Agentic AI: The Next Evolution in Data Modernization for Enterprise Success by Edwina Mckennon

Edwina Mckennon
Founder & CEO, International AI Strategist and Business Growth Expert

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Embracing the AI Revolution: A Guide for Women Entrepreneurs and Corporate Leaders

In today's rapidly changing landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) is at the forefront of technological evolution. As an AI strategist and entrepreneur, my mission is to empower businesses and particularly women leaders to thrive in this AI-driven environment. This blog post aims to inspire and guide you through understanding AI's opportunities and how to leverage them effectively.

The AI Landscape: Opportunity or Fear?

As we navigate this unprecedented moment in history, many are left questioning their positions and opportunities in an AI-centric world. Are you feeling uncertain or intimidated by the rapid advancements in technology? You're not alone. Here’s a quick pulse check:

  • Are you feeling fearful about AI's impact on your job?
  • Are you uncertain about where you fit in this evolving landscape?
  • Are you seeking to understand the opportunities AI presents?

Understanding the Impact of AI on Employment

The facts are undeniable—AI could potentially replace 300 million jobs worldwide. However, it's essential to confront these numbers with a balanced perspective:

  • Approximately 92 million jobs may be lost.
  • On the brighter side, 170 million new jobs will be created, leading to a net gain of jobs.

These statistics can sound daunting, but the prevailing theme is that change is inevitable. Instead of fearing it, consider how you can become part of the solution.

The Silver Lining: AI as a Leveler of Opportunities

As daunting as the changes may seem, AI can serve as a leveling force, particularly for women entrepreneurs. Here’s how:

  • No need for a large team: With AI tools, one individual can accomplish what once required a team of ten.
  • Automating mundane tasks: AI can handle tasks like email writing, customer data analysis, and calendar management, freeing your time for innovation and customer engagement.
  • New business opportunities: The rise of AI opens doors for innovative coaching services, personalized education, AI-driven health solutions, and more.

AI Is Here Now: Preparation is Key

In the next 6 to 12 months, we are poised to see a significant shift in how business is conducted due to AI advancements. Embrace this moment, and instead of waiting in fear, prepare yourself:

  • Engage with AI platforms like ChatGPT for assistance and guidance.
  • Consider hosting workshops to educate others on leveraging AI.
  • Look for innovative solutions for local businesses to help them compete with large chains.

Shifting from Fear to Action

For both corporate women and entrepreneurs, the key to thriving in an AI-dominated landscape is to embrace continuous learning:

  • Spend 2-3 hours daily learning about AI tools.
  • Update your resume to reflect your knowledge of AI technologies.
  • Invest in online courses and certifications in AI.

Emotional Intelligence: The Key Differentiator

While technical skills are important, emotional intelligence and human-centered skills remain paramount. These abilities cannot be replaced by AI and are crucial for building relationships, adapting to changes, and leading effectively.

Conclusion: Your Moment to Lead

The moment to act is now. AI presents a tremendous opportunity for personal growth, business expansion, and leadership transformation. Remember, the choices you make today will impact your future:

  • Engage with AI tools proactively.
  • Become an AI champion within your organization.
  • Lead the charge for your peers and team members.

As you step into this new world, let go of fear and embrace the opportunities that await. Together, we can ensure that no woman is left behind in this AI revolution. Now is your time—go forth, learn, and lead.


Video Transcription

Actually, why I'm here. So I'm actually an AI strategist. I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm a founder of a company called FutureIQ.I'm dedicated to empowering businesses and particularly women leaders to leverage AI and automation to really thrive right now in this evolving landscape. My mission is actually very clear, but, yeah, it's very powerful. I want to ensure that there is no woman that is left behind in this AI revolution. Because right now, we're at a pivotal moment in history That is why I feel like unprecedented. It's a great opportunity, but it's also a genuine concern. And just wanna do a pulse check to see, is anybody like, where's everybody at at with AI? Are you fearful? Jump in the chat. Let me know. Are you at a point where you are worried or you're just trying to figure out, okay, what is the real opportunity?

Because I hear a lot of people talking about it, but I don't really know where I fit. And that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you guys about today is this, the opportunity. Right? Like I mentioned, we're living through one of the biggest, tech revolutions of our time in history. AI is is not just changing how we work, but it's actually changing how we lead as humans. And they've actually coined AI as one of the greatest, you know, human inventions and creations, of our time. So I always say what a time to be alive. But one of the things that I'm actually known for is that I I don't like to sugarcoat things.

I like it to share real facts and real numbers and real opportunities. Right? Because that is the only way that we're gonna thrive in this space is that we need to not be on the sidelines and not be afraid, but we actually have to embrace it. Because in all transparency, the longer that you, stay on the sidelines is you you will be left behind, and you you probably will be in a couple of years, you know, scratching your head wondering what what what just happened. So, that's why I wanted to talk to you about so let's talk about the facts. And one of the biggest facts right now is AI could replace 300,000,000 jobs worldwide. 3,000,000 jobs worldwide. Right? And I say could, but in all transparency, it's actually happening right now. Right? It's not someday. It's not a couple of years from now. It's actually right now.

About 40% of companies plan to cut jobs where AI could actually do the work instead. And I'm coming from an era, I don't wanna expose my age, but I come from pen and paper. Okay? When we had to do things to get documents signed, I'd have to get clients to come in the office and sign the documents. But now everything is digital. Right? And I know when we think about and talk about these numbers, and it might sound scary, But here's the good news, right, that nobody's talking about is while 92,000,000 jobs will disappear, a 170,000,000 new jobs will be created. And that's the good news is that you could sit in fear, of, oh, your job may be replaced, but let's be honest. Hopefully, this is a safe place. Some people don't really like the drops.

Some people don't really like what they're actually doing right now, and either you're working in c suite or maybe you have a business right now, that you're running and you're stuck in admin task. You know, let there's a safe place. Drop someone's if this is right is resonating with you. When Monday comes around, if you're in corporate, you're kinda dreading going into the office, doing the same things that don't really stimulate you, or maybe you have a business where you're kinda stuck in the weeds. We are at a time where AI is actually leveling the playing field. Right? Whether you're trying to get up to the corporate ladder, whether whether you whether you have a business, you could actually start to play in the field where you once never could. Right? So we talked about numbers that were scary, and we spoke about the opportunity that is here where, like I said, a 170,000,000 new jobs will be created.

That's 70,000,000 more jobs that, you know, we're losing. But the question isn't, you know, if change is coming, the question is who's actually gonna embrace these new opportunities. And that's what I wanna talk about right now is that, you know, as much as there's these changes coming, the question is, like I said, who is gonna embrace these new opportunities? And let's talk about women. I'll start with women entrepreneurs. If you are an entrepreneur that are joining me, please drop some ones. We'll focus on you first. Women entrepreneurs, you are perfectly positioned to win in the AI age. Right? First, like I mentioned, AI is gonna level the playing field. You don't need to have a huge team. Sam Altman, who is the founder of OpenAI, he said that we are gonna witness, you know, where a one man team could build a million dollar business.

So you don't need a huge team anymore. You don't need massive funding, right, to start a business anymore or to even scale a business. Right? Again, let's not focus on the negativities. Let's look at the positives. Right? Is that now that we know where the numbers are at, let's look at the the mass amount of opportunities that you have. So like I said, leveling the playing field. That's the biggest one. With AI tools, right, one smart woman can do the work that used to take 10 people, and I'm a walking proof of that. When I first started my business, I was trying to hire on so much talent, and now I have AI agents working in my business allowing me to scale, replacing and positioning people to where they belong.

Right? And creativity instead of doing admin task. Right? Let's talk about the second thing. AI is here to handle a lot of that boring, mundane task. Right? It could write your emails down. It could create your marketing content. It can analyze your customer data. It could also manage your calendar. This what does this do? It frees your focus to what really matters, which is your big ideas, your customer relationships, your vision. Human interaction is gonna be premium if we look about if we look at what's taking place right now. So let's talk about the third thing. OpenAI or sorry. Open I'm saying OpenAI. Oh, AI, sorry, opens entirely new business opportunities. Right? When we think about coaching services, now you can be an AI coach. Right? You could do personalized education now. Right? You can even do AI powered health solutions, virtual assistance for the busy professionals. Right? This could all be now AI powered.

So the possibilities are endless, and the market right now is wide open. So my question to you is where have you guys disappeared to? Right? There's gonna be a time and there was an AI expert that I listened to in Singapore where he's actually giving us six months to twelve months before we start to see a huge paradigm shift with business and how things are done. So when we look at this opportunity, that we have right now is we I call waiting. Right? We know like, I always use analogies. We know the bus is coming. But as we're standing and waiting for the bus to come for the bus's AI, and while you're sitting there waiting, instead of waiting in fear and waiting for something magically to happen because the government's not gonna save you with this, and, nobody's gonna save you or nobody's gonna say, go learn AI.

I I'm here to tell you that that's not gonna happen. So while you're waiting for the bus, which is AI to come, which is here, it is you have the opportunity to prepare, to plan. Right? You gotta look at how are you spending your time. Are you gonna sit there and have conversations about fear? Are you gonna have conversations about solutions? Right? So we can look at one one woman. Actually, let's talk about this lady I know. I know one woman who started a business helping small local shops use AI to compete with other big chains chains. Right? So you can now look at doing small things for other companies that are stuck. Right?

Or maybe you want to host webinars or workshops, right, on how to be able to support and help companies or even small businesses. Right? So you can make 6 figures easily. 5 figures easily. Right? Just by honestly being who you are and having a laptop and a Wi Fi. Right? Now you could actually create, businesses that you could never have started before. Back in my day, to start a business, you needed about twenty, thirty, forty, fifty thousand sometimes. Right? Now you could actually literally wake up, get on your laptop, and there's so much accessibility now to things that could support you with starting a business. Like I said, you don't need excessive funding to even scale your business. You can leverage these AI tools to actually help you. Right? Let's talk about even being a software developer and all these things. I'm gonna say this bluntly.

What a time to be alive that there if you've been dreaming of being, in software, but you maybe not have not been good at coding or maybe you've never taken a software engineer course, but you've always wanted to build something big, now is the time where you could build. You can do whatever you want. Like, anything that comes to your mind, you could actually do it. So right now, if you're an entrepreneur I know entrepreneurs were visionaries. We like to think big and think about things

that we can do to, number one, shift our bloodline and build generational wealth within our family. So if we're if we're actually

looking at the facts right now, you can actually do whatever you wanna do. Anything you wanna do. If there was a there there's a dream that you've had from a young girl, and maybe you thought that dream was unattainable. Right now, you can jump on chattyPT and have it prorate exactly all the steps that you need to take to become whatever you wanna be right now. Right now. Let me know if this is resonating with you. Drop drop some ones. I know we're a little bit quiet, but drop some ones. Let me know if this is this is resonating with you. What I'm seeing is inspiring you because sometimes we dwell so much on the negativity that we don't focus on the real truth of the matter. Right?

And the real truth of the matter is we have a great opportunity. So if you wanna start a business, let's talk about that. Right? It's very easy. Go online, talk with HachiPT. You have deep seek. You have many different tools where no longer you have to sit down and start making decisions based off of gut, but now you can make decisions based off of AI powered solutions. So you can find a problem, a real problem. Right? Maybe you look for things that, that could solve and, you know, solve people's issues, and then you can start small and test and just learn the basics and partner up with ChatChippy Tea. Right? ChatChippy Tea is one of the greatest things that I talk about ChatChippy Tea, but there's so much other tools. There's Jasper AI.

There's so many other tools that you could be using to support you and creating an ecosystem. Right? An ecosystem of building something huge. So as much as, you know, as much as this is inspiring, I love to be I love to talk and motivate people, but let's talk about the truth. The truth is that after this session, I want you to focus on execution because you can you can say it today and get inspired right now with me and say, you know what? I'm gonna go build a million dollar business, but you can. You can be a millionaire, but the only thing that is stopping you is, number one, is the execution part. And a lot of people get stuck, and a a lot of people get stuck in the wrong things.

So like I said, you can either be in a circle having a conversation of the negativity and the the numbers that's scaring you and causing fear, or you can focus on the plus side is that this is a great this is the greatest opportunity of our lifetime. Okay? So let's talk about corporate women. If we have any corporate women right now, maybe you're trying to go up the c suite ladder. You know, AI is your ticket to the top. What if I told you there was there's not gonna be a c suite very soon? You know, these are all things that are coming into play. So where does that place you? Mackenzie did a research, and it shows that there's about 4,400,000,000,000.0 in new business value, yet only 1% of companies are using AI well. Huge gap. Huge opportunity. Right? When I think about the businesses and the companies that I work for, you know, a lot of them are doing things behind the scenes and then showing up to their their staff to let them go.

And I'm telling you right now, many organizations and companies right now are hiring, AI consultants like myself to come in and be able to look at bottlenecks within the business, looking at what what's really making sense, what's not. I had an organization, you know, reach out to me to build AI managers. So when we think about the opportunity, I'm gonna encourage you for those that are working within a company. If you don't wanna be replaced because we're right now, you you're fearful because you're not doing the work, to be honest. So how do you not be fearful as you put the work in? And I know women are we we we love what we do. So one of the greatest things is just focus on AI. Be a AI champion. Don't wait for somebody else to lead in your company and tell you, hey.

We're gonna learn AI. Learn about AI and start suggesting things and ways in your department to get better. Okay? I don't know if anybody remembers, but resumes. Right? You remember resumes? We used to put, Microsoft Excel. We used to put that we were experts at Microsoft Word. I'm telling you right now, things have changed. Companies are not looking for that. Right? They are looking for they are looking for AI tools under your work experience now. And if that's missing, they're they're gonna hire somebody that has AI experience. So if you're working for a company and every day you go in and you're fearful, oh, I don't know when my last day is gonna be, put yourself in a position to win where you become valuable. Because the people that are gonna get replaced are the ones that are invaluable. They don't have any value to to offer them.

So you can either keep working like it's 02/2006, or you can start working like it's '22 2025 and learn AI tools. Every day, you should be spending at least two to three hours a day learning AI tools. Right? So you can show up to work and be like, I'm gonna focus on the results. I'm not gonna focus on the technology because the results is where you can actually use AI to boost sales, cut costs, improve customer satisfaction. And it's not a tech thing itself. It's it's just an education thing. So you can come in and start talking to leadership, start talking and if you maybe you're a leader. Maybe you're in c suite. Right?

You can come in and start leading the people on the right way. Companies right now have their employees frantic because they're not really leading their team strategically to go learn AI. And what they're doing now is some companies are saying don't use ChatGPT. K? So then you're telling staff not to use it, and you're kind of indirectly, subconsciously building fear. So if you are in c suite, I challenge you today to to allow your staff to take an AI course that will level up the playing field for them. Right, where they don't fear feel fearful. Build your AI team within your team. Gather people around with different skills. Right? And say, listen.

I want you to go learn this, you to go learn that on AI, and you there's nothing wrong with that. Right? Because the biggest thing is, there's a quote I always run by. It says never stop learning. And the moment that you stop learning is the moment that you that's where you start being fearful because you're so used to doing things one way that you cannot think outside of the box. And I'm gonna encourage you today is the only way for you not to be replaced is to start learning AI. There is an urgency to learning AI, and it doesn't matter about the media, the numbers, the government, anything. I'm telling you, there is an urgency for learning AI. And you can see it trickling around the world where we have nations and governments and, big names pouring not millions, billions into AI.

So I ask you, how much money have you spent this month on AI tools or learning AI. And if that number is under zero let's let me say $10 because most AI tools are about $10.20 bucks a month, then you got some work to do. Right? So remember when I first started, I don't sugarcoat the messaging. I tell you guys it raw and simple because I'm a living truth. I talk, walk, and breathe AI right now, and I see the future. And the skills that matter the most in AI age, which were in the artificial intelligence, it's not what you think. Yes. It's technical knowledge that will help you, but most importantly, let's talk about emotional intelligence, ethical judgment, asking the right questions. Right? Spotting the opportunities, building relationships, adapting to change.

Right? These are human skills that AI can never replace. These are skills that many women already excel at. Can we talk about building relationships? Can we? Because I know that when we step in a room, things just shift, you know, immediately. So I wanna encourage you. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know the journey that you're in right now, but I know that this isn't just about a business strategy. It's about your personal growth. And if you're anything like me, personal growth is very important. And I'll never forget the moment that I fell upon, ChatChiPT. I said to myself, I'm gonna dedicate the next twenty years of my life to AI in this movement. So if you're a progressive person and you love to learn, I'm gonna encourage you to stay curious.

When people come with these scare tactics about AI, like, in the beginning, I gave you guys some real data. That's data. That's facts. But what are you gonna do with it? You gonna sit down and start, you know, getting worried? Are you gonna are you gonna run after your dream? Reinvent yourself. Right? That's how you stay in business. That is how you, you know, get up the c suite ladder for the the ladder that's there right now. But AI could do and be whatever you wanna be. Right? You can start a business. You can start that business that you've always been dreaming about. You can rise to leadership in your company. You can solve problems that seemed impossible before. But I'm gonna tell you something. It takes courage. It takes the courage to try new things. When I pivoted out of my out of my organization a couple years ago, that took courage.

It took courage by sometimes you're walking in the dark and you're not knowing where you're going, but the light will shine soon because you know that you have courage, and you can learn at any age. Right? The courage to lead, the courage to learn at any age. I believe that courage, I believe the woman right now that is locked on here, you are exactly the leaders we need right now in AI. There's too much people missing from the table. Okay? We are missing too much women from the table. I'm walking into rooms, and I'm not seeing enough of us. Right? If we talk about the AI tools that are currently being built, right, who are designing these AI tools? Some of these AI tools can't even recognize women. Could we is this a safe place? Who are the software designers? Right? Who's dealing with the coding? Who's dealing with bringing these apps to life?

This is a message right now that is gonna turn the turning point in your life right now. The choices you make today will shape where you are in five years. So the question is, will you let fear hold you back, or will you step forward into this new world? Because like I said, the AI expert from Singapore is giving us six months to twelve months. And I don't know if this if if this is your time. I'm giving you a moment. Go learn AI. When you log off here today and you don't know AI, go learn it. Right? Because right now, how do you stay ahead? As we all know this, we're in tech innovation. Go learn as much tools as you possibly can.

Make AI your leading drive. Update that resume. Go take some certifications and courses on AI. Because the way that you were doing business today, you have to ask yourself. The way that you show up to work right now, gotta ask yourself, how does the world look in five years when AI is moving so fast? Right? I'm in AI. And to be honest, sometimes it's hard for me to keep up. One of the greatest things that I've done is I've prorated a routine of where every day I'm spending time learning, creating, understanding that the future is not gonna wait on me. Right? As we're sitting here right now, there are people in power that is gaining, you know, the the world to, leverage AI in, like, 90% of its capacity. So I wanna encourage you today.

And then, like I said, as as much as this is motivating you and inspiring, the biggest task that you have right now is starting to go learn. And somebody asked this in the chat is where do you start? Go on to ChatGPT and tell it everything that you're up to. And it's honestly, tell it that you wanna learn AI, and it will create a whole curriculum for you. And it'll give you steps on how to complete it. I I think a lot of us are not using ChatTBT to its capacity. Instead of running away from it, you should be running towards it and using it on a daily basis. Right? You know, a lot of people ask me. I don't know where to start. Right? ChatGPT. ChatGPT. Go to ChatGPT and say, hey. I'm new to AI. I have I'm working in corporate. I have a business.

This this this this. They've they've actually done an update with Chat QPT where it feels like you're actually talking now, and it you can talk in human casual language and it understands. If you guarantee right now, if you go into TrackGPT and say, this is where I am right now, and I'm stuck. I don't know where to go. I don't know how to start. Help me. The one thing TrackGPT will do is it will create solutions for you. Okay? And it will allow you to know exactly what your next step is. Right now, my whole routine is curated by ChachiPT, and I've been the most productive. I've been the most successful. This year, I got into Forbes magazine.

I've been the most I've been at the top of my the top and the pivotal of my career and my life I've ever been at. And I've been able to plug into the AI tools while everybody else is fearful. I'm running towards it. And if you guys ask me, you guys can go check me out on LinkedIn, follow me on social media. You can see the significant growth I've had, and I give it all to AI. So I wanna close with this, and I'll take I think we're open to q and a, but I want to leave this with you is there is an urgency to learn AI. And if you are waiting for somebody to tap you on your shoulder and tell you now is the time to go, this is your moment to go execute.

We're talking about leading with AI. Right? Transforming businesses as an entrepreneur or somebody working in corporate, this is your moment to co lead with AI.