Ade Famoti

About

Ade Famoti is a senior artificial intelligence and research translation leader working at the intersection of frontier AI, complex physical systems, and global governance. He is a Global Senior Director in Microsoft Research (MSR) and a member of the Microsoft Research Accelerator leadership team, where he leads global research incubation efforts focused on translating frontier scientific breakthroughs into high-impact outcomes, and research explorations across science, technology, business, and society. His work spans AI for Scientific Discovery, embodied and physical-world AI systems, and AI for the Global South, with a focus on identifying and accelerating the next generation of AI and advanced computing innovations at Microsoft.

His incubation work engages closely with researchers across a range of scientific and technical frontiers, including AI-driven small-molecule drug discovery, inorganic materials discovery and Density Functional Theory (DFT), climate and numerical weather prediction, nuclear fusion, multimodal foundation models, and robot-based representation learning for embodied agents. Across these domains, his emphasis is on moving advanced AI capabilities from laboratory research into real-world systems and institutions.

He contributes to global AI governance and diffusion initiatives through the World Economic Forum’s AI Transformation of Industries working group, which focuses on how organizations move from AI ambition to operational impact. He is also affiliated with the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) at the University of Cambridge, which connects policymakers with leading academic researchers and domain experts, and with the Digital Statecraft Academy, which develops public leaders capable of navigating the algorithmic age shaped by AI, planetary-scale digital infrastructure, and real-time data systems.

Alongside this policy and translation work, he maintains deep engagement with the research and technical community. He is a professional member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), including ACM SIGR, and a technical member of the IEEE Cognitive Robotics Committee (CoRO). He serves on international standards and governance bodies spanning AI, robotics, and aerospace systems, including ASTM F45 (Legged Robotics and Autonomous Systems), ASTM F38 (Unmanned Aircraft Systems), and the SAE–EUROCAE Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence in Aerospace. He is also affiliated with the Neuro-Symbolic AI interest group at the Alan Turing Institute and serves as a scientific advisor to the CVPR Embodied Artificial Intelligence Workshop.

Prior to Microsoft Research, Ade held senior industry leadership roles with accountability for multi-billion-dollar, high-growth cloud and enterprise businesses, helping to accelerate platform adoption and revenue growth across global markets. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Information Science from Morgan State University, an M.Sc. in Technology Management from Columbia University, completed advanced training in Deep Reinforcement Learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), AMP from the Yale School of Management, and a member of Clare Hall Cambridge, with an Executive MBA from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.