Google DeepMind's Lila Ibrahim, world's top AI 'readiness' officer, on preparing for what's to come

CNBC is now accepting nominations for the 2027 Changemakers List.

Google DeepMind Chief AI Readiness Officer Lila Ibrahim may be the only person in the world with that title, and she says she would not have accepted it if she didn't believe that the AI scales will ultimately tip to the positive.

"I don't think I could do this job if I didn't believe that the benefits will outweigh the risks," she told CNBC's Julia Boorstin in the latest episode of the "CNBC Changemakers" podcast.

Ibrahim has spent almost a decade helping Google DeepMind build artificial intelligence and stay ahead of the thorny ethical, and downright existential, questions that surround the rapidly advancing technology. Now, she is focused on whether workers, schools and communities are prepared for what comes next.

Ibrahim was named to the 2025 CNBC Changemakers list.

Earlier this year, Ibrahim shifted into her new role from being Google DeepMind's chief operating officer. The job, she says, is not about DeepMind's own readiness for AI, but about helping the rest of the world understand and adapt as changes accelerate and as AI moves beyond the lab and into more parts of everyday life, from scientific research and weather forecasting to education and workplace productivity.

For Ibrahim, the question is not whether AI will become more capable, or exactly how it will. The more important question, she says, is whether people have a say in how it is used. "While I might not know what it will do, I know that we still can – we have the agency to shape how we get there," she said. But she added, "You can't shape the right future unless you do so with the communities that it's going to impact."

For workers confronting headlines about AI-driven layoffs and automation, her advice is simple: begin using the technology.

"You have to start using AI yourself and create the time and space to do it," she said. "You don't have to be the smartest in the room."

How DeepMind corporate teams use AI every day

Ibrahim and her teams at DeepMind put this into practice daily. She says the "most transformational" AI use case for herself at work on a daily basis is with briefing documents. "I went into engineering partly because I didn't want to have to read and write a lot, and the ability to be able to synthesize in a way that I can absorb information very quickly has been transformational, not only for me but the team that has to prepare that," she said. "And given how much is going on right now and trying to move at pace, it's not necessarily where everyone adds the most value. Being able to be efficient in that and then free up everybody to do the work ... the big thinking ... way, way better use of their time," she said.

Ibrahim breaks down her daily AI use case method into three questions that she asks all team members:

• How are you using AI?
• What would help you use it more?
• Where are you not using AI?

That third question is the human talent element, and she said it is critical. "That's what we need to hire for; we need to reward. This is what we want to continue developing in our employees," she said. And she added that goes for herself as well. "AI can help automate all of my tasks, but it cannot automate my Tuesdays," Ibrahim said.

With her two teenage daughters in mind, she says the AI learning process needs to start long before people enter the workforce.

"They're going to inherit the technology we're developing, and yet they're not getting a voice in how this is being taught to them, how it's being integrated into their schools or into their life, so I think I would love us to see schools lean in a bit more to work with the teachers," Ibrahim said. "Teachers always have to be in the lead with the students to say how do we explore the boundaries for what makes sense with with AI," she said, but she added that students need to "grow up more literate in what the technology is and isn't, and also what are responsible use cases for it."

Thinking back on her professional path from graduate student in electrical engineering to work on designing Intel's Pentium processor and now to Google DeepMind and AI, Ibrahim said "so much has already changed in our lifetime, and the same will be [true for] the generation that follows. So all we can do is teach a love of learning and curiosity, and the resilience to know that change is coming, and they can actually have a role in how that change happens."

"One of the things that I think is going to be important is continuous learning," she said.

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