Ali is the founding director of the Medical Autonomy and Precision Surgery (MAPS) laboratory at the ophthalmology department of Klinikum Rechts der Isar at the Technical University of Munich.

By training, he is a medical and surgical roboticist, specifically for micro-surgery, with several years of experience in industry, academia, and clinic. His main interests are digital solutions for medical procedures including machine intelligence and robotics for advanced diagnosis and interventions, both in research and translation.