The topography of Ada Parris' thinking, drawn from her own MRI scan.
We're not in a tech crisis. We're in a listening crisis.
I help leaders and organisations hear what hasn't been said yet. Then act on it.
Longlisted for Computer Weekly's Most Influential Women in UK Technology. Every year since 2020.
Recognised by the industry. Still asking it the uncomfortable questions. 2026 longlist →
AI ethics, differently
Most AI ethics asks how to make the machine behave. I ask who was listened to before it was built.
The questions I bring into the room:
- Who defined fair, and were they asked?
- What shape should the guardrails take, not just how many?
- Should this knowledge enter the system at all, and who decides?
- What do the people who don't use AI know?
- Where did that answer land in your body?
- What type of ancestor do you want to be?
How I practise it:
- Somatic AI. People use AI with the body switched on. Before acting on an answer, they notice where it lands. I have run this with MBA students at London Interdisciplinary School and at the Land Sea Sky residency on Dartmoor.
- Question Earth. A free tool I built. You get two answers side by side: a standard AI answer, and one shaped by Indigenous knowledge protocols that answers with deeper questions. I never see what you type.
- My own data. My art uses my DNA and brain scans. They stay on my own devices. I practise data sovereignty on myself first.
- Governance. Contributor to the IEEE Global AI Systems Flourishing Initiative and member of the WWF Innovation Wisdom Council.
“For the first time, I felt calm and grounded about AI. Not frightened.”
MBA student, London Interdisciplinary School.
Three ways in.
Keynotes & Salons
For your audience or your table
A keynote that changes how a room thinks about AI, power and legacy. People feel it, not click through it. Or a salon: one table, a few people, the real question.
- Conferences and leadership events
- Intimate salons and convenings
Threshold Sittings
For leaders, founders and artists at a turning point
Not a title. A position. AI reshaping your role. A redundancy. A restructure. The thing you built, and what comes after. A Sitting gives you somewhere to stand.
- 90 minutes, one to one or a team of up to four
- A written reflection within 48 hours
“I became more myself, with more clarity for moving forward.” Jon Morris, The Windmill Factory.
Futurist in Residence
For your organisation
A fractional futurist inside your team. For the interim role, the strategy work, the story you haven't found honest words for yet. It begins by listening: what the patterns say that the dashboards don't.
- Shaped around your need, a few days a month, retainer or project
- Leadership, strategy and innovation teams
Not sure which is you? Email me. I'll tell you straight.
What becomes possible when we remember that intelligences are entangled and animate?