Priya Lakhani

I am the Founder and CEO of CENTURY Tech, an AI and education technology company developing learning tools for schools, colleges, and universities.

Through CENTURY, my work has focused on how technology can be used responsibly to personalise learning, improve assessment, support wellbeing, and provide meaningful insight to educators and education systems at scale.

Before founding CENTURY, I trained as a barrister. In 2008, I left law to build a successful FMCG business, alongside a charitable foundation that funded millions of meals, thousands of vaccinations, and several schools.

I have advised government on artificial intelligence, technology, and regulation. I was appointed to the UK Government’s AI Council in 2019, served as a Non-Executive Board Member at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), and advised Sir Patrick Vallance on the Pro-innovation Regulation of Technologies Review. I currently serve as a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology. I also co-founded the Institute for Ethical AI in Education in 2018.

My work has been recognised internationally. I was selected as a Tech Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and have received a number of awards, including National Economic Innovator of the Year, Business Entrepreneur of the Year, and awards from The Mayor’s Fund and MIT.

I was awarded an OBE in 2014, am Honorary Vice President of the Council of British International Schools, and received an honorary doctorate from Coventry University’s engineering faculty. I am also co-host of AI Decoded, the BBC’s flagship programme on artificial intelligence.