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ABOUT PRIZMA
We built the tools we wished existed.
Prizma was founded on a simple observation: the organizations that need AI most are the ones least well-served by the firms selling it. So we built something different.
$3M+
Financial impact
delivered
500+
Research panel
members
10+
Years in research &
public affairs
DC
Washington,
based
THE FOUNDER STORY
A decade in the field.
Four years building.
Michael Zalesne spent a decade in research and public affairs before spending four years working at the intersection of AI and advocacy. That combination — knowing the domain deeply and being able to build for it — is what Prizma is built on.
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politica.AI started as an internal experiment. The panel practice came out of a recurring frustration: clients needed specialized research audiences we couldn't find fast enough anywhere else. The AI engineering practice has been there from the start — turning intelligence into tools and tools into outcomes.
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None of it was planned as a portfolio. It grew because each piece kept pointing to something the next one could solve.
THE NAME
Why Prizma.
A prism takes unstructured light — chaotic, directionless — and refracts it into something organized and clear. That's the exact metaphor for the work: unstructured data, made useful. The spelling is ours. The idea is exact.
THE COLOR
Why teal.
Our teal comes from the Hebrew word oz — strength. A quiet signal about how we approach the work: not just smart, but durable. Built to last, not just to impress.
עוז · Oz
Strength
THE TEAM
The people behind the work.
Michael Zalesne
FOUNDER & CEO
A decade in research and public affairs, four years at the intersection of AI and advocacy. Michael founded Prizma to give research, communications, and public affairs teams the infrastructure they needed but couldn't find. He speaks regularly on AI in public affairs and is based in Washington, DC.
Khanh Tran
FULL STACK ENGINEER
Khanh builds and maintains the client-facing side of Prizma's products — making sure that sophisticated backend capability shows up as something fast, clean, and easy to use on the front end.
Brenton Cromwell
CTO
Brenton leads the technical architecture across everything Prizma builds — including politica.AI. He brings deep experience in AI systems design and full-stack development, and has a particular talent for making complex infrastructure feel simple on the surface.
Z Johnson
LEAD, RESEARCH TECHNOLOGY
Z runs the systems that power Prizma's panel operations — recruitment infrastructure, data collection, and the technical backbone that makes fielding specialized audiences in under a week actually possible.
Ankur Singhania
DATA SCIENCE LEAD
Ankur leads the modeling work behind politica.AI — including the validation framework that cross-references AI predictions against real panel data. He's the reason the platform's outputs are defensible, not just plausible.
Jake Tilton
PROJECT MANAGER
Jake makes sure every engagement runs the way it should — on time, on scope, and with the kind of communication that keeps clients informed without overwhelming them. The person who keeps everything moving.
HOW WE WORK
A few things we believe.
I.
We build things,
we don't just advise on them.
The measure of an engagement is what exists at the end of it — a tool, a system, a capability — not a document describing what could exist.
II.
We take on a small number of engagements at a time.
The measure of an engagement is what exists at the end of it — a tool, a system, a capability — not a document describing what could exist.
III.
We're honest about what we can and can't do.
politica.AI has a roadmap. Our panels have limits. We tell clients what's true — including when someone else might be a better fit for what they need.
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