Reimagining AI for the Majority World: A Conversation with Payal Arora on Inclusive Innovation

We spoke with Payal Arora, Founder of InclusiveAI Lab, digital anthropologist, and champion for equitable tech futures. In this conversation, she outlines her vision for an AI ecosystem that prioritizes public interest, empowers the Global South, and dismantles the entrenched Silicon Valley narrative of one-way innovation. Arora offers a compelling, human-centered perspective on how AI can help sustain humanity—rather than compete with it.

What’s your most compelling dream scenario for AI — a breakthrough that would fundamentally improve life on a global scale?

My dream scenario to create and sustain AI that is responsible and inclusive is to have an independent, global stakeholder invested non-profit entity that mainly focuses on upholding the CARE based principles and practices around AI to ensure it is public interest driven. This goes beyond the watchdog model where the focus is dominantly on auditing, monitoring, and public shaming. It is also about validating alternative models, initiatives, and building recognition and community around actors committed to these principles to showcase best practices. We need both carrot and stick to ensure we can translate good ideas into practice.

What’s a recent project or breakthrough you're especially proud of — and what kind of impact do you hope it will have in the real world?

In the last year, I cofounded the Inclusive AI Lab which basically helps build inclusive and sustainable AI data, tools, services, and platforms, with a special focus on the Global South. What is unique about this initiative is its deep interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral and empirical driven and humanities led approach, exemplified by the fact that I co-founded this with the head of AI research at Adobe and we are working with an A-list group of thought leaders that span industry, civic sector, policy, and academia. These networks of community and collaboration are driven by the shared denominator that we can separate people from institutions and operate within this shared vision for an inclusive, sustainable, and responsible AI ecosystem that takes seriously the majority world that exists in the Global South.

What’s a use case for AI that you think more people should know about — something positive that’s flying under the radar?

A powerful but overlooked use case for AI is the development of large language models in diverse languages and dialects across Asia, Africa, and other Global South regions. These models enable inclusive access to education, healthcare, and legal information in local languages—like AI chatbots offering maternal health advice in Swahili or legal aid in Hindi—empowering communities historically left out of digital systems.

If you had to choose one nightmare scenario that keeps you up at night — whether realistic or speculative — what would it be, and what warning signs should we be watching for today?

I don't believe nightmare scenarios are good fuel for inspiration and action. We are inundated with doomsday divas instilling the culture of fear of the unknown - the novelty of tech and the futures in the making. I believe we need to be fueled by hope, promise, and aspirations for a more sustainable future where AI is not positioned against humanity but rather, is a crucial tool that can help sustain humanity.

Who or what do you think has the power to prevent your nightmare scenario above?

We all have the power to ensure that we head in the right direction - we just need to be more reflective of what is our core strengths, what can we do now, within our constraints, and in our capacity to push this larger agenda. We should not wait for a leader to emerge to take this forward -we are all leaders of change within our own arena, if we will it to action.

What are we not talking about enough in the AI conversation today — something you believe could be hugely important five years from now?

It's not about what we don't talk about but the way we talk about it - the Global South. Silicon Valley still refers to these regions as the 'Rest of World' and 'AI for Good' initiatives still have this mentality that innovation takes place in the West and is disseminated to the Rest. These sticky myths are the biggest obstacles in how we approach global innovation, organize our companies, and business models/ This will remain so unless we shift the way we fundamentally think about the Majority World as co-creators, innovators, and even leaders of our digital futures.

Payal Arora – Founder, InclusiveAI Lab, Woxen University

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