Why we should be optimistic about our digital futures

Payal Arora

09:45 - 10:15

Many people in the West are pessimistic about the effects of digital technology on our lives. In their view, algorithms are increasing social inequality, loneliness, and AI is undermining democracy. The digital is not to be trusted. But people in the Global South seem to have a totally different perspective. Gen Z-ers find these new technologies uplifting and powerful and are trying to reimagine digital space for pleasure, protest, and progressive politics. Award winning author and digital anthropologist Professor Payal Arora shows why and how countries such as Brazil, China and India are at the forefront of technological innovation and why that matters for anyone who is looking to take a global and outward approach to digital design and outreach. With the majority of young people living in the Global South regions, she will share how their creative approach can make us more hopeful about our digital futures.

Payal Arora

Professor of Inclusive AI CulturesUtrecht University

Payal Arora is a Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures at Utrecht University and co-founder of two inclusive tech initiatives – Inclusive AI Lab, and FemLab. She is a leading digital anthropologist with 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.’ 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. Her new award-winning 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 2025 Silver Medalist winner by Axiom Business Book Awards. 200+ international media outlets have covered her work including the Financial Times, Fast Company, Wired, BBC, The Economist, and Tech Crunch. 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 UN EGOV, and LIRNE-Asia. She has given 350+ keynotes and invited talks in 85 countries for events such as ACM Facct, Copenhagen Tech Festival, re:publica, COP26, World Economic Forum, and the Swedish Internet Foundation, and TEDx talks on the future of the internet and innovation. She is a Harvard and Columbia University, and Rockefeller Bellagio Resident Fellow alumni, and currently lives in Amsterdam.

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