Kari Lawler

of AI within the region, and so quickly gained a reputation, helping start-ups and SMEs, all the way to large scale institutions on understanding and implementing AI solutions.

With her reputation growing, in 2018 she started to win multiple awards, including being named, Inspiring Juniors, “Most Promising Female Tech Talent” of the year and at 15 years old, again being the youngest ever, winner of the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce “Future Face of Technology and Innovation”. Additionally, that year she received at the Birmingham Awards, a special recognition award for “Outstanding Contribution to the City of Birmingham”.

Continuing in 2018, Kari after noticing a severe lack of understanding from young people as to what AI is, embarked on setting up her own free-to-access youth programme, called YOUTH4AI. Through which, in the last few years, Kari has personally worked with and inspired thousands of students in the region, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, through both talks and workshops, introducing them to the concepts of AI and tech careers as a whole. And due to the overwhelming success of the programme, recently signed a partnership deal with Barclays to replicate the content nationwide.

In addition to her work and youth programme, Kari is super passionate about giving back to the community. In 2018 she gave a talk at the UK Internet Governance Forum on the need for more legislation on data privacy for young people. From that, in 2019, Kari was selected to join the West Midlands Young Combined Authority board where last year she was nominated to become the co-lead for both digital and skills policy areas. Through which she actively works alongside the WMCA Digital Roadmap Steering Group, and WMCA Digital Inclusion Committee. She is also an official observer for the West Midlands 5G board.

Subsequently, in the following years Kari has continued to win multiple awards including, Barclays Entrepreneur Awards 2019, “MIDLANDS ICON OF THE YEAR” and most recently she was recognised as 1 of the top 100 female tech talents in the UK, through winning a TechWomen100 Award in 2020. Plus, was elected in 2020 to the GBCC Future Faces, young professionals committee. Additionally, she played an active role with a seat on the West Midlands Space Cluster Working group, helping to formulate the regions plans for this growing sector.

Throughout this time, Kari has become an in demand public speaker, speaking and delivering keynotes both locally and internationally. She speaks on a wide variety of topics, from sharing her expertise on AI and Data Science, as well as being a voice for her generation, Gen Z. Now 18 years old, Kari is continuing to grow and develop her business, as well as being a role model for women within the industry and an inspiration to girls who aspire to a career in tech.