Dakota Ellis

Before founding Wrennington, Dakota served as an AI Solutions Engineer and Consultant in Charlotte, NC, where he designed, built, and managed AI systems concurrently for numerous enterprise clients. What makes LILA more than a technology project is the nearly decade of hands-on experience Dakota brings in interior design, business management, and construction. Dakota is an award-winning published researcher, having been awarded first place for best capstone research project. His team's paper, From Data to Dialogue: Unlocking Language for All, developed an NLP framework for language learners that outperformed the industry standard. That work later became the foundation for Dakota's research in real-time speech detection models for conversational AI agents, bridging the gap between academia and applied business solutions.

Academically, Dakota holds both a B.S. in Data Science and an M.S. in Data Science and Business Analytics from UNC Charlotte — both degrees earned with perfect 4.0 GPAs. He completed the master's program a year and a half ahead of schedule through dual enrollment, tackling both degrees at once. What sets him apart is what came before the classroom: years of hands-on experience in sales, inventory management, retail operations, carpentry, business management, and interior design — a founder who arrived at the front lines of AI already fluent in how real businesses run.