Everything you need to introduce me

Arfah Farooq is a community builder, AI educator and keynote speaker, co-founder of Muslim Tech Fest and founder of AI Compass Labs.

Arfah Farooq is a community builder, AI educator and keynote speaker. She co-founded Muslim Tech Fest, the global conference showcasing Muslim talent in technology, with four sold-out events across London and San Francisco. Through AI Compass Labs she teaches organisations how to actually use AI rather than talk about it. Computer Weekly named her No. 6 on its Most Influential Women in UK Tech list in 2025 and added her to its Hall of Fame in 2026.

Arfah Farooq is a community builder, AI educator and keynote speaker who has spent over a decade building platforms where people who are usually overlooked get to lead.

She co-founded Muslim Tech Fest, the global conference showcasing Muslim talent in technology, which has run four sold-out events in London and San Francisco. Before that she founded Muslamic Makers, growing it from 50 people in a room in 2016 to 3,000 members and more than 80 events before retiring it in 2026. Through AI Compass Labs she now runs practical AI capability programmes for organisations, moving teams from experimentation into working systems.

Arfah is a 2017 Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow and a former angel investor through Ada Ventures. Computer Weekly named her No. 6 on its Most Influential Women in UK Tech list in 2025 and added her to its Hall of Fame in 2026.

Arfah Farooq is a community builder, founder, AI educator and keynote speaker. For over a decade she has worked at the intersection of technology, identity and inclusion, building the platforms and the rooms where people who are usually overlooked get to lead.

She co-founded Muslim Tech Fest, the global conference showcasing Muslim talent in technology, which has run four sold-out events in London and San Francisco. Before that she founded Muslamic Makers, which started in 2016 with 50 people in a room and became the UK's largest community for Muslim technologists: 3,000 members, over 80 events, and a generation of founders who went on to raise millions. She retired it in 2026. Through AI Compass Labs she now teaches organisations how to actually use AI, through bootcamps, multi-week programmes and AI Systems Sprints.

Arfah's earlier work spans the public and private sectors. At the Government Digital Service she ran a community of 1,500 product and delivery managers across the UK Government and helped start the Muslims at GDS network, then led the No.10 Innovation Fellowship bringing senior technologists into government. She built the AI community in healthcare at NHSX and led the ImpactVC community for Big Society Capital.

She is a 2017 Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow, having researched the barriers facing Muslim women in technology across the USA, UAE and Pakistan, and a former angel investor through Ada Ventures. Computer Weekly has named her on its Most Influential Women in UK Tech list several times, reaching No. 6 in 2025, and inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2026.

Arfah Farooq teaches organisations how to actually use AI. Through AI Compass Labs she runs bootcamps, multi-week programmes and AI Systems Sprints that move teams past the demo stage and into systems they use on a Monday morning.

She built the AI community in healthcare at NHSX, ran a community of 1,500 product and delivery managers across the UK Government, and led the No.10 Innovation Fellowship. She is also a late-diagnosed ADHDer who uses AI as an accessibility tool rather than a productivity gimmick, which shapes how she teaches it. Computer Weekly named her No. 6 on its Most Influential Women in UK Tech list in 2025 and added her to its Hall of Fame in 2026.

Arfah Farooq builds the rooms she needed and did not have. A British Pakistani Muslim woman from East London and the first girl in her family to go to university, she founded Muslamic Makers in 2016 with 50 people in a room and grew it into the UK's largest community for Muslim technologists, with 3,000 members and over 80 events, before retiring it in 2026.

She co-founded Muslim Tech Fest, now four sold-out events across London and San Francisco. As a 2017 Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow she researched the barriers facing Muslim women in technology across the USA, UAE and Pakistan, work that became Inclusive Tech World. Computer Weekly named her No. 6 on its Most Influential Women in UK Tech list in 2025 and added her to its Hall of Fame in 2026.

I'm a community builder, founder and AI educator from East London. I started Muslamic Makers in 2016 with 50 people in a room because I was tired of being the only Muslim in the room, and by the time I retired it in 2026 it had 3,000 members and over 80 events behind it. I co-founded Muslim Tech Fest with Zahid Mahmood, which is now four sold-out events in London and San Francisco.

These days I run AI Compass Labs, where I teach organisations to actually use AI instead of just talking about it. I'm also a late-diagnosed ADHDer, a former angel investor, and a mother of two girls. Computer Weekly named me No. 6 on their Most Influential Women in UK Tech list in 2025 and put me in their Hall of Fame in 2026. Whatever I'm doing, I see it through the lens of community.

Our next speaker started a community in 2016 with 50 people in a room. Ten years later it had 3,000 members, and she'd co-founded a global conference that has sold out four times in London and San Francisco. She now teaches organisations how to actually use AI, and Computer Weekly named her the sixth most influential woman in UK tech before putting her in their Hall of Fame this year. Please welcome Arfah Farooq.