Devika Toprani
Pioneer, Pre-AI UX. Sense-making for AI Optimization| Founder, Somagraphic Learning™ | “Learning is not AI-made. It’s Soul-made.” 🌟
Seattle, Washington, United States
Actions
💃 On March 6, 2026 Devika Toprani pioneered the pre-AI sense-making layer: Before any AI interaction begins, users externalize their own reasoning through structured visual orientation
🔄 Somagraphic Learning™ framework (SLF)
3 stages, Attempt ➔ Map ➔ Refine. Sequence is non-negotiable. AI enters at Refine. Not before
🧠 10 original constructs: Preserve critical thinking, building REAL clarity
🗺️ Deployable analog-first protocol that makes AI literacy actually work: Map Before Machine™
World’s first AI literacy mechanism requiring users to generate a timestamped cognitive artifact before AI
🌍 Accessible. Policy neutral
Pen & paper. Embeds in AI/LMS before chatbot. Ensures learning is FELT. Timestamped. Verifiable. 10 min. No curriculum redesign. Immune to software updates. Specific prompts. Efficient. Less tokens. Sustainable. Shield against automation bias
🚀 Scalable across 6+ industries: Healthcare, Defense, Cybersecurity, Education, IP & Governance. Seeking pilots & grants
❌ SLF = Not an AI literacy framework
The human cognition layer that makes AI literacy possible
✍️ Proposed Standard: Somatic AI Literacy™
Capacity to establish embodied conceptual orientation before AI interaction. Doesn’t exist in AI literacy frameworks
🧩 Bio
Devika is a multidisciplinary human-AI learning systems architect & global educator with 5 years experience across the US, UAE and India
🇴🇲 Oman-Born | 🇦🇪 UAE Golden Visa Holder | 🇮🇳 Indian
🏢 Career
Coordinated US national accreditation at UIUC School of Social Work, supported HR at George Mason University | K-12 Educator | EdTech Program Ops
✨ Trajectory
- Invited Speaker, DEI 2026, Microsoft Data DEI Group
- Speaker, UIUC WebCon + Northwestern TEACHx 2026
- Oxford AIEOU Human Flourishing Lab individual contributor
- Soulful Learning with AI, on Substack (690+ subscribers)
- Merit Scholar, Siebel SHIFT Human-Centered Design
- Book chapter, AI Everywhere Vol. 2 (in press, Nov 2026)
- Featured, 5+ podcasts/events
🎓 Education
MS Management & Quantitative Sciences (STEM) | Dual BS/BA Psychology | UK & India-certified L&D diplomas | Google UX Design certified
🤝 Connect & Collaborate
🔗 https://devikatoprani.carrd.co/
Learning is Not AI-made. It’s Soul-made. AI only refines, what YOU bring to the chatbot. 🌟🤖
© Somagraphic Learning™ is IP Protected, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licensed, USPTO trademark pending. Published on OSF, SSRN, UIUC IDEALS
Links
Area of Expertise
Topics
Before the Prompt: Why AI Keeps Skipping Neurodivergent Thinkers (And the 10-Minute Fix)
AI workflows in data and tech were built around ONE kind of mind: text-first, language-first, prompt-first. For neurodivergent professionals, that is exactly where documented cognitive friction lives.
Research confirms that enhanced visual perception, spatial memory, and divergent thinking are genuine strengths across ADHD, autism, and dyslexia profiles (Maw, Beattie, and Burns, 2024).
Current AI entry points don't engage those strengths. They demand a neurotypical sequence before the tool will cooperate.
The harm compounds. AI detection tools now flag neurodivergent writing styles as machine-generated (Fesler et al., 2026). A different communication pattern gets read as cheating. That is an equity failure dressed as an integrity measure.
This session introduces Somagraphic Learning™, a pre-AI visual cognitive framework grounded in embodied cognition and cognitive load theory (Toprani, 2026).
Before any AI tool opens, the learner externalizes their reasoning using simple shapes and spatial relationships. No drawing skill. No software. No language fluency required to begin.
The Map Before Machine™ card produces a timestamped record of original human thinking before any AI output exists.
The Map Before Machine™ card takes under 10 minutes and produces a timestamped record of original human thinking before any AI output exists.
Attendees leave with something immediately deployable and a harder question: If the AI tools we build assume one kind of mind, what are we quietly asking everyone else to perform?
Attendees will leave knowing:
1) The research and language to name why current AI workflows structurally exclude neurodivergent thinkers inside their teams.
2) The Map Before Machine™ card: a pre-AI thinking tool that takes under 10 minutes and works across learning differences and languages.
3) A reframe for AI integrity that verifies original human reasoning before AI output appears, instead of penalizing difference after the fact.
Not AI-made. Soul-made: Reimagining Learning in a Human-First Era
AI now produces information faster than most learners can absorb it. This makes clarity one of the biggest challenges in digital education. Somagraphic Learning™ introduces a visual grammar that uses simple shapes and motion cues to explain ideas. These visuals give learners a quick sense of meaning before they encounter text, formulas, or technical detail. This session will show how a visual grammar can add a clarity-first layer to online and web-based learning. It reduces overwhelm, supports neurodiverse learners, and makes complex topics easier to understand. Participants will learn practical ways to include these visuals in slides, LMS modules, and AI-supported lessons. They will also see how this approach makes digital learning feel more human, accessible, and emotionally engaging.
● Event: Conference (University of Illinois WebCON 2026)
● Mode: 60 min Zoom session
● Link to conference page: https://doodlesbydevika.substack.com/p/not-ai-made-soul-made
● Video link to Devika's WebCon 2026 session: https://open.substack.com/pub/doodlesbydevika/p/not-ai-made-soul-made
● Audience: Web designers, developers, social media marketers, content managers, and tech enthusiasts from higher education and EdTech interested in the latest digital trends and technologies.
AISW #104: Devika Toprani, USA-based founder of Somagraphic Learning
➡️ Devika's multi-cultural background and influences on her views about AI and feedback
➡️ Using AI for research, drafting, summarizing, and checking for errors, but not writing or developing her Somagraphic Learning Framework
➡️ Why AI tools are only used in the third phase of Somagraphic Learning (Refine) and not in the first two (Attempt and Map)
➡️ The time an AI summary omitted “Soul” when summarizing her works in “Soulful Learning With AI”, along with other misinterpretations
➡️ Training an AI image generator tool on her own Doodles by Devika artworks
➡️ Thoughts on the feedback loop of students using of AI tools for writing, which helps to train the tools, which in turn shape students’ future writing
➡️ How bots on Instagram are confounding her ability to understand what resonates most with her audience
● Mode: 60 audio interview with Karen Smiley, the founder of SheWritesAI.
● Audience: Professionals, educators, and creators interested in the ethical and practical intersections of human cognition ("wetware") and AI-based software.
Links
● Co-authored audio interview on Substack: https://sixpeas.substack.com/p/aisw-104-ai-software-wetware-devika-toprani-usa?
● Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/6-ps-in-ai-pods-ai6p/id1757212178
Introducing Somagraphic Learning to the Women Who Rule community at Gies College of Business UIUC
Explored Somagraphic Learning, a human-first framework for thinking and learning in an AI-rich world.
The conversation focused on the idea that learning doesn’t start with prompts or tools, it starts with how we sense, interpret, and make meaning. Shape, motion, emotion, and meaning were offered as precursors to language and AI output, inviting us to pause before jumping to answers.
What stood out most was the discussion that followed. Many of us found ourselves asking practical questions about application, especially what this kind of embodied, exploratory learning could look like in K-12 environments, where movement, drawing, and experimentation are already part of how students learn.
Link to session insights: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lauren-irving-nc_tonight-in-women-who-rule-at-gies-college-activity-7424288577045315584-5aRO/
● Mode: 45 min Zoom session
● Audience: Forward-thinking women leaders, alumnae, and business students at UIUC who are interested in leveraging somatic intelligence and Somagraphic techniques to enhance leadership, professional resilience, and holistic career development.
What AI Can't Replace: Why Human-Led Learning Still Wins with Devika Toprani
What happens when learners reach for AI before they reach for understanding?
In this episode of Empowered by AI, Michelle sits down with Devika Toprani, creator of the IP-protected Sonographic Learning framework, to explore what might be missing in today’s AI-integrated education landscape.
With a background in psychology and quantitative sciences from the University of Illinois, and global academic experience across Oman, Dubai, India, and the United States, Devika brings both data and lived insight to a pressing question:
Are we moving too fast for real learning to happen?
Together, they unpack what it means to slow down thinking before refining with AI — and why that sequence matters more than ever.
● Mode: 60 min Zoom session/Podcast featured on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and shared on LinkedIn.
● Audience: Educators, lifelong learners, and academic professionals seeking to balance the speed of AI integration with the preservation of deep cognitive understanding and human-centered learning frameworks.
Link to Podcast:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/tnvKipYrOI0?si=ybxjNPK9PB16mVNG
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6CN3iW798yj5RX4bWHsf53
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/learning-is-not-ai-made-its-soul-made-with-devika-toprani/id1786474112?i=1000750496896
The “Soul-Made” Learner: Deepening Insight through the Somagraphic Framework
A session centered on Devika's core idea that learning is soul-made, not AI-made. Demonstrate how AI can support deeper reflection, creative expression, and human agency while keeping discernment and critical thinking at the center.
Session info and community reviews: https://sheleadsai.ai/social-saturday-may-2-2026/
● Event: She Leads AI, Invited Speaker (weekly Social Saturdays) May 2, 2026
● Mode: 45 min Zoom session
● Audience: Women professionals and aspiring leaders within the She Leads AI community who are focused on mastering AI tools and strategies for career advancement and technological empowerment.
Soul-Made Learning: Bridging the Clarity Gap Between AI and Human Sense-Making
As generative AI increasingly automates the "final product," higher education faces a crisis of cognitive atrophy. When AI provides solutions instantly, it skips the "earned struggle" essential for long-term retention. This session introduces Somagraphic Learning™: a human-first visual cognitive framework designed to bridge the Clarity Gap between AI data volume and human sense-making capacity.
Moving beyond traditional "AI-first" workflows, this interactive presentation demonstrates how to reposition AI as a "Follower" rather than a "Leader". Participants will engage with the Shape-Emotion Grammar™, a pre-verbal language that uses perceptual cues like circles for safety, boxes for structure, and arrows for movement to anchor understanding before a single prompt is typed.
We will workshop a virtual "Attempt → Map → Refine" process, where learners externalize ideas through hand-drawn motion (on paper or digital whiteboards) before utilizing AI for optimization. By the end of this session, educators will possess a replicable strategy to protect the "Human Edge", ensure academic integrity through somatic principles, and foster a "soul-made" environment where technology supports, rather than replaces, the human mind.
View Devika's TEACHx session profile: https://sched.co/2LDn7
Video session stream: https://northwestern.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=8a16ee5f-87f0-49dc-acf7-b44901492f86
● Event: Conference (TEACHx 2026, Northwestern University)
● Mode: 45 min Online Interactive Presentation
● Audience: Instructors, students, learning designers, and technology specialists from higher education institutions interested in showcasing innovative experiments and collaborations in teaching and learning with technology.
Doodles, Difficulty, and Deep Learning with Devika Toprani
Michael Wish sits down with Devika Toprani, creator of the Somagraphic Learning Method, to explore how doodling, shape-emotion grammar, and embodied learning can serve as a visual scaffold before AI enters the classroom. They discuss desirable difficulty, why learners are prioritizing speed over understanding, and how the Attempt-Map-Refine cycle works in both higher education and corporate teams.
● Mode: 25 min audio interview with Michael Wish, co-founder of White Feather AI
● Link to podcast session (includes links to Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music)
https://teachcoachmentor.org/episodes/devika-toprani
Somagraphic Learning™ Framework | Global Citizenship Education Series with Emiliano Bosio
The Global Citizenship Education Interview Series is a podcast/interview series focused on transformative education and sustainability.
We are delighted to welcome Devika Toprani, creator of the Somagraphic Learning™ Framework, a structured pre-AI, human-first thinking model designed to reduce automation bias in learning environments through the reflective process of Attempt → Map → Refine.
Host: Dr. Emiliano Bosio
YouTube Session Link: https://youtu.be/_CaHKkcd98A
Somagraphic Learning™ Framework: Visual Thinking First, AI Second
This month we're going hands-on with the Somagraphic Learning™ Framework (SLF), a human-first approach to AI-assisted learning that tackles the cognitive offloading problem through a unique neurologically-informed hands-on approach: Visual thinking comes first, AI comes second.
Some things we'll get into in the session:
A quick intro to the research behind the framework, including what studies on AI summarization and cognitive debt are telling us about the impacts of timing and sequence.
A live, interactive Attempt > Map > Refine exercise using a shared concept: “How AI changes the way people learn”. (A bit meta, and a rich example for us to work with!)
A debrief to discuss what parts of the SLF technique landed, what surprised you, and whether and how you might bring this approach into your own work or research.
A chance to compare SLF with other emerging approaches addressing cognitive offloading concerns in educational and workplace learning settings.
No drawing skill needed. No prep required. Just bring a pen, paper (or a digital notepad), and perhaps a concept you're currently working with to try the technique with.
The full preprint is here:
Toprani, D. (2026). Somagraphic Learning™ Framework: A Human-First, AI-Supported visual cognitive approach. OSF Preprints. https://doi.org/10.35542/osf.io/fnk7z_v4
Link to session roadmap: https://community.humansplus.ai/c/premium-events/campfire-our-monthly-ai-in-learning-education-meetup-839816
Mode: Featured Speaker, 60-minute live premium session hosted by Dan Bashaw (Founder, LXD Integral) for the Humans + AI Explorers Community.
Audience: Learning experience designers, educators, instructional researchers, and AI practitioners interested in cognitive offloading, embodied learning, and human-first frameworks for AI integration.
Session Title: Somagraphic Learning™ Framework: Visual Thinking First, AI Second
Event Details:
Date: Monday, June 1, 2026
Time: 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM PDT
Format: Virtual (premium members-only session, Humans + AI Explorers Community)
Host: Dan Bashaw, Founder, LXD Integral
Community: humansplus.ai (co-founded by Rawn Shah)
Event page: https://community.humansplus.ai/c/premium-events/campfire-our-monthly-ai-in-learning-education-meetup-839816
Preprint (cited in session): https://doi.org/10.35542/osf.io/fnk7z_v4
Celebrating Diversity, Equity & Inclusion - Because Happiness Happens When Everyone Belongs Sessionize Event Upcoming
TEACHx 2026
Session: Soul-Made Learning: Bridging the Clarity Gap Between AI and Human Sense-Making
As generative AI increasingly automates the "final product," higher education faces a crisis of cognitive atrophy. When AI provides solutions instantly, it skips the "earned struggle" essential for long-term retention. This session introduces Somagraphic Learning™: a human-first visual cognitive framework designed to bridge the Clarity Gap between AI data volume and human sense-making capacity.
Moving beyond traditional "AI-first" workflows, this interactive presentation demonstrates how to reposition AI as a "Follower" rather than a "Leader". Participants will engage with the Shape-Emotion Grammar™, a pre-verbal language that uses perceptual cues like circles for safety, boxes for structure, and arrows for movement to anchor understanding before a single prompt is typed.
We will workshop a virtual "Attempt → Map → Refine" process, where learners externalize ideas through hand-drawn motion (on paper or digital whiteboards) before utilizing AI for optimization. By the end of this session, educators will possess a replicable strategy to protect the "Human Edge", ensure academic integrity through somatic principles, and foster a "soul-made" environment where technology supports, rather than replaces, the human mind.
Devika Toprani
Pioneer, Pre-AI UX. Sense-making for AI Optimization| Founder, Somagraphic Learning™ | “Learning is not AI-made. It’s Soul-made.” 🌟
Seattle, Washington, United States
Links
Actions
Please note that Sessionize is not responsible for the accuracy or validity of the data provided by speakers. If you suspect this profile to be fake or spam, please let us know.
Jump to top