Gawdat studied civil engineering at
Ain Shams University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1990. He went on to obtain an
MBA from
Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands. He began his career at
IBM Egypt as a systems engineer, before moving to a sales role in the government sector. Moving to the
United Arab Emirates, he joined
NCR Abu Dhabi to cover the non-finance sector. and eventually rose to the position of chief business officer at
Google X. Gawdat is the author of
Solve for Happy: Engineering Your Path to Joy (2017). Dedicated to his son Ali, who died in 2014, the book outlines methods for managing and preventing disappointment. In 2021, Gawdat published
Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World through
Macmillan. In 2022, his next book,
That Little Voice in Your Head: Adjust the Code That Runs Your Brain, was released by Macmillan. It presents suggestions for using the human brain optimally to thrive and avoid suffering. In 2024, Gawdat, along with co-author Alice Law, published
Unstressable: A Practical Guide to Stress-Free Living. ==Personal life==