Ryan Harvey, Head of AI Engineering at Compare the Market:
My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons
Jack Parsons
4.2 • 8 Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode Guest
Ryan Harvey is Head of AI Engineering at Compare the Market, where he builds teams and capabilities to apply AI in ways that accelerate delivery and increase the impact engineers can have. He’s passionate about mentoring, practical problem-solving, and helping the next generation thrive as the world of work rapidly changes.
Episode Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:27 From a Chip Shop in Cyprus to Tech Support
3:07 Automating the Job: Learning to Work Smarter
5:16 Where Ryan’s Love for Tech Began
8:27 What Makes a Great Software Engineer?
11:45 Learning the Hard Way: Early Career Mistakes
14:06 Cheers and Chores in Engineering
16:54 Startup Life vs Corporate Engineering
19:05 The Pressure of Mission-Critical Software
20:20 Why Compare the Market?
22:09 How to Stand Out in an Engineering Interview
24:04 The Power of Mentors (Inside and Outside Tech)
30:12 The Best Career Advice: Seek Forgiveness, Not Permission
32:23 The Future of Engineering in the AI Era
34:52 AI Won’t Replace Engineers – It Will Elevate Them
37:48 Are We Underestimating Junior Engineers?
41:46 How to Break into Software Engineering Today
43:43 What Gets Ryan Out of Bed in the Morning
Episode Partners
📊 Compare the Market
Discover how you can make a difference at Compare the Market, the company behind one of the UK’s most popular comparison sites. From tech and data to marketing and operations, they’re on a mission to simplify decisions for millions.
https://bit.ly/4i53Svj
Disclaimer:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | AI is fundamentally going to change how we think about the nature of what we do at work. The thought process here is not this is about replacing people. The thought process is instead, okay, what opportunity does that present for the people? How much impact one person can have? We don't know what AI is going to look like in a year's time or two years or three years. It's just changing. Don't wait for things to come to you. |
| 0:21.6 | Take a step back, look around where the gaps are, and then put your best foot forward. |
| 0:26.6 | Hi, my name is Ryan Harvey, and I'm the head of AI engineering at Compare the Market. |
| 0:30.6 | We have 800 employees across UK and France, and this is my do very faith. |
| 0:34.6 | Where did your love of tech come from you can just plug in |
| 0:39.2 | a game and start playing it there was typically some code you had to write to get the thing to run in the |
| 0:43.3 | first place but I always had a really deep passion for computers and understanding fundamentally how to |
| 0:49.5 | solve problems in a way that meant I didn't have to do it myself and what is your advice to anyone |
| 0:53.8 | who's starting their career in software engineering? |
| 0:57.0 | Taking a step back and looking around at your organisation and spotting the gaps for where things could be better, |
| 1:02.0 | that's the difference between a good and a great software engineer. |
| 1:06.0 | There's a software engineer. What was the things that you wanted to shy away from? |
| 1:10.0 | It's admin. That's the answer to your question to a question admin have you not found a way to |
| 1:13.3 | automate that yet being the being the most of the boring stuff every job has |
| 1:18.8 | cheers and chores your employment contract is there to do the chores it's your job to make the |
| 1:23.6 | cheers happen yeah precisely what should do they flip what gets you out of bed in the morning |
| 1:27.0 | to flip the duvet? |
| 1:28.3 | So there's two things. |
| 1:29.3 | It's either... Hi, my name is Ryan Harvey. Now I'm the head of AI engineering at Compare the Market. Just before I sit down with Jack, I'm feeling a bit nervous. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this, but this is a pretty cool place. looking forward to seeing what it brings. |
| 1:43.3 | I'm really interested to talk about the impact of AI on young people entering the workforce. |
| 1:48.1 | I wanted to come on my dovo flip because I like the impact that it has, the pace of change and the technological disruption that we're seeing. |
| 1:54.6 | This is a opportunity rather than a threat. |
... |
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