Payal Arora
Transform your innovation strategy with Professor Payal Arora, a leading voice in inclusive AI cultures and award-winning author shaping the future of ethical technology.
Photo: Levien Willemse
Photo: Levien Willemse
Why you should book Payal Arora for your next event
- Award-winning author with books from Harvard and MIT Press, shaping global conversations on inclusive innovation and responsible technology.
- Named by Forbes as the “Next Billion Champion,” recognized globally for redefining how technology empowers diverse and emerging communities.
- Honored among the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics and winner of the 2025 Women in AI Benelux Award for advancing AI diversity.
Non-binding request for Payal Arora
Shaping Ethical Futures in the Age of AI
Empower your organization to lead in the age of inclusive AI with Professor Payal Arora, a globally recognized digital anthropologist and award-winning author. With two decades of field experience across the Global South, she brings transformative insights on how to debias technology, design ethical innovation, and reach the next billion users. Trusted by leaders at Google, Spotify, and the UN, her keynotes inspire actionable strategies that drive diversity, human-centered growth, and competitive advantage in the digital era.
Keynote Speaker Payal Arora is a leading voice on inclusive AI, ethical innovation, and digital diversity. As a Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures at Utrecht University and co-founder of the Inclusive AI Lab and FemLab, she brings over two decades of global experience in helping organizations design technology that works for everyone. Her expertise lies in translating complex AI and digital ethics issues into actionable strategies that drive business growth and social impact.
Named by Forbes as the “Next Billion Champion,” Payal is recognized for redefining how technology can serve diverse and emerging markets. She is the award-winning author of The Next Billion Users (Harvard Press) and From Pessimism to Promise (MIT Press), and her insights have been featured in the Financial Times, Wired, and The Economist.
When you book Payal Arora for your event, you invite a thought leader who helps organizations navigate the challenges of AI ethics, data responsibility, and inclusion in the digital age. Her keynotes inspire leaders to debias technology, foster human-centered innovation, and build digital cultures that empower both people and profit.
A dynamic and globally experienced speaker, Payal has delivered 350+ keynotes in 85 countries, inspiring audiences at TEDx, COP26, and the World Economic Forum. Her talks are a powerful catalyst for organizations ready to lead responsibly in the age of AI.
Keynotes
Keynote by Payal Arora:
Designing Inclusive & Hopeful AI Futures
In a world dominated by narratives of tech pessimism and digital despair, Keynote Speaker Payal Arora brings a refreshing, research-backed perspective rooted in hope, inclusion, and ethical innovation. Drawing on her work as Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures at Utrecht University and co-founder of the Inclusive AI Lab and FemLab, she reveals how organizations can harness AI as a tool for empowerment, creativity, and social good.
Through engaging storytelling and real-world examples from the Global South, Payal challenges audiences to rethink who technology is built for and who it leaves behind. Her keynotes uncover how diverse data, cross-cultural collaboration, and human-centered design are essential to creating AI systems that serve the world’s majority, not just the privileged few.
Participants walk away with practical insights and frameworks to debias technology, rebuild public trust, and integrate ethics and inclusion into digital strategies. With her unique blend of academic depth and global field experience, Payal inspires leaders to turn algorithms of exploitation into algorithms of aspiration, transforming how we design, govern, and imagine technology’s future.
Book Payal Arora for your event to discover how your organization can move beyond AI fear toward inclusive, responsible, and hopeful innovation that benefits people and the planet alike.
Who is in charge of the future of the internet? | Payal Arora | TEDxErasmusUniversity
Watch Payal Arora in action
