Manail Anis Ahmed

Manail Anis Ahmed is an AI, emerging technology and society expert specialized in facilitating engagement around these issues among classrooms, communities, and government, business and technology leaders.

She is adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University teaching and developing curricula across Biotech Entrepreneurship, Bioinformatics and Drug Discovery. She has formerly been visiting lecturer teaching precepts in Technology, AI & Engineering Ethics at Princeton University, and has served as Responsible AI mentor to graduate students through the Princeton GradFutures Program.

At the World Economic Forum, Manail is a member of the Inclusive AI workstream of the AI Governance Alliance. Over time she has served as consultant to global governments designing large-scale country level education and workforce development programs and digital public infrastructure. She has led a global research group at the Center for AI & Digital Policy (CAIDP) in Washington D.C. She has also been a Public Voices Fellow for Equality Now, which advances the rights of women and girls globally.

In the past, Manail has been co-founder, Chief Strategy Officer and AI Governance Lead for an AI-powered home and family management startup - www.iJuno.io. She is on the boards of Women in Tech Leadership, and the edtech startup ZNotes.

Manail combines her background in global education, technology, and society to create and deliver impactful educational, curricular, policy and research solutions. She has over 20 years' experience building American-style higher education institutions in the Middle East and South Asia, and investing in early-stage education technology startups.

Manail has a BA in Political Science from Swarthmore College, an MA in Asian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and additional training in the political economy of development and Indian and Islamic art history. She speaks English, Urdu/Hindi, and basic Arabic. Published widely across issues of responsible AI, ethical technology, country-level AI policy, higher education and global human capital development, Manail is especially interested in ensuring the economic and public participation of women and girls worldwide.