Weekly Update: Week of June 16, 2025

Young innovators and AI startups shine. This week had an inspirational highlight: Pranjali Awasthi, a 16-year-old entrepreneur from India, was featured in global news for her AI startup valued at $12 million. Her company, Delv.AI, uses AI to make academic research more accessible – essentially an AI-powered search engine that can understand natural language queries and find relevant research papers and data across various domains. Pranjali started coding at age 7 and by leveraging online resources and her own ingenuity, built a tool that addresses a real need (researchers and students often struggle to sift through tons of publications – her AI does it for them). This story captivated the world, demonstrating that age and location are no barriers in the AI era. In the corporate sphere, Microsoft launched a public preview of its “CoPilot” AI assistant for Office apps on June 15. This AI assistant can draft documents in Word from a short prompt, create PowerPoint slides summarizing a report, or analyze Excel data with natural language questions. Early users reported it as a “game changer” for productivity. Together, these developments show AI innovation at both grassroots and enterprise levels. A teenager with passion and access to AI tech can create something as impactful as a Fortune 500 company rolling out AI to millions – truly highlighting the democratization of innovation.