Professor Atif Azad
Professor Azad is Professor of Artificial Intelligence Strategy at Birmingham City University, where his work translates advances in artificial intelligence into strategic capability, inclusive innovation, societal impact and industrial adoption. His leadership supports major national priorities including the UK National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, UK Digital Strategy, the Strategic Defence Review 2025 and BCU’s ambition to create an inclusive digital economy by addressing digital skills gaps, widening participation and strengthening partnerships between academia, industry and society across the Global North and South.
Professor Azad has led a portfolio of nationally significant AI capability and transformation initiatives, securing over £5 million in competitive public and private investment. His work widens participation in AI education, support under-represented groups entering the technology sector by producing inclusive digital upskilling pathways and distributing over £1.1 million in cash-scholarships to incentivise uptake. These initiatives have generated over £3 million in income, supported hundreds of learners through inclusive AI pathways and contributed to BCU’s recognition among top-10 UK universities for social mobility. The impact of this work has received national recognition, including a ministerial visit to BCU and the University’s Team of the Year Award.
His strategic leadership extends across responsible AI adoption and defence technology. He is the lead author and Principal Investigator of the £2.7m VANGUARD programme aligned with the Strategic Defence Review 2025, bringing together computing, engineering, industry and wider stakeholders to modernise British defence. He also advocates for ethical defence and responsible use of technology in modern warfare.
Professor Azad is an internationally recognised AI researcher with expertise in Genetic and Evolutionary Computation. He is recognised among the top 100 authors in Genetic Programming and has received the ACM SIGEVO Silver Humies Award (US$ 3500), the IEEE/CVPR Compute Transparency Champion Award (CVPR 2026) and the Best Reviewer Award at the European Conference on Genetic Programming (EuroGP) 2015. He reviews for leading international AI venues such as NeurIPS.
A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Professor Azad has also co-designed industry-engaged Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science programmes, creating accessible learning pathways for diverse learners including those transitioning careers or balancing employment and caring responsibilities.