At NDWA, Alistair is leading the development of worker-centred AI tools and governance models, including Ask Aya, an AI coaching platform co-created with domestic workers. Early pilots have demonstrated both meaningful real-world uptake and the ethical complexity of deploying AI in vulnerable labour contexts, reinforcing the need for practical systems of accountability, oversight, and participatory governance .
His current work is concerned with the governance of AI as a socio-technical system: how systems evolve after deployment, how authority and decision-making are distributed, and how mechanisms for accountability can be made legible and enforceable in practice. In the United States, worker-centred outcomes are not pre-ordained within the development of AI systems; corporate actors continue to dominate the design of core infrastructure, while labour institutions have had limited participation in building technology itself. This creates a structural gap in which questions of power, data control, and economic distribution are resolved upstream of worker input, necessitating a more active role for labour organisations in the design and governance of AI systems.
Alistair is particularly interested in the design of worker-led governance structures that operate not only at the point of design, but throughout the lifecycle of AI systems as they interact with real users in dynamic environments.
Prior to his current role, Alistair served as Chief of Staff at NewWorld, a social impact consultancy in New York, where he advised movement organisations on strategy, communications, and institutional development. He previously led digital strategy at the ACLU, advancing campaigns across immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and voting rights. Earlier in his career, he worked in communications strategy, bringing campaign planning practices into social movement contexts. In Australia, he played a leadership role in launching the Women’s March and served as a board director at ActionAid, a global women-led organisation focused on climate and economic justice.
Alistair is a Reimagine America Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and a Fellow at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies and has taught political communications at Wayne State University. He holds a Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney and is based in Brooklyn, New York.
Photo Credit: Jan Rattia
Further information:
www.domesticworkers.org
