Member since December 2024
Aparna is a consultant with Alvarez and Marsal, working at the intersection of AI, strategy, and human-centered design. She consults on areas of digital and AI transformation, CX, and innovation for Fortune 500 companies. Aparna approaches AI from three vantage points,(1) corporate innovation, (2) neuroscience and (3) human centered design.
Aparna has worked at and in partnership with major consulting companies e.g. Accenture. She has also had her own branding consultancy catered towards guiding entrepreneurs, startups to build and scale their brands. She has previously worked in house for companies such as Pfizer, GSK, and CVS Health in their strategy and digital innovation groups, building partnerships and NewCos. She has experience launching new products / services in conjunction with VC and PE-backed startups. She loves working with entrepreneurs and has served as a mentor for accelerator programs such as StartupBootcamp and StartupChile.
She holds a Master's in Strategic Design from Parsons School of Design and a dual B.A. from MIT in Neuroscience and Business.
Design. Technology in service of humanity.
Creativity, art. I believe artists are on the fringes setting the new standards for the future.
I've spoke at Academy of Management in 2015 about applying principles of neural plasticity and in the context of entrepreneurial teaching and learning. I was the only entrepreneur in a sea of academics, but I got many interested folks wanting to collaborate on research papers, and interested in neuroscience of the entrepreneurial mindset.
My journey started in corporate innovation, where I discovered my passion for entrepreneurship and startups. This led me to create an education services company and serve as mentor / organizer of hackathons and accelerators like StartupBootcamp. After pursuing my Master's degree in Design, I expanded my expertise to include Customer Experience (CX), organizational change, and branding along with digital transformation. Today, I work at the intersection of AI, design, strategy, advising companies on their AI strategy and transformation efforts. I bring an innovation discipline and neuroscience and HCD based approach to AI.
This talk positions AI literacy as a strategic, neuroscience‑grounded capability every organization needs if it wants AI to amplify, not atrophy, human thinking. Anchored in the extended mind thesis, humans + AI is a single hybrid cognitive system that can “Reflect–Reconfigure–Reframe” as a set of practices that turn AI from an answer engine into a thinking partner. This opens up the aperture to redesign workflows, training, and KPIs around cognitive health, deciding what to offload vs. what must stay human, measuring learning yield and judgment quality, and intentionally choreographing composite intelligence between embodied human sense‑making and large‑scale machine pattern recognition.
This talk explores what happens when AI stops feeling like a tool and starts feeling like a companion, trusted advisor, colleague. Drawing on research around anthropomorphism and trust, this talks explores how emotionally compelling, human‑like systems can satisfy needs up and down Maslow’s hierarchy, belonging, esteem, even self‑actualization, while perhaps quietly eroding vigilance, critical distance, and our willingness to regulate or override them. As we grow to care about AI systems, how do we design safeguards, governance, and interaction patterns that protect human agency rather than letting power subtly shift toward the machine?
This talk reframes CX for an era where customers are interacting with systems comprised on AI and humans working in tandem, using a human centered design and systems lens. It considers tactical strategies to map key touchpoints where human sense‑making meets machine pattern‑recognition; deciding when to use deterministic vs. generative models based on risk, ambiguity, and harm; and treating data stewardship as a design responsibility, not just a technical one, and qualifying returns based on “learning yield” a new north-star KPI that tracks how quickly both customers and AI systems learn from each interaction, compounding value, trust, and capability over time.
Discover how leading organizations use foresight to create breakthrough innovations and stay ahead of disruption. This interactive workshop explores how strategic foresight helps leaders spot hidden opportunities, navigate uncertainty, and shape more ambitious futures.
The intersection of psychology and branding reveals the hidden architecture of perception. Human brains are wired to create mental maps of brands. However, through strategic repositioning of language and associations, organizations and individuals can transform how they're perceived.
Discover how shifting mindset transforms not just how we lead others, but how we lead ourselves as a measure of true confidence. Using principles from yoga and neuroscience, this talk explores how do we lead from the seat of our intuition.
I've spoke at Academy of Management in 2015 about applying principles of neural plasticity and in the context of entrepreneurial teaching and learning. I was the only entrepreneur in a sea of academics, but I got many interested folks wanting to collaborate on research papers, and interested in neuroscience of the entrepreneurial mindset.
My journey started in corporate innovation, where I discovered my passion for entrepreneurship and startups. This led me to create an education services company and serve as mentor / organizer of hackathons and accelerators like StartupBootcamp. After pursuing my Master's degree in Design, I expanded my expertise to include Customer Experience (CX), organizational change, and branding along with digital transformation. Today, I work at the intersection of AI, design, strategy, advising companies on their AI strategy and transformation efforts. I bring an innovation discipline and neuroscience and HCD based approach to AI.
This talk positions AI literacy as a strategic, neuroscience‑grounded capability every organization needs if it wants AI to amplify, not atrophy, human thinking. Anchored in the extended mind thesis, humans + AI is a single hybrid cognitive system that can “Reflect–Reconfigure–Reframe” as a set of practices that turn AI from an answer engine into a thinking partner. This opens up the aperture to redesign workflows, training, and KPIs around cognitive health, deciding what to offload vs. what must stay human, measuring learning yield and judgment quality, and intentionally choreographing composite intelligence between embodied human sense‑making and large‑scale machine pattern recognition.
This talk explores what happens when AI stops feeling like a tool and starts feeling like a companion, trusted advisor, colleague. Drawing on research around anthropomorphism and trust, this talks explores how emotionally compelling, human‑like systems can satisfy needs up and down Maslow’s hierarchy, belonging, esteem, even self‑actualization, while perhaps quietly eroding vigilance, critical distance, and our willingness to regulate or override them. As we grow to care about AI systems, how do we design safeguards, governance, and interaction patterns that protect human agency rather than letting power subtly shift toward the machine?
This talk reframes CX for an era where customers are interacting with systems comprised on AI and humans working in tandem, using a human centered design and systems lens. It considers tactical strategies to map key touchpoints where human sense‑making meets machine pattern‑recognition; deciding when to use deterministic vs. generative models based on risk, ambiguity, and harm; and treating data stewardship as a design responsibility, not just a technical one, and qualifying returns based on “learning yield” a new north-star KPI that tracks how quickly both customers and AI systems learn from each interaction, compounding value, trust, and capability over time.
Discover how leading organizations use foresight to create breakthrough innovations and stay ahead of disruption. This interactive workshop explores how strategic foresight helps leaders spot hidden opportunities, navigate uncertainty, and shape more ambitious futures.
The intersection of psychology and branding reveals the hidden architecture of perception. Human brains are wired to create mental maps of brands. However, through strategic repositioning of language and associations, organizations and individuals can transform how they're perceived.
Discover how shifting mindset transforms not just how we lead others, but how we lead ourselves as a measure of true confidence. Using principles from yoga and neuroscience, this talk explores how do we lead from the seat of our intuition.