Alara is an Assistant Professor of Business Analytics, AI, and Digital Transformation and the AI Initiative Paris Campus Coordinator at ESCP Business School. Her research interests revolve around the experimental/empirical analysis and optimization of choice and journey, particularly in digital settings. Some of the questions she is currently investigating are how to optimize human-LLM interactions for decision-making, how to optimize digital nudges in product listing pages and how to optimize user interfaces to improve decision-maker adherence to algorithm recommendations. She has presented her work at POMS, INFORMS, EWG Retail, and POMS International.

She holds a Ph.D. in Operations Management and Information Systems from Koç University in Istanbul and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from Columbia University in New York. Before her Ph.D., she worked as a Senior Consultant at EY, focusing on strategy and marketing projects for retail, automobile, finance, textile, and telecommunication companies.