Olivia Gambelin
AI ethicist, adviser, keynote speaker and author
Background and Ethical Intelligence
Olivia Gambelin is an AI ethicist who advises executive teams on responsible AI strategy[1]. Her website says she began with a formal degree in philosophy and has worked with executive leadership for 10 years in enterprise technology, legal organisations, health and finance[1].
She founded Ethical Intelligence, which her website describes as a network of responsible AI leaders[1]. She is also co-founder of Women Shaping the Future of Responsible AI (WSFR.AI) and an adviser to the Ethical AI Governance Group (EAIGG) and The Data Tank[1]. Her website also lists her as a founding editorial board member of Springer Nature's AI and Ethics journal[1].
Gambelin divides her time between Brussels and San Francisco, and she works on the gap between US and EU approaches to AI policy[1]. Her CAST 2025 speaker biography says she has advised organisations from Fortune 500 companies to Series A startups in the healthcare, financial and media sectors[3].
Responsible AI and the Values Canvas
Her book Responsible AI: Implement an Ethical Approach in Your Organization was published by Kogan Page[3]. The book sets out three pillars of a responsible AI strategy, which it names as people, process and technology[3]. Her website states that the book won the Independent Press Award 2025, the Axiom Business Book Award and the 2024 Foreword Indies Book of the Year[2].
The book introduced the Values Canvas, a management template for developing AI strategies around human values and impact[2]. Gambelin is the creator of the Values Canvas, which has its own site at thevaluescanvas.com[3].
In a December 2024 Machine Ethics podcast interview about the book, she said she treats responsible AI and AI ethics as separate practices[4]. She described responsible AI as the business practices that let an organisation adopt AI tools well, and AI ethics as a narrower practice focused on specific values[4]. She said she wrote the book because clients kept asking her what they were missing and where to start[4].
Research and writing
Gambelin published Brave: what it means to be an AI Ethicist in the journal AI and Ethics in October 2020[5]. A Montreal AI Ethics Institute summary of the paper explains that it offers a definition of the AI ethicist role and argues that the role requires bravery, since the ethicist may be the only person in a room objecting to a profitable product[6].
She co-wrote Agile as a Vehicle for Values: A Value Sensitive Design Toolkit with Steven Umbrello, a chapter in the Springer volume Rethinking Technology and Engineering (2023)[7]. In August 2026 Springer Nature published her chapter Expanding the Ethics-By-Design Landscape: A Proposal for Values-Based AI Innovation in the AI and Ethics Handbook[8].
She writes a Substack newsletter, In Pursuit of Good Tech, aimed at AI leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators[2]. Her website says she is writing a second book, Not Every Solution Has a Problem, about which problems people should solve for themselves and which are best suited to AI, with release planned for April 2027[1].
Speaking
The Association for Software Testing announced Gambelin as the opening keynote speaker and a workshop instructor for its CAST 2025 conference[3]. Her website offers keynotes, workshops, executive dinners and advisory packages on human values in AI[2]. Her December 2024 Machine Ethics podcast appearance was her third on the show; the host said they first spoke in 2020[4].
Known for
- Responsible AI: Implement an Ethical Approach in Your Organization (Kogan Page)
- Creating the Values Canvas
- Founding Ethical Intelligence
- Writing on the role of the AI ethicist
Sources
- Olivia Gambelin's website: About — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Olivia Gambelin's website: Responsible AI (book page) — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Association for Software Testing: CAST 2025 Speaker and Instructor, Olivia Gambelin, June 2025 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Machine Ethics Podcast, episode 95: Responsible AI strategy with Olivia Gambelin, December 2024 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- AI and Ethics (Springer): Brave: what it means to be an AI Ethicist, October 2020 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Montreal AI Ethics Institute: research summary of Brave, September 2021 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Springer, Rethinking Technology and Engineering: Agile as a Vehicle for Values, 2023 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Springer Nature, AI and Ethics Handbook: Expanding the Ethics-By-Design Landscape, August 2026 — checked 6 Nov 2026