About Marenda Hughes Taylor

I design human-centered AI systems where culture, dignity, and lived experience are not afterthoughts but foundational logic.

My work sits at the intersection of conversational AI design, cultural intelligence, and AI governance. I specialize in translating human values into enforceable machine behavior—ensuring that AI systems don't merely sound human, but behave humanely.

Rather than asking AI to "do better," I design the rules that make better outcomes inevitable.

Marenda Hughes Taylor, Developer of Soul-Centered Conversational AI™

Marenda Hughes Taylor, Developer of Soul-Centered Conversational AI™

Soul-Centered Conversational AI™

Soul-Centered Conversational AI™ is a proprietary framework I developed for governing how AI understands, reasons, and generates outputs involving human identity, culture, representation, and creativity.

Unlike traditional conversational AI that prioritizes speed or fluency, this framework encodes lived experience, cultural accuracy, emotional realism, and ethical constraints directly into the system's behavior.

Cultural Intelligence as System Logic

Culture is not decoration added to outputs—it's embedded in how the AI processes information, understands context, and makes decisions.

Representation as Enforceable Rules

Rather than hoping AI gets representation right, the framework prevents misrepresentation before it occurs through mandatory constraints and explicit exclusions.

Human Dignity Encoded Upstream

Dignity isn't corrected after generation—it's designed into the prompting logic, output structure, and decision framework from the beginning.

Creativity Governed by Structure

Creative outputs aren't left to chance. They follow deterministic rules that ensure consistency, quality, and cultural accuracy while maintaining artistic value.

Human-in-the-Loop Authority

The framework replaces blind probabilistic generation with human judgment at every critical decision point, ensuring outputs align with values, not just patterns.

Proven Through Real-World Testing

I developed and validated Soul-Centered Conversational AI™ by building culturally accurate creative products that center Black joy, rest, wellness, and family.

This wasn't theoretical work. I built complete AI systems that generated production-ready outputs for commercial publishing—coloring books celebrating rest as resistance, creative tools centering dignity, and content that refused to flatten identity into stereotypes.

This real-world R&D proved the framework prevents bias at the system level, not through post-editing or hope.

Cultural Accuracy Tested

Built systems that generated realistic, dignified representations across age, gender, body type, and ability without Eurocentric defaulting or stereotype reinforcement.

Bias Prevention Validated

Created governance rules that eliminated common AI failures—flattened identity, inaccurate anatomy, trauma-only narratives—before generation occurred.

Production Quality Achieved

Generated print-ready, commercially viable outputs that met professional publishing standards while maintaining cultural integrity.

Formal Training in AI Ethics

My methodology combines practical system design with formal training in AI ethics, bias recognition, and communication strategy. Eight professional certifications from Skillsoft validate my expertise in identifying and eliminating discriminatory patterns in AI outputs.

AI Ethics & Safety (December 2025)

  • Recognizing Hallucinations, Inaccuracies, and Bias in AI
    Skillsoft · December 27, 2025
  • Navigating AI Ethical Challenges and Risks
    Skillsoft · December 27, 2025

Generative AI (December 2025)

  • Harnessing the Disruption of Generative AI
    Skillsoft · December 27, 2025
  • Generative AI and Its Impact to Everyday Business
    Skillsoft · December 27, 2025

Communication Strategy (2025)

  • Adapting Your Communication Style to Lead Effectively
    Skillsoft · October 3, 2025
  • The Art and Science of Communication
    Skillsoft · June 30, 2025
  • Expanding Your Communication Skill Set
    Skillsoft · June 30, 2025
  • Becoming an Emotionally Intelligent Leader
    Skillsoft · June 2, 2025

Academic Foundation

  • Business Communications Degree
    DeVry University · Graduating 2026
Verify Certifications on LinkedIn

Now Available as Commercial Products

After proving Soul-Centered Conversational AI™ through creative work and validating it with formal training, I've packaged the methodology as self-service AI governance frameworks for corporate brand protection.

Companies face significant reputational, legal, and DEI risks when generic ChatGPT prompts produce biased outputs. Research shows AI systems routinely generate gender-stereotyped language, racially discriminatory content, and ableist outputs that contradict public diversity commitments.

My frameworks apply Soul-Centered methodology to corporate use cases—helping organizations prevent bias at the system level while maintaining effectiveness. Built for companies with DEI commitments, brand safety concerns, or legal compliance requirements.

Same proven methodology. Different application. Self-service products with no consulting required.

Protect Your Brand with Proven Methodology

AI governance frameworks built using Soul-Centered Conversational AI™—tested through real-world creative work, validated by formal training, packaged for corporate brand protection.

View Products

My Story

In 2014, at age 39, while working as a Senior Field Representative for the California State Legislature, I was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer and tested BRCA1 positive. During treatment, I practiced yoga on the beach near LAX and watched airplanes cross the ocean the day before chemotherapy sessions, deciding that if I survived breast cancer, I would be on those planes. At the time, I did not have a passport and had never traveled outside the country. After parting from government, I became a flight attendant, began the John Maxwell certification process, and started writing books, planners, and coloring books while supporting and advocating for newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and survivors.

10% of Marenda.AI Revenue is Donated to These Organizations

OKBC Now

Operation Knockout Breast Cancer Now

Grassroots organization providing direct support, resources, and advocacy for breast cancer patients and survivors. Community-powered care that creates access where it's needed most.

Support OKBC Now →

BCRF

Breast Cancer Research Foundation

The largest private funder of breast cancer research worldwide. The reason I'm alive. The reason I can travel the world. The reason research turns cancer from a death sentence into a life that expands beyond what you imagined.

Support BCRF →

CSC South Bay

Cancer Support Community South Bay

Free professional support, education, and community for people facing cancer. Where I found Writing for Wellness and fell in love with writing as healing. Where community proved that expansion happens together, not alone.

Support CSC South Bay →

I'm a breast cancer survivor. These organizations support thousands of survivors like me and fund the research that saves lives. That's why a portion of every Marenda.AI purchase goes back to them.

Giving back to the organizations that support breast cancer patients and survivors is simply the right thing to do.