Shimelse Mekonnen is an economist and machine learning researcher working at the intersection of artificial intelligence and economics. He is the founder of Novelnomix, a Washington, DC-based research and advisory firm whose work spans AI labor market impact analysis, machine learning-based economic forecasting, and AI adoption and productivity research, and whose Africa practice, AI Africa Impact, publishes an intelligence newsletter. He is a doctoral researcher in AI and machine learning at the George Washington University, applying deep learning, NLP, and causal machine learning to economic questions. A former economist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he has published widely on trade, development, and China-Africa relations, and served as a reviewer of a national digital transformation strategy. He has spoken at international convenings across North America, Africa, and Asia. He is an alumnus of the Bucerius Summer School on Global Governance.
