Jared De Kock

Building an edge-based AI vision system for physical security that runs analytics on the camera itself to reduce latency and false alarms. Targeting use cases including facial recognition for access control, watchlist alerts, intrusion/perimeter detection, and behavioral anomaly flagging with on-device processing for POPIA compliance.

Developing an agentic AI commerce layer for Shopify that answers shopper questions in real time and turns conversations into conversion insights merchants can act on. Designing the product as a Shopify embedded app with a provider-agnostic LLM layer and a data architecture using Postgres/pgvector.

Co-founded a sustainable firewood business and built a digital-marketing strategy that consistently generates 80+ orders per month. Used the revenue to self-fund university tuition while driving ongoing growth.

Built agency-wide AI infrastructure for a multi-brand US marketing group, designing a phased roadmap covering 40+ AI agents and automations. Shipped an AI client dashboard and automation platform (Next.js, Supabase, n8n, Vercel) running at roughly $44/month and piloted controlled Claude-to-ad actions with safety rails and audit logging.

Managed and grew enterprise partnerships for Perplexity, curating an e-commerce offerwall and AI-search commerce integrations that enhanced the platform's Pro experience. Partnered with product and engineering to improve conversion via intent-based targeting and troubleshoot tracking, data flows, and integration logic.

Led end-to-end affiliate strategy across APAC and LATAM, expanding the partner network and optimizing campaigns. Improved ROI by 45%+ in the first quarter of US market entry and drove a 30% uplift in regional performance through data-driven onboarding and campaign tuning.

Handled critical incident response for high-risk consumer complaints by logging and escalating cases from social media and calls into structured CRM workflows. Focused on protecting consumer safety and company reputation through timely, well-governed case handling.

Grade: Distinctions (e.g., 97 Cloud-Based Technologies; 92 AI Ethics & Privacy; 91 Computer Network Technologies)

BSc in IT (Software Engineering) studied full-time alongside work. Earned distinctions in modules including Cloud-Based Technologies (97), Procedural Programming (92), AI Ethics & Privacy (92), and Non-Technical Skills for IT (92).

Completed the National Senior Certificate (Matric).