Serena Westra

Serena Westra is a Business Designer at IKEA Digital, where she utilises her expertise in human-centric design to shape innovative solutions. Prior to her role at IKEA, Serena was part of the AI innovation team at OLX Group, a collection prominent online marketplaces.

She has a decade of experience in storytelling, strategic innovation, and service design, and passionately believes in designing (generative) AI technology that genuinely addresses customer needs. In 2021, Serena, in collaboration with Ioannis Zempekakis, published the paper "AI-by-Design”. They combine AI/ML with Design Thinking to create a 6-step approach for human-centric AI Innovation. This initiative has led to two of them presenting their insights at renowned international conferences, including the World AI Cannes Festival in France, the Nordic AI and ML Summit in Sweden, LEAP tech in Saudi-Arabia, and the Service Design Days in Spain. Serena is from The Netherlands and lives in Amsterdam.