Companies bought the AI. Now they need people to use it

Louise Ballard, co-founder and CEO of Atheni AI, has a mission — to ensure that when it comes to AI, nobody gets left behind.

“As AI becomes embedded across every profession, we don't want to create a two-tier society where only those who can afford expensive tools or specialist training are able to benefit.

Everyone should have access to the knowledge and confidence they need to use AI well.”

When it comes to AI startups, Atheni AI is an outlier. Its female founders, Louise Ballard and Mackenzie Howe, aren’t postdoc academics or 20-something men vibecoding their way to customers.

Ballard spent three decades in corporate communications before selling her PR agency to Huntsworth in 2009. After recovering from two cancers, she reconnected with future co-founder Mackenzie Howe, an entrepreneur and former institutional investment consultant. Together they realised the biggest challenge around AI wasn't the technology—it was helping people use it effectively.