Payal Arora is Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures at Utrecht University and co-founder of the Inclusive AI Lab. A renowned digital anthropologist and award-winning author, her books include The Next Billion Users and From Pessimism to Promise: Lessons from the Global South on Designing Inclusive Tech. Forbes named her the ‘next billion champion’ and the ‘right kind of person to reform tech.’ She is listed in the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics 2025 and won the 2025 Women in AI Benelux Award. Her work has been featured in 200+ media outlets including Financial Times, Wired, The Economist, and Tech Crunch. She has consulted for Spotify, KPMG, Adobe, IDEO, Google, and spoken at 350 events across 85 countries including TEDx, COP26, and WEF. She lives in Amsterdam.