Hanna joins Colorado Startup Week panel on technology and global development

New tools for global development, from crop forecasting to digital aid distribution, promise to reach people faster and at lower cost. Many work in a pilot phase. The harder test comes at deployment, when a tool meets the institutions, markets, and daily lives it is built to serve. 

Taylor Hanna, Director of Research Development at the University of Denver's Pardee Institute for International Futures, took up that question as a panelist at "Tech for Good: How Startups Are Rewriting the Rules of Global Development." The United Nations Association (UNA) of Boulder hosted the Colorado Startup Week event. 

 Key takeaways 

Hanna argued that the benefits of AI and other technologies depend on the systems into which they are introduced. Drawing on Pardee’s forecasting work with International Futures (IFs), she noted that while AI's trajectory remains uncertain, the systems it will interact with, such as demographics, education, infrastructure, and governance, follow more established patterns and offer a firmer basis for exploring its potential impacts. Infrastructure, human capital, institutions, and a society’s capacity to adapt, she said, help determine whether innovation leads to broad-based development gains. 

Fellow panelists Juan Lucena of Colorado School of Mines, Gavin Power of PIMCO, and Vivek Ramavajjala of Google brought perspectives from engineering, investment, and technology. Power traced the evolution of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and impact investing, and Ramavajjala stressed designing AI applications around local contexts and user needs. Across the discussion, panelists returned to human-centered design and collaboration across academia, business, and technology. Hanna also emphasized connecting Colorado’s innovation ecosystem with international organizations, governments, and local partners so that new technologies respond to real-world development challenges.