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Bridging tech's deepest divides: How the Global South is redefining digital inclusion
Digital anthropologist Payal Arora on how to make technology a more inclusive space
Digital technologies have improved lives, but they have also deepened the divides between those who have access to them and those who don't. A professor of Inclusive AI cultures at Utrect University, Payal Arora has also founded two initiatives, Inclusive AI Lab and Femlab that debias technology and also make room for more women in the space. In town to attend the Sharjah International Book Fair, Arora speaks about what it means to bridge the gap and make technology more inclusive. Edited excerpts from an interview:
Tell us a bit about your formative years. What did your childhood look like?
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I grew up in Bangalore, back when it still felt like a sleepy garden city rather than India’s Silicon Valley. It was a time when boredom was still a creative act — when imagination filled the space that technology now occupies. But I was restless. As a teenager, I ran away from home to join a Marxist artist village experiment — a kind of wild reimagining of Thoreau’s Walden Pond crossed with Black Mountain College. We truly believed we could live artfully, collectively, and freely.
The experiment lasted only a year, but that so-called failure remains one of the most formative chapters of my life. It was a living classroom — I met waiters who were poets, women lawyers fighting to change ancestral laws, dreamers who believed that another world was possible. Looking back, I realise my teenage rebellion was also my first ethnography. I was already observing, documenting, trying to make sense of how people build meaning and community. And in many ways, the youth of today are no different from who I was then — they want more, and they believe life can offer more.
What does exploration of digital futures actually entail?
Exploring digital futures is less about predicting gadgets and more about understanding values. It’s about asking: whose dreams are being coded into our technologies, and whose are being left out? To me, studying digital futures means looking beyond Silicon Valley — to Lagos, Dubai, or Jaipur — where people are reimagining technology not as luxury, but as necessity. These are the frontlines of digital innovation.
How do people in low-income households use digital tools optimally?
People in low-income communities are some of the most creative users of technology. They stretch the life of a single mobile phone to run a micro-business, educate a child, and connect to distant kin. Their relationship with technology is not about consumption but optimisation. They teach us that innovation is not just about invention — it’s about improvisation or ‘jugaad’.
How has the emergence of the Global South changed the game for digital technology globally?
The Global South has shifted the gravity of digital innovation. It’s no longer the passive recipient of Western technology — it’s the test bed, the trendsetter, the teacher. From fintech in Kenya to social commerce in India, the South has pioneered models that Silicon Valley is now learning from. Majority of young people live in the Global South and they have fast come online, not just as users but as creators of their digital futures. It’s a quiet revolution: the future of tech is being written by the world’s majority. Innovation doesn’t end at creation — it begins at application. Technology may be born in Silicon Valley or Shanghai, but it comes alive in the Global South. That’s where the abstract becomes intimate, where algorithms meet everyday ingenuity. The future of AI won’t be defined by who builds it — but by who bends it creatively to serve human need.
You wrote about The Next Billion Users. Can you explain what it actually means?
When I wrote The Next Billion Users, I wanted to challenge the narrative that the poor come online merely to survive. In reality, the next billion use the Internet to play, flirt, gossip, and dream — just like anyone else. Their digital lives are not defined by poverty but by aspiration. Understanding that joy, not just utility, drives technology adoption is crucial to building inclusive futures. Basically, the Next Billion Users are the people who have come online in the past decade — largely from regions across Asia, Africa, and Latin America — thanks to a powerful combination of affordable smartphones and low-cost data plans. They are not just mobile-first; they are mobile-only. For many, the phone is not merely a device but an ecosystem — a workplace, a classroom, a stage, and a marketplace. These users are aspirational consumers and producers of digital content. They are not passive recipients of technology but active participants who remix, reinvent, and reimagine it. For them, content is not separate from life — it’s an extension of their everyday dreams, relationships, and survival strategies. They matter because they are redefining the Internet itself. The future of the digital world will be shaped less by the next billion devices and more by the next billion imaginations that use them.
There is a certain scepticism about artificial intelligence owing to the fact that it's going to make its presence felt in every aspect of our lives. Where do you think it comes from?
The scepticism comes from history. Every technological revolution has promised progress but delivered inequality alongside it. With AI, people fear a repeat — that power will concentrate, that bias will scale, that humans will be reduced to data. But history also shows us something else: all novel technologies eventually become mundane. We once feared the radio would corrupt our morals, that television would destroy our attention spans, even that books would weaken our memory. In time, we absorbed these technologies into everyday life and redefined them in our own image. The same will happen with AI. The real struggle is not about resisting it, but about reshaping it — ensuring it assists us in where we want to go as a people, and now, as a planet. Given AI’s immense energy demands, the question is no longer just what kind of intelligence we build, but what kind of world we sustain through it.
What does true digital empowerment actually entail?
True digital empowerment is not about access alone — it’s about agency. It’s about having the ability to shape technology, not just consume it. It means communities owning their data, telling their stories, and defining their digital futures. Empowerment, in essence, is when technology bends to humanity, not the other way around.
In your opinion, how well is the next generation prepared to embrace digital technology?
Gen Z and Gen Alpha are digital natives, yes, but they are also digital critics. They know the costs of being online — the burnout, the bias, the surveillance. Yet, they are choosing to hack, remix, and reform the system from within. They are less interested in abandoning technology than in making it accountable. That gives me tremendous hope.
What have been the challenges of advocating digital inclusion?
The hardest part is shifting mindsets. Inclusion is often seen as charity, not as innovation. But diversity isn’t a checkbox — it’s a competitive advantage. Convincing institutions that the world’s most marginalised are also its most inventive remains an uphill climb. Yet, when inclusion is done right, it expands not just markets but imaginations.
In your opinion, what does the future of digital technology look like?
The future of digital technology will be defined by care — not speed, not scale, but care. We’re entering an age where ethics will be the new engine of innovation. Technologies that respect cultural diversity, planetary limits, and human dignity will endure. The promise of technology lies not in replacing humans, but in amplifying what makes us human.
anamika@khaleejtimes.com
Anamika Chatterjee
Anamika Chatterjee is Associate Editor, Features at Khaleej Times. A senior journalist, she helms arts, culture, entertainment and lifestyle verticals for the print and digital platforms of the publication.
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