Last month I started a new role at Microsoft. I joined the AI for Good Research Lab as a Data Science Program Manager.
For more than two years before that, I worked as an account technology strategist, advising large enterprise customers on their digital transformation. I wrote about my first day at Microsoft back in 2019, and those years taught me a lot about how technology decisions are made inside large organizations.
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The AI for Good Lab is a team of data scientists who apply artificial intelligence, machine learning, and statistical modeling to societal problems. The lab works with nonprofits, research institutions, and governments, across Microsoftโs AI for Good areas: the environment, accessibility, humanitarian action, health, and cultural heritage.
The model is not the end product here. The work counts when a partner can act on the result: to see where help is needed, to understand a risk earlier, or to make a case to the public.
Why this move
Data has been the common thread of my career. At CERN, I worked on the infrastructure that stores and serves data from the Large Hadron Collider, a time the newspaper BNN wrote about this summer. At Tableau, the focus was on making data visible and understandable. At Microsoft, I have helped customers turn data into strategy.
The lab adds a question I find increasingly interesting: how can data and AI help where the stakes are societal rather than commercial?
Shortly before the move, I spent three days at Microsoftโs Global Hackathon, where 46 of us worked on a project aimed at a problem that affects society as a whole.
What I will be doing
My role combines research with program management: shaping projects with partners, working on the data analysis, and helping results reach the people who can act on them. I stay based in Frankfurt and work closely with the team in Redmond.
I will share what I can about the labโs public work here.
