The person behind the work
A curious mind. An unconventional journey. A very human approach to AI.
I’m Charlie Ruttle. A neurodivergent founder, responsible AI strategist, builder, speaker and someone who has never been particularly good at accepting “that’s just how things are.”
I ask questions. Lots of them. I get lost down rabbit holes, challenge conventional thinking and have a habit of turning a passing thought into an entire project.
But underneath all that curiosity is something I care deeply about: people.
How we work. How we think. The barriers we face. The opportunities we’re given, or sometimes denied. And how technology can help us do things differently.
I believe AI has the potential to change lives, not simply by making us more productive, but by giving us more freedom to create, grow, connect and actually live.
And I want to help shape what that looks like.
Where it all started
I didn’t start in technology. I started with people and businesses.
My career began in administration, operations and business support. I’ve spent years understanding what makes businesses tick, what happens behind the scenes and just how much time and energy goes into keeping everything running.
I’ve experienced the frustrations too. The endless processes, inefficient systems, overwhelm and feeling that there’s never enough time to do the things that actually move you forward.
When generative AI began entering everyday business, I was fascinated.
Not just by what the technology could do, but by what it could make possible.
- What if we could spend less time buried in administration and more time building our businesses?
- What if someone with an incredible idea but limited technical knowledge could actually bring it to life?
- What if technology could work with the way someone thinks rather than expecting them to adapt?
Those questions sent me down an AI rabbit hole that I’m still happily exploring.
I’ve gone from experimenting with AI tools to building prototypes, exploring AI agents, learning about governance and helping people navigate technology that seems to change every five minutes.
And somewhere along the way, I found the work I want to do.
My journey
It hasn’t exactly been a straight line.
A journey of discovery, growth and finding my direction. Most of it has happened since April 2025.
Business and operations
Building experience in administration, operations, supporting businesses and understanding the everyday challenges of running them.
2022
An ADHD diagnosis
Receiving a late diagnosis of combined-type ADHD and beginning to understand why my brain works differently.
Understanding my autism
Later receiving an autism diagnosis, starting to unmask and questioning the expectations and systems I’d spent years trying to fit into.
April 2025
Launching my business, out loud
I launched my business and told everyone I was neurodivergent, in the same breath.
Discovering AI
Exploring AI as a practical tool for reducing barriers, organising thoughts and turning ideas into action.
July 2025
From ideas to building
An AI Skills Bootcamp with Breakthrough, then learning through experimentation, prototypes and hands-on projects. Discovering that I didn’t need to follow a conventional route into technology to contribute something valuable.
March 2026
Finding my voice
Joining the innovation panel at Solent FutureScape, and starting to speak publicly about neurodivergence, leadership, accessibility and responsible AI.
June 2026
A first hackathon win
Make Your Mark, built for Figment Arts, won the Create With × EVOLVE Tech for Good Hackathon in Brighton.
July 2026
And a second
Wobbl won the Leadenhall Live AI Hackathon at The Leadenhall Building, London, with Bolt.new and SilkFlo.
Building Her Future in AI
Co-founding a community dedicated to making AI education, opportunities and participation more accessible to women.
September 2026
My signature talk
Giving Wired Differently, Building Differently: a journey through neurodivergence, business, inclusion and AI.
October 2026
Hosting a panel for Women in Tech Week
Hosting and moderating the Breaking Barriers panel for Women in Tech Week 2026 as co-founder of Her Future in AI CIC, brought together with We Are Tech Women, Desk2Educate and StartUp Disruptors and hosted by the University of Southampton: women’s experiences in technology, career barriers and creating more inclusive opportunities.
Now
Responsible AI strategy and governance
Helping businesses explore AI with confidence, understand the risks, make informed choices and keep people at the centre of change.
Thinking differently
Understanding my brain changed how I see the world.
I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, followed later by autism.
For much of my life, I didn’t understand why certain things felt so difficult when they seemed effortless for other people.
I was the daydreamer. The person with a hundred interests, big ideas and plenty of enthusiasm, but who sometimes struggled with the things everyone else appeared to manage.
I learned to mask, fit in and meet expectations, often at the expense of my own wellbeing.
A late diagnosis didn’t suddenly make everything easier. In some ways, it raised more questions than it answered.
But it changed my perspective.
I started questioning why we build workplaces, processes and technology around such narrow ideas of how people should think, communicate and work.
Why do we expect people to keep adapting to systems that don’t work for them?
Why aren’t we designing things differently in the first place?
That experience is a huge part of why accessibility matters to me.
Not as a nice extra. Not as a tick-box exercise.
As something that should be considered from the very beginning.
“Accessibility shouldn’t be something we add at the end. It should shape what we build from the beginning.”
What AI made possible
AI didn’t give me my ideas. It helped me do something with them.
I know what it’s like to have a head full of ideas and struggle to get them into the world.
For me, AI helped bridge some of that gap.
It became a way to organise thoughts, challenge ideas, learn unfamiliar skills and experiment with things I might previously have dismissed as beyond my capabilities.
I started building.
Not because I suddenly became a software engineer, but because I had ideas, curiosity and tools that allowed me to explore what was possible.
That was incredibly empowering.
And it made me realise something important.
AI doesn’t have to replace human thinking. It can help people do more with the thinking they already have.
- For a small business owner, that might mean finally finding the time to work on their business rather than constantly working in it.
- For someone who is neurodivergent, it might mean overcoming the friction between knowing what they want to do and being able to start.
- For someone who has never considered themselves technical, it might mean building something they once thought was impossible.
That’s the potential that excites me.
Not simply doing more work in less time, but creating more room for the things that make us human.
The responsibility
But possibility without responsibility isn’t progress.
The deeper I’ve gone into AI, the more questions I’ve found myself asking.
Who is making the decisions? Whose data is being used? Who is being excluded? What happens when systems get things wrong? And who is accountable when they do?
Because alongside the opportunities are very real risks.
Privacy, security, bias, misinformation, accessibility, overreliance and the pressure on businesses to adopt technology before they’ve had the chance to understand it.
I don’t believe we should ignore those concerns because AI is exciting.
Equally, I don’t believe fear should stop us exploring what it can do.
That’s why my work focuses on responsible AI strategy, adoption and governance.
Helping people understand what’s possible, ask better questions and put the right foundations in place before rushing into the next shiny tool.
- Sometimes that means challenging a business on whether it needs AI at all.
- Sometimes it means looking at the people, processes and policies that need attention first.
- And sometimes it means finding an opportunity that genuinely makes someone’s working life easier.
For me, responsible AI isn’t about slowing innovation down for the sake of it.
It’s about making sure progress is worth making.
Beyond the business
Making room for more voices.
My passion for accessibility, education and inclusion extends beyond consultancy.
Through Her Future in AI, which I’m building alongside my co-founder, I’m helping create a community where women can learn, explore, question and participate in the future of AI.
Not just women already working in technology, but founders, professionals, career changers, curious beginners and women who have never felt that the technology world was somewhere they belonged.
I’m particularly passionate about making sure neurodivergent and disabled voices are part of these conversations.
Because if AI is going to influence how we work, learn and live, the people affected by those decisions deserve a voice in shaping them.
I also speak openly about my journey, neurodivergence, leadership and finding the confidence to take up space.
Something I wouldn’t have imagined doing a few years ago.
And I’m still learning, still questioning and still figuring things out.
I think that’s important to say.
Her Future in AI
A women-led AI community creating accessible ways for women to learn, connect, experiment and build confidence with AI.
Visit Her Future in AI (opens in a new tab)My philosophy
AI should give us more than productivity. It should give us possibilities.
- More capacity to think.
- More room to create.
- More accessible ways to work.
- More confidence to explore.
- More time for the things that matter.
I don’t want technology to make us endlessly busy doing more.
I want us to question what we’re doing with the time and opportunity it creates.
Because the future of AI isn’t just about how intelligent our technology becomes.
It’s about what we choose to do with it, who gets to benefit and what kind of world we want to build around it.
Let’s talk
Curious about what’s possible?
I’m always interested in meeting people who are building, questioning, learning or trying to make sense of what AI means for their business and their world.
Whether you need help navigating responsible AI adoption, want to collaborate or would like me to speak at an event, I’d love to hear from you.