Skip to content

Hi, I'm

Danyal Ali Asghar.

I turn documents and data into useful AI.

I'm a Senior AI Engineer with 7+ years across software, data engineering and AI. I build Python and Azure applications that help teams work with complex documents, find answers in their knowledge base and automate everyday workflows.

Take a look at my work

About me

I started with data analysis and Python automation, moved into full stack development and data engineering, and now build AI applications. That path shapes how I work: I care about the data going in, the answers coming out and what happens when a step fails.

At Al Rafay Consulting, I build document intelligence for commercial lease review. I've also developed knowledge assistants, connected speech recognition to conversational AI and built the data pipelines that support analytics and automated workflows.

I'm most interested in work where AI has a clear, practical purpose. I focus on useful outputs, validation and reliable delivery, with enough visibility to understand what a system is doing.

I earned my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at COMSATS University Islamabad, where I studied from 2014 to 2019. Here's the toolkit I bring to my work.

I’m based in Karachi, Pakistan.

What I work with

  • Python & APIsPython, SQL, FastAPI, Flask, Django, REST APIs, JavaScript
  • LLM frameworks & retrievalLangChain, LangGraph, LlamaIndex, RAG, Azure AI Search, Pinecone, FAISS, prompt engineering
  • AI & evaluationAzure OpenAI, OpenAI GPT, Azure Mistral OCR, Whisper, structured extraction, Hugging Face Transformers, PyTorch, scikit-learn, model evaluation
  • Data engineeringAirflow, dbt, ETL/ELT, PostgreSQL, Redshift, MongoDB, Cosmos DB, Pandas, NumPy
  • Cloud & deliveryAzure, AWS, Azure Functions, Blob Storage, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, Git, data validation and monitoring

Where I’ve worked

September 2025 - Present | Karachi

Senior AI Engineer

Al Rafay Consulting

  • I built an AI lease-abstraction platform for life sciences REITs, turning commercial documents into structured information and reducing manual review for acquisition and asset-management teams.
  • I combined PDFPlumber, Azure Mistral OCR and dynamic heading extraction to handle varied biotech and pharmaceutical lease formats.
  • I used OpenAI and Azure Mistral extraction workflows to organize lease content into fields and metadata, improving abstraction speed and consistency.
  • I established tenant isolation in Azure Blob Storage and Cosmos DB, separating scanned documents from processed outputs.
  • I added validation, graceful handling of non-critical failures, streaming uploads, progress reporting and stage-level timing to make processing more reliable and easier to monitor.

July 2021 - August 2025 | Karachi

Python/AI Engineer

dinCloud

  • I built modular, testable ELT workflows with Python, SQL, Apache Airflow and dbt to process data from multiple sources.
  • I designed warehouse schemas and data models in Redshift and PostgreSQL to support analytics dashboards and ad hoc business reporting.
  • I developed a voice-assistant prototype that connected Whisper speech-to-text with GPT-4 responses, then refined prompt templates to improve response quality and latency.
  • I integrated AI features through Python APIs and cloud services, supported by validation, monitoring and automated data-processing workflows.

March 2020 - March 2021 | Islamabad

Full Stack Developer

Web Projects Sendirian Berhad (SDN BHD)

  • I built responsive ReactJS interfaces with JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Material UI, connecting user-facing features to back-end APIs.
  • I developed, debugged and tested APIs to support those application features.
  • I collaborated in an agile team using Git and Bitbucket to manage changes.

January 2019 - February 2020 | Islamabad

Data Analyst

Vizz Web Solutions

  • I reduced legacy script code by 75% by migrating Node.js scripts to Python and simplifying existing data-processing tasks.
  • I automated text collection and real-time ingestion with REST APIs, Tweepy, Telethon and GoogleNewsAPI, preparing source data for NLP analysis.
  • I analyzed sentiment with TextBlob and VADER and managed source and processed text in MongoDB through PyMongo.

What I’ve built

I work across document intelligence, retrieval and automation. Here’s a closer look at the systems I’ve built and the decisions behind them.

My work at Al Rafay Consulting

Lease Abstraction AI Platform

I turned complex commercial leases into structured information for acquisition and asset-management teams.

I built this platform to reduce manual lease review for life sciences REITs. I combined PDFPlumber, Azure Mistral OCR and dynamic heading extraction to handle varied biotech and pharmaceutical lease formats, then used OpenAI and Azure Mistral to map the content into organized fields and metadata.

I also built the processing around the documents: tenant isolation in Azure Blob Storage and Cosmos DB, validation and graceful handling of non-critical failures. I added streaming uploads, progress reporting and stage-level timing so the team could follow a document through processing.

  • Python
  • Azure Mistral OCR
  • OpenAI
  • Blob Storage
  • Cosmos DB
  • PDFPlumber

My selected project

GenAI Knowledge Assistant

I built document Q&A to help people find answers in internal documentation and policy archives.

I built a retrieval-augmented knowledge assistant with OpenAI, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Pinecone and FastAPI. I combined embedding search with prompt chains so questions could draw on relevant material from internal documentation and policy archives.

I connected retrieval and response generation through an API, bringing document search into a question-and-answer workflow. I focused the project on a practical use of generative AI: helping people work with information already held in their documents.

  • OpenAI GPT
  • LangChain
  • LlamaIndex
  • Pinecone
  • FastAPI

My selected project

AI Workflow Automation

I connected AI inference, data transformations and quality checks to deliver scheduled insights and alerts.

I connected Azure OpenAI, Azure Functions, Python, Airflow and dbt to orchestrate model inference alongside data transformations. I brought these steps into scheduled workflows that produced insights and alerts.

I included quality checks in the workflow so validation sat alongside the processing work. I approached AI inference as one part of a data pipeline, with orchestration and transformations supporting the final output.

  • Azure OpenAI
  • Azure Functions
  • Python
  • dbt
  • Airflow

My prototype at dinCloud

Voice Assistant Prototype

I connected speech recognition with GPT-4 to explore a conversational voice interface.

At dinCloud, I developed a voice-assistant prototype that connected Whisper speech-to-text with GPT-4 responses. I built the path from spoken input to a conversational answer, bringing speech recognition and language generation into one workflow.

I refined prompt templates to improve conversational response quality and latency. I used the prototype to work through those two practical concerns together: how the assistant responded and how long someone had to wait for its answer.

  • Whisper STT
  • GPT-4
  • Python

How I keep learning

I’ve completed the following certifications and training in AI and Python.

Get in touch with me

Let's talk

I'd be glad to hear about an AI engineering role, a document workflow that needs improving or a data problem you're working through. Send me a little context by email, or book a 30-minute call to talk it through.