Payal Arora

Payal Arora is Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures at Utrecht University and co-founder of the Inclusive AI Lab. She is a leading digital anthropologist with expertise in researching user experience in the Global South to help shape inclusive AI enabled designs and policies. Arora is the author of 100+ journal articles and award-winning books including The Next Billion Users with Harvard Press. Her new book with MIT Press From Pessimism to Promise: Lessons from the Global South on Designing Inclusive Tech has been longlisted for the 2024 Porchlight Business Book Awards and won the Silver Medal by Axiom Business Book Awards 2025. Forbes named her the ‘next billion champion’ and the ‘right kind of person to reform tech.’ She has been listed in the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics 2025 and won the 2025 Women in AI Benelux Award for her work on Diversifying AI. 250+ international media outlets have covered her work including the Financial Times, Fast Company, Wired, Al Jazeera, The Economist, and TechCrunch.