Dr. Jayarethanam Pillai

Jayarethanam Pillai is the founder of Praxora Lab. He works as an AI economist, currently serving as an AI and Strategic Foresight Consultant to UNDP across Asia and as Professor of the Practice at Golden Gate University, where he chairs, co-chairs and mentors DBA candidates researching emerging technology. His practice sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, economic policy and institutional strategy, including technology impact assessment work conducted with the Social Cyber Institute on AI's role in peace and stability.

As Dean of the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Administration at the American University of Central Asia, he led the school to AACSB accreditation acceptance, the first in the Central Asia region, and went on to complete AMBA and CEEMAN accreditation as well. He founded three research centres, including a Centre for AI and Data Science, secured more than $3.4 million in grant and donor funding across his academic career, and supervised 56 graduate and undergraduate theses, while growing the school's MBA program revenue by 66 percent and its international partnerships from three to ten AACSB-ranked institutions.

He founded Futures Consultancy Group in 2011, offering strategic business and economic advisory to small and medium enterprises, and later directed data science consulting at Aboitiz Data Innovation, leading a team of fifteen data scientists across financial services, energy and logistics. His academic career also spans an adjunct professorship of economics at the University of Guam, Associate Dean of Graduate Programs at Narxoz Business School in Kazakhstan, and a visiting professorship in strategic management at Texas Christian University.

His public commentary applies economic analysis to AI and trade policy: the durable effects of tariffs on global supply chains and currency, and how strategic foresight should inform AI governance as autonomous systems take on more decision-making. He has spoken at international forums including a UNDP-organised knowledge-sharing session with Mongolian government officials on AI for national development, alongside an invited keynote at the accompanying Data and AI conference in Ulaanbaatar.