Payal Arora
Professor of Inclusive AI Culture, Utrecht University
Payal Arora PhD. (Columbia Univ. NYC), is a Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures at Utrecht University and co-founder of FemLab, a feminist futures of work initiative and Inclusive AI Lab. She leverages her two decades of user experiences in the Global South to help shape inclusive AI enabled designs and policies. Payal is the author of 100+ journal articles and award-winning books including “The Next Billion Users” with Harvard Press. Forbes named her the ‘next billion champion’ and the ‘right kind of person to reform tech.’ Her new book with MIT Press “From Pessimism to Promise: Lessons from the Global South on Designing Inclusive Tech” has gained traction in the international media, covered by the Financial Times, BBC Tech Decoded, and the UX magazine, among others. About 150 international media outlets have covered her work including The Economist , 99% Invisible, Tech Crunch, and The Boston Globe. She has consulted for the public and the private sector including UNHCR, Spotify, KPMG, Adobe, IDEO, Google, and GE and sits on several boards including for the UN, and the World Women Global Council in New York. She has given more than 350 keynotes and invited talks in 67 countries for events such as ACM Facct, Copenhagen Tech Festival, re:publica, COP26, World Economic Forum, Swedish Internet Foundation, alongside figures like Jimmy Wales and Steve Wozniak, and TEDx talks on the future of the internet and innovation. She is a Rockefeller Bellagio Resident Fellow alumnus and is Indian, American, and Irish and calls Amsterdam her home.