In this solo talk, Noelle Russell introduces herself as the global lead for AI solutions at Accenture and North American head of the generative AI practice, while also serving on Miami Dade College’s AI Advisory Board and a Women in Tech mentorship program. She recounts how early exposure to science‑fiction sparked her fascination with technology, and describes the challenges she faced as the only woman, Latina, and youngest member in her early technical roles. Russell explains her ‘learn‑by‑doing’ approach—building AI prototypes to earn credibility—and how this led to her becoming an advocate and evangelist for AI. She emphasizes that the lack of gender and ethnic diversity on AI teams results in products that serve narrow demographics, and argues that inclusive, neuro‑diverse, and ethnically varied teams produce better solutions. Concluding with a call to action, she asserts that there has never been a better time to start a tech career because companies now recognize the need for diverse perspectives to build software that benefits everyone.
Chapters
My name is Noelle Russell, and I lead AI solutions at Accenture globally. I'm also the North American leader for the generative AI practice, and I'm connected to Miami Dade College as a member of the AI Advisory Board, as well as part of the Women in Tech Mentorship Program. So I was inspired to get into tech at a very young age. My dad introduced me to to science fiction, and at the age of 6, I started reading a ton of science fiction. And it turns out, even today, I'm starting to see a lot of the technology that I get to build was actually part of the books I read when I was just a little kid. One of the challenges I faced when I first got started in my technical career was that I was an anomaly. I was the only woman, I was the only Latina, but I was also the youngest. And all of those things together made it really challenging to get my ideas and perspectives across. But I did something unique, something that I do to this day, and I started learning by doing. I'd put my fingers on a keyboard and I would just build. I'd use my results to get attention of the people that I was working with, and it worked really well. Ultimately, I became an advocate and an evangelist of the technology I taught, and I inspired people to keep going no matter what their background was. One of the reasons I think it's really important that institutions in higher education focus on attracting women is because right now there isn't gender parity on the teams that I worked in, and I've built some of the largest AI models in the world. And the outcome of that often is that we build a product that serves only one demographic or is not knowledgeable about the impact of not having a voice from any level of diversity, whether it's female, whether it's Hispanic, whether it's as a mom, whether it's as a caregiver. All of these perspectives that women can offer actually build better solutions. And companies now realize that this is incredibly important to their teams. There could never be a better time to start a career in tech than now. And the main reason for that is companies have realized that the solutions that they're building, they're building for everyone. And so they need diverse perspectives. They need an inclusive team, not just of men and women, but actually neurodiverse people, people that think differently, think fast and slow, that are ethnically diverse, that from different schools and educational backgrounds. And so it couldn't be a better time because your perspective matters now, and you can help build software that helps the world.
