Michael Wells is a Senior Software Engineer and Senior Architect with a career that started in 1993. Not 2010. Not 2005. 1993 — when most people were still figuring out what the internet was.
That kind of history means something. It means he has seen every major platform shift, worked through every technology cycle, and built serious systems at a time when there were no tutorials, no shortcuts, and no Stack Overflow to bail you out. His background covers full stack application development, systems architecture, management consulting, and internet technologies — operating at senior and principal level across both technical delivery and strategic advisory work.
His client list includes Citibank, Encyclopedia Britannica, British Petroleum, Sears, and Dun & Bradstreet. Large organisations, complex problems, high standards.
Since 1996, web development has been a core specialisation — and the discipline has changed almost beyond recognition in that time. He has kept pace with all of it.
His work goes well beyond front-end development. He designs and builds custom frameworks, architects complex web applications, API's, databases - and takes on the kinds of problems that off-the-shelf solutions were never designed to handle. If it can be done on the web, he has probably done it. If it can't be done with existing tools, he builds the tools.
A significant part of his current practice is centred on the Webflow platform — specifically, pushing it well beyond what it does natively. This means custom code integration, advanced functionality, reverse proxies, and treating Webflow as a foundation to build on rather than a boundary to work within. It is a niche that requires deep platform knowledge and the architectural thinking to go beyond it.
His broader experience includes large-scale CMS architecture, performance optimisation, API integration, and building systems that are designed to scale.
From 2023, AI became a focused area of practice — early in the current wave, before most businesses had figured out whether AI even mattered.
In that time the work has moved well past the experimentation stage. The focus is on practical, working implementations — machine learning integration, natural language processing, intelligent automation, and deploying large language model solutions into real workflows that deliver measurable results.
The approach is straightforward: AI is a power tool. The only question that matters is whether it actually works — whether it reduces cost, improves performance, surfaces useful insight, or solves something that couldn't be solved as efficiently another way. If it does, use it. If it doesn't, move on.
Michael also founded the AAIC — Auckland AI Collective, a professional group built around open, serious discussion about what AI actually means — for industries, for business, and for society. Zero hype, all substance.
Michael is currently based in Auckland, New Zealand, and works primarily with clients in the United States and Europe.