Nasrin Mostafazadeh

Dr. Nasrin Mostafazadeh is an AI scientist whose work centers on advancing machine understanding of human language. Mostafazadeh earned a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence with a focus on natural language processing and commonsense reasoning, completing her doctoral research at the University of Rochester's Computer Science department. Her thesis, "From Event to Story Understanding," was conducted under the mentorship of James F. Allen in the Conversational Interaction and Spoken Dialogue Research Group. During her doctoral studies, Mostafazadeh worked at Microsoft Research on vision and language challenges and at Google NYC on sentiment analysis.

Following her academic training, Mostafazadeh joined BenevolentAI Labs in New York City as a senior research scientist, applying natural language processing and AI to accelerate scientific discovery in major diseases. She later contributed to Elemental Cognition, developing AI systems capable of comprehending stories, explaining reasoning, and answering complex questions.

Mostafazadeh was recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 for her contributions to AI research and development. Her research focuses on building AI systems that deeply comprehend human language, modeling language through events and their temporal and causal relationships to construct causal networks. These efforts have applications in storytelling, computer vision, and language technologies, and have influenced core technologies at Verneek.

As co-founder and CEO of Verneek, a deep tech AI startup, Mostafazadeh leads the development of an AI-native operating platform designed to help retail and consumer brands integrate fragmented data and disconnected systems. The platform supports intelligent operations across planning, merchandising, supply chain, customer care, marketing, e-commerce, and store operations. Verneek's clients include Nordstrom, which Mostafazadeh has described as an anchor partner. Under her leadership, Verneek has achieved triple revenue growth year-over-year and reached profitability.

Verneek's advisory board features industry leaders such as Philippe Schaus, former CEO of Moët Hennessy; Nils Smedegaard Andersen, chairman of ASML and former CEO of Maersk; and Dave Kimbell, former CEO of Ulta Beauty. The company has been featured in Vanity Fair in a story examining the future of luxury retail and AI's role in the industry. Mostafazadeh has also been interviewed by the editorial team of Duke University Press's journal Critical AI, discussing the business sustainability of large language models.

Mostafazadeh is a keynote speaker, chair, published author, and committee member at major business and scientific forums. Her speaking topics include artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, executive leadership, futurism, innovation, robotics, science, storytelling, technology, and women in technology. She advocates for viewing AI as a tool to amplify human capabilities, emphasizing its transformative potential for individuals, businesses, and society.