Women in AI Welcoming Honorary Chair Mexico: Brenda Carballo PErez on Leadership, Inclusion, and Meaningful AI

Brenda Carballo Perez’s journey through academia, entrepreneurship, and corporate innovation is a testament to the power of resilience and the importance of building bridges-between disciplines, industries, and people. As Honorary Chair for the Women in AI Awards 2025 and a leader at EPAM-NEORIS, Brenda shares hard-won insights on advancing AI responsibly and inclusively.

For Brenda, the greatest challenge companies face when integrating AI is resisting the urge to chase trends. She emphasizes the need for leaders to align AI strategies with a company’s true data maturity. “AI and Data leaders play a crucial role in accurately assessing the maturity level of companies,” she explains. Without this alignment, organizations risk wasting resources on solutions that don’t solve real problems.

Brenda’s career has been defined by her ability to bridge the gap between technical expertise and strategic vision, a skill she believes is rare, in part due to how universities shape their graduates. Recognizing gaps in her own soft and technical skills, Brenda embarked on a journey of self-improvement, taking courses and practicing new abilities with discipline. “Becoming this translator between the technical and strategic aspects has given me immense satisfaction,” she says, highlighting the business need for leaders who can connect needs with technological solutions.

Driving adoption of AI and analytics across business units is no easy feat. Brenda shares her advice for early success “We will first learn from business teams so we can then provide solutions that truly address their problems.”  She also leverages “champions” business leaders already convinced of AI’s value to achieve quick wins and inspire broader buy-in.

Brenda urges young professionals to develop soft skills like leadership, collaboration, humility, and to remember that the ultimate mission is to add value to businesses and society.

Brenda’s path to AI leadership was not linear. After earning a PhD in Physics and completing two postdocs, she planned to remain in academia. But when she became pregnant, she lost support and opportunities, a painful realization of academia’s lack of inclusion. “I decided to create my own opportunities and launched a tech startup,” she recalls. This pivot allowed her to blend rigorous academic training with entrepreneurial agility, ultimately fueling her impact in data and analytics.

While entrepreneurship brought its own gender-related challenges, Brenda found it less exclusionary than academia. She encountered clients who underestimated her resolve, but she navigated these situations with acumen rather than confrontation. Entrepreneurship also gave her the flexibility to be present for her daughter’s early years, a balance that would have been harder to strike in a corporate environment.

Brenda is excited by the intersection of AI and quantum computing, seeing it as a path toward more environmentally responsible AI. She is less interested in chasing the latest trend and more focused on ensuring that technological advances are sustainable and serve society.

Industries “with a cause” inspire Brenda most. Her work in renewable energy classifying plastics for waste separation, optimizing electric mobility and in healthcare during the pandemic planning hospital occupancy, forecasting outbreaks were especially meaningful. Now, in consulting, she is passionate about co-creating value with clients rather than simply selling services, tailoring solutions to each organization’s readiness and context.

Reflecting on her role as Honorary Chair for Women in AI Awards 2025, Brenda notes the progress made but acknowledges that many women, especially in developing countries, still lack encouragement and support to pursue tech careers. “Leadership in AI and Data must be inclusive, not because the leader is a woman or a man, but because they operate free from gender bias,” she insists. Diverse teams, she adds, are essential to building less biased, more impactful technology.

Brenda Carballo Perez’s story is one of perseverance, adaptability, and a relentless focus on meaningful impact. Her leadership offers a blueprint for anyone seeking to bridge divides and build a more inclusive, responsible future in AI.

Interview with Brenda Carballo Perez

Curated by Suparna Pawar