economies faster than policy can react. Artificial intelligence to decentralized finance, new technology covers millions before policymakers can define a reaction. Regulations are too often written in bubbles, best intentions but removed from the world of software development.
The result is either ineffectual regulation or burdensome enough restrictions that kill innovation.
Habeeb Amode presents an opposing argument: one where seasoned engineers are explicitly engaged in the regulatory conversation.
An engineer who has experience working on systems handling sensitive data and high-security financial transactions, he sees up close how policy propagates into codebases and user interfaces.
To Habeeb, “builders at the table” is a phrase that means something stronger than technical advisory after the draft of law. It is regulators and engineers working together to construct frameworks upfront.
He often cites the gap between high-minded data-privacy regulations and the complex trade-offs required to implement them at scale.
In the absence of engineering input, policies risk creating security loopholes, requiring costly rewrites, or discouraging startups from entering vital domains.
His practice-informed advocacy. When there was a national digital-services initiative, Habeeb partnered with government agencies to develop APIs that met open-data purposes as well as stringent privacy requirements.
By demonstrating regulators how encryption, layers of access control, and audit trails could be integrated into architecture, he helped regulators craft rules that were enforceable and innovation friendly.
Habeeb also trains young engineers to view compliance as not an obstacle but a design limitation that results in better solutions. He organizes internal seminars on secure-by-default design and auto-testing of policy, showing how meticulous engineering can translate regulation-speak into scalable systems.
In his view, through embedding policy in the early bloodstream of developers, they end up building software that anticipates regulation instead of desperately retrofitting.
The implications are large. Misinformed regulation can hold back the take-up of core technologies like digital payments or cloud computing, especially in the developing world. Joint regulation, on the other hand, can enable trust, attract investment, and protect users without constraining growth.
Habeeb’s work demonstrates that engineers speaking with policymakers can bridge this gap and ensure technology empowers society while still driving innovation.
In a world where code too often gets ahead of law, Habeeb Amode is waging a simple but revolutionary battle: future builders must help build the rules of the future.
His work reminds both technologists and regulators that innovation and protection are not enemies but rather allies when builders become guests at the table.
