Ioana Bîrlan is a Teaching Assistant at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE), teaching within the Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics and Economic Informatics (CSIE) and the Faculty of Business Administration (FABIZ). She is also a researcher in the Business Economics Data Science Lab (BEDSL) and a PhD student at the Doctoral School of Cybernetics and Statistics. Her expertise lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence, econometrics, and sustainability, with a particular focus on ESG metrics and their nexus with informality and governance. She applies data science methodologies, including natural language processing and large language models, to the study of sustainability reporting, transparency, and regulatory compliance. She is also actively involved as a researcher in INSEAI which is a Horizon project examining aspects of informality in the European Union and Latin America.