I'm an investigative tech reporter who writes about how AI and technology reshape workers, communities, and societies. Most of my reporting focuses on the gap between what tech companies promise and what actually happens. My work has appeared in The Guardian, WIRED, TIME, Fortune, MIT Technology Review, Rest of World, and others. Before going freelance I worked at India's top business newspapers: Economic Times and Mint.

I was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University in 2024-25, where I completed first year of the MBA, learning everything business from accounting to corporate finance. Before that I was an AI Accountability Fellow with the Pulitzer Center, investigating the plight of gig workers in India and the impact of AI and algorithms on their work.

In 2024 I won Freelance Journalist of the Year award from One World Media and Outstanding Business Reporting award from the South Asian Journalists Association for my series of investigative stories on gig workers in India.

To get in touch, you can email me at varshabansal[dot]work[at]gmail.com