Cole Um

Founder

For nearly a decade at Booz Allen Hamilton, Cole led the delivery of mission-critical systems in some of the most demanding, heavily regulated environments in government, where systems had to operate within strict policy, compliance, and oversight. He modernized platforms used at national scale and worked directly with stakeholders at every level, from daily system users to senior executives, technical leaders, and agency CIOs, translating complex requirements into systems built to perform when it counts.

He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, with a minor in Business Administration.

The gap between AI strategy and business reality.

Years inside large-scale modernization left Cole focused on a bigger shift underway in technology, and what it would mean for the businesses caught in it. He built Aethis to meet it: as software grows more autonomous and begins taking real action inside companies, he helps them find where AI creates real value, where it does not, and how to adopt it in a way they can trust and control.

AI is not just another set of tools. It is changing how companies operate, how decisions get made, how teams work together, and how leaders think about growth, efficiency, and strategy.

Much of the AI conversation today is about moving fast: adopt, experiment, deploy. But for most businesses, building that capability in-house means closing a steep skill and knowledge gap first, a real investment of time and resources before anything proves out. The advantage comes from getting the direction right early, while adapting around a technology moving faster than most companies were built to absorb.

Cole founded Aethis on the belief that many businesses are entering a shift larger than they realize. Over time, AI will reshape what customers expect, how work is structured, and how companies build and hold a competitive edge.

His mission is to help companies move through that shift deliberately, replacing guesswork with clarity before they commit to a direction.