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Amira Karim
Head of International Public Policy, Payments & Financial Services
Amazon
View LinkedIn profileAmira Karim is a global public policy and payments leader at Amazon, where she works at the intersection of emerging technologies, AI, agentic commerce, and next-generation financial infrastructure. Her work focuses on the evolving policy architecture required for trusted digital commerce, including cross-border payments, digital identity, stablecoins, and programmable money, with an emphasis on governance, interoperability, and trust in the digital economy.
Prior to Amazon, Amira held roles across government, international development, and the private sector, including at Stripe, where she worked on global market expansion and international development initiatives focused on digital payments, financial inclusion, and the growth of digital economies across emerging markets. She has also worked alongside institutions including the World Bank. Based in Seattle and originally from Singapore, she engages closely with governments, regulators, multilateral institutions, and industry leaders globally on the future of trusted AI-enabled commerce and digital economic systems.
Speaking At
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1:45–3:15pmTue 17 NovPublic-Private RoundtableRoundtable Room 4Invite-Only
Enabling The Next Wave Of Innovation
Built for Enterprise, Priced Out for SMEs: Closing the Emerging Tech Access Gap
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Amira KarimHead of International Public Policy, Payments & Financial ServicesAmazon
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Helena ForestExecutive Vice President, Global Product & Commercial, Real Time PaymentsMastercard
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Jiang FangfangAsia Lead for Digital Financial ServiceInternational Finance Corporation
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Aparna JhajhariaHead - Programme DeliveryGlobal Finance & Technology Network (GFTN)Moderator
About this session
A report by Google and the India SME Forum found that AI adoption by India's MSMEs could unlock more than US$490 billion in economic value, and that number sits inside a pattern that isn't unique to India. OECD data shows that each wave of digital adoption has widened, not narrowed, the gap between SMEs and large enterprises: cloud adoption gaps grew even as SME uptake rose, and AI is following the same trajectory, with large firms adopting AI at more than three times the rate of small ones. Limited access to compute, skilled labour, and capital means this next wave of AI-led transformation risks further locking SMEs out of gains at a scale the world has not yet seen.
This roundtable, held under Chatham House Rule, convenes policymakers, industry associations, multilateral organisations, investors, banks, and technology providers best positioned to close this gap. Discussants will explore whether AI adoption genuinely changes SME bankability and risk profiles, the interventions policymakers, industry associations, and investors can make to improve the structural conditions that enable access for SMEs, and the concrete strategies for AI adoption that SMEs can undertake to reduce costs and increase revenue.
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