Welcome to the She Writes AI interview episodes covering our second book collaboration stream for the AI Everywhere series. For this new cohort, we are exploring the personal journeys and professional expertise of 32 authors from 18 countries worldwide who are redefining our relationships with machine intelligence.

If you’re new to SheWritesAI, welcome! We’re a free, inclusive community of 750+ women and nonbinary writers in 60+ countries worldwide, with a focus on AI and data. Allies of all genders are welcome.

For more insights from interviewer Farida Khalaf, see her Lights On by Farida newsletter or youtube.com/@faridakhalaf25.

About My Guest: Ana Mourão

Today I (Farida Khalaf) am joined by Ana Mourão, a senior marketing practitioner with over 15 years of experience leading digital transformation projects for Fortune 500 companies. As the creator of The Experimental Marketer Framework™ and a volunteer on the ANA Martech & AI Committee, Ana brings a seasoned perspective to what she calls the “marketing compression”. Her central thesis is that as the operational layer of marketing, campaign execution, segmentation, and copy, is absorbed into platforms and agents, the most critical work left for humans is the context layer.

In this interview for our second book collaboration, Ana Mourão explores her framework for the “Agent of Context,” a role for marketers with deep institutional knowledge who can bridge the gap between “smarter autocomplete” and true autonomous orchestration. She breaks down the shift from managing a rigid “stack” of tools to designing a “composable canvas” where data and content supply chains finally merge. Ana highlights the hidden risks of “implicit knowledge,” where vital business definitions live only in people’s heads, causing AI systems to produce work that is technically fluent but operationally disastrous.

Want to read a preview of Ana’s chapter? Volunteer as an ARC reader!

Live Session With: Ana Mourão

Below is a summary of Ana Mourão’s live video interview responses to Farida Khalaf’s questions on her chapter: The Agent Of Context: Why AI's Most Important Marketing Skill Isn't Technical.

Intended Audience: Marketers with deep institutional knowledge who are looking for a structural answer to what their role becomes when the operational layer of marketing compresses into platforms and agents.

“The technical layer of marketing work is becoming commoditized. The context layer is becoming the differentiator” - Ana Mourão

Points discussed in the video

* The “Smarter Autocomplete” Trap: Why many teams are stuck using AI as a glorified spell-checker rather than an orchestration engine.

* The “Consented User” Paradox: A case study on why tech teams and vendors cannot define core business concepts like a “marketable customer” without the marketer’s context.

* Three Essential Skills: A deep dive into Context Architecture (building the knowledge layer), Systems Orchestration (designing workflows), and Value Translation (speaking the language of the board).

* Externalizing Knowledge: Why moving business logic out of “heads and slide decks” and into structured artifacts is the only way to prevent AI from “inferring” its own wrong answers.

* The “Translated Report”: Her practical advice for marketers to start building their value by adding profit-and-loss interpretations to every standard metric they report.

“Marketers who continue to defend impressions in their original units while the channel mechanics underneath them dissolve will be bypassed” - Ana Mourão

Why This Matters

Ana Mourão’s perspective is a vital reminder that context agency matters.

* The Operational Compression: AI is rapidly doubling its capability to complete long tasks autonomously, meaning the “work” of marketing must shift from execution to context architecture.

* A 15% Reduction in CAC [customer acquisition cost]: Ana proves that systems orchestration, rather than just tool selection, can produce major business outcomes like a 15% reduction in customer acquisition costs.

* The Credibility Gap: As AI makes reports easier to produce but harder to believe, value translation becomes a survival skill for connecting tactical outcomes to strategic investments.

* The Intention Economy: As AI assistants mediate discovery and publishers lose massive traffic, marketers must learn to translate “AI-discovery-dependence” into structured business risks

Thank you, Ana, for this incredibly sharp and structural guide to the future of the marketing profession. For every practitioner feeling the “compression” of their daily tasks, her chapter in AI Everywhere is the definitive blueprint for becoming an Agent of Context.

Ana reminds us that the goal is not to be a technical expert, but to be the translator and architect who ensures that the “meaning” behind the data is grounded in the specific values of the business. Her final message is a call to professional ownership: don’t hand your context layer to vendors or consultants; claim it as the unique ground that only you can hold. I personally highly recommend following her work at anamourao.ai and her Substack, “The Experimental Marketer,” where she is rewriting the rules for the human-plus-AI marketing organization.

And if you’re interested in more conversations like this, consider subscribing to She Writes AI. I’ll continue sharing insights from the voices shaping the future of AI, including contributors from new chapters in AI Everywhere from the book2 collaboration stream, where 32 women from across five continents explore how artificial intelligence is changing the world we live in, and how we can change it for the better.

References

For more insights on the book, see aiEverywhereBooks.com - our beautiful book series website created by Blessing Okpala, PhD (now updated with previews for stream II):

Thanks as always for your support in every form. We appreciate it all. Hearts, shares, restacks, and comments are awesome!

Thank you Natalie Nicholson, Marcela Distefano, and many others for tuning into my live video with The Experimental Marketer! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Welcome to the She Writes AI interview episodes covering our second book collaboration stream for the AI Everywhere series. We are exploring the personal journeys and professional expertise of 32 authors from 18 countries worldwide who are redefining our relationships with machine intelligence.

If you’re new to SheWritesAI, welcome! We’re a free, inclusive community of 750+ women and nonbinary writers in 60+ countries worldwide, with a focus on AI and data. Allies of all genders are welcome.

Learn more: About | Books | Categories | Directory | Digests | Donate | Herstory | Join | Subscribe | Updates | Welcome | World Map

For more insights from interviewer Farida Khalaf, see her Lights On by Farida newsletter or youtube.com/@faridakhalaf25.

About My Guest: Dr. Astrid J. Scholz

Today I (Farida Khalaf) am joined by Dr. Astrid J. Scholz, a serial systems change entrepreneur and innovator whose career has been dedicated to making the world a safer, better place. As the founder of Armillaria and co-founder of Zebras Unite and StoryQuo, Astrid builds the technical and narrative infrastructure necessary to equitably mobilize data and capital. A trained economist and recovering nonprofit executive, she describes herself as a "skeptical optimist" who desperately wants AI to work for the people and the planet, but warns that if not applied carefully, it may exacerbate the very problems it seeks to solve.

In this interview, Dr. Astrid J. Scholz dives deep into the messy reality of "AI for Good". Moving past the "theatrical" hype of platforms like IBM’s Watson, she explains why the social impact sector is currently "long on stories and short on recipes". Astrid challenges the rapid adoption of venture-funded AI tools that lack ethical standards, advocating instead for "sovereign AI" and practitioner-built solutions that respect the history and data sovereignty of the communities they serve. This conversation is a masterclass in how to move from "digital worldlessness" to a design justice model that honors lived experience.

Want to read a preview of Astrid’s chapter? Volunteer as an ARC reader!

Live Session With: Dr. Astrid J. Scholz

Below is a summary of Dr. Astrid J. Scholz ’s live video interview responses to Farida Khalaf’s questions on her chapter, AI For Good: Whether And How To Use AI When You Are In The Business Of Making The World Better.

Intended Audience: Practitioners in nonprofit organizations, social entrepreneurs, funders, impact investors, and stakeholders in the global social impact industry who are wondering if AI can help solve the polycrisis of the 21st century.

“The social change industry is long on stories and short on recipes that other practitioners could pick up and adapt to their bioregion.” - Dr. Astrid J. Scholz

Points discussed in the video

* The Failure of Watson: Why billion-dollar platforms often fail in social impact because they cannot create “recipes” out of unstructured, evocative stories.

* VC Funding vs. Public Infrastructure: Astrid argues it is “ludicrous” that a technology destined to become global infrastructure is being developed through the “move fast and break things” lens of venture capital.

* The “Thumbs Up” Privacy Trap: A warning that even if you have privacy settings turned on, clicking a “thumbs up” on a chat response can inadvertently release your sensitive data for model training.

* Self-Authored Solutions: Success stories like Apurva in India and Salmon Vision in Canada prove that AI works best when the communities themselves govern the logic and ownership of the tools.

* “Take a Beat”: Her primary advice to leaders is to question “why” they are adopting AI before succumbing to funder pressure or the fear of being “left behind”

“Systems trained on historical data do not neutralize human bias; they launder it, converting patterns of discrimination into the language of algorithmic objectivity.” - Dr. Astrid J. Scholz

Why This Matters

Dr. Astrid J. Scholz’s perspective is a vital reminder that accountability matters.

* The Data Sovereignty Gap: Most social impact organizations treat stakeholder data as their own; Astrid advocates for the CARE Principles to vest control back with the communities the data represents.

* Algorithmic “Laundering”: AI tools can inadvertently encode the preferences of institutional funders, potentially erasing the unique voices and non-linear theories of change of local practitioners.

* The Digital Divide: Despite the global hype, 84% of the world’s population has never interacted with generative AI, creating a critical window to ensure future infrastructure is built ethically.

* AI Violence: Systems optimized for the wrong objectives can lead to a bureaucratic accumulation of harm, including the exploitation of “ghost labor” in the global south and environmental strain on water-stressed regions.

Thank You, Astrid, for this incredibly rigorous and necessary guide to the ethical infrastructure of social change. For every leader trying to bridge the gap between “technical efficiency” and “true justice,” her chapter in AI Everywhere is the definitive blueprint for navigating the Data Sovereignty Transition.

Astrid reminds us that the goal is not to be bullied into rapid adoption, but to trust our gut and follow our curiosity while protecting the communities we serve. Her final message is a call to leadership courage: don’t just rollout software; provide the governing framework that ensures technology works for people and planet, not just for profit. I personally highly recommend following her work with Armillaria and Zebras Unite, where she is rewriting the rules for how data, people, and capital can be mobilized to change the world.

.And if you’re interested in more conversations like this, consider subscribing to She Writes AI. I’ll continue sharing insights from the voices shaping the future of AI, including contributors from new chapters in AI Everywhere from the book2 collaboration stream, where 32 women from across five continents explore how artificial intelligence is changing the world we live in, and how we can change it for the better.

References

For more insights on the book, see aiEverywhereBooks.com - our beautiful book series website created by Blessing Okpala, PhD (now updated with previews for book2):

Where To Buy, How To Read and Listen, Ways To Review

* Buy Volume 1 (now in ebook and print on Amazon, Gumroad, Lulu, Ingram Spark, and many reading platforms)

* Tips from our publisher on how to buy an Amazon ebook from a country that isn’t a ‘KDP marketplace’, and how to read the ebook without a Kindle device (free)

* Look for our upcoming abridged audiobook edition!

* Review links for Volume 1 (we’re on Amazon, Goodreads, and Storygraph)

Ways To Support

To help cover book-related costs (ISBNs, proof copies, etc.) as well as other SheWritesAI community services, we follow the Wikipedia model. We are now accepting donations via paid subscriptions and can also now accept one-time tips through Stripe (‘digital ink’). All donation sizes are welcome and help keep these book authoring opportunities free for She Writes AI Community members worldwide! Patrons and Sponsors are acknowledged on our book site. Read more.

Thanks as always for your support in every form. We appreciate it all. Hearts, shares, restacks, and comments are awesome!

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Is Your AI Actually Speaking Your Language?

What if the "connection" you feel with your favorite AI is actually a linguistic illusion built on shared words but completely different meanings?

Join us LIVE for a fascinating conversation with Dr. Hollie C. White, Lead Researcher for Languages of Aboutness, LLC, as we dive into her provocative chapter, You Keep Using That Word: How Shared Vocabulary Between Humans And AI May Not Mean The Same Thing. We are moving beyond "prompt engineering" to discuss the Polysemy of AI—the dangerous gap between how machines process words and how humans feel them.

In this episode, we will discuss:

The Illusion of Shared Meaning: Why an AI saying it feels "joyful" is a mathematical vector, not a human emotion—and why the distinction matters for your trust and safety.

The Intersectional Lens: How your personal history, race, and gender act as a filter for every word an AI sends your way.

ChatGPT vs. Claude: The "personality" battle revealed in Dr. White's pilot study, why one model thinks like a physicist while the other thinks like a philosopher.

Reflective Questioning: A practical 4-step toolkit for interrogating AI output so you never fall for the "mirror metaphor" again.

Don’t miss this chance to hear from an information scientist who is "getting real" about the socio-technical power behind every chat window. Whether you are an educator, a developer, or a casual user, it’s time to recognize that shared vocabulary is not shared understanding.

Join us live for future episodes to ask your questions and help us pull back the curtain on the secret language of AI!

Welcome to the She Writes AI interview episodes covering our second book collaboration stream for the AI Everywhere series. For this new cohort, we are exploring the personal journeys and professional expertise of 32 authors from 18 countries worldwide who are redefining our relationships with machine intelligence. This is the 8th episode in our interview series with book2 chapter authors.

For more insights from interviewer Farida Khalaf, see her Lights On by Farida newsletter or youtube.com/@faridakhalaf25.

About My Guest: Celeste Garcia

Today I (Farida Khalaf) am joined by Celeste Garcia. Representing the Systems Ethicist perspective, her chapter addresses the “Dirty Secret of AI Infrastructure”, the invisible human labor force known as "ghost work". Celeste, a former Microsoft veteran and author of the thriller novel AI BABY, pulls back the curtain on the perceived "magic" of AI to reveal its reliance on armies of laborers in the Global South who filter toxic content for pennies. Through her work, she reveals how the world's most powerful tech firms maintain an opaque ecosystem of shell companies to distance themselves from labor abuses, while using a "protective halo" of national security to avoid regulation.

In this video interview for our second book collaboration, Celeste Garcia explores the "Great Paradox of Automation": the reality that the desire to eliminate human labor actually generates new, invisible tasks for people to perform. She breaks down the shift from the perceived "magic" of AI outputs to the grim reality of production, where workers in Kenya and the Philippines are paid less than $2 an hour to tag and sort raw data.

Celeste highlights the hidden risks of "algorithmic cruelty," where automated systems prioritize speed over worker well-being, and exposes the "revolving door" between Big Tech and government policy that keeps these systems unregulated. Whether you are a developer, a policymaker, or a curious consumer, Celeste’s approach shows that labor exploitation is not an inevitable byproduct of progress but a contractual choice. She empowers us to move from passive users to informed advocates, ensuring that the "humanity" benefited by AI includes those who build its foundation.

Want to read a preview of Celeste’s chapter? Volunteer as an ARC reader!

Live Session With: Celeste Garcia

Intended Audience: This chapter is intended for anyone who uses AI in any way, from basic voice recognition to complex enterprise workflows. It invites consumers, students, educators, policymakers, and designers—who may not think about how training data is sourced, to recognize their own participation and responsibility within these systems.

Welcome to the She Writes AI interview episodes covering our second book collaboration stream for the AI Everywhere series. For this new cohort, we are exploring the personal journeys and professional expertise of 32 authors from 18 countries worldwide who are redefining our relationships with machine intelligence. This is the 7th episode in our interview series with book2 chapter authors.

For more insights from interviewer Farida Khalaf, see her Lights On by Farida newsletter or youtube.com/@faridakhalaf25.

About My Guest: Carla Engelbrecht

Today I (Farida Khalaf) am joined by Carla Engelbrecht, Ed.D. representing the Education and Media Design perspective, her chapter addresses the rising phenomenon of "slop": low-quality, AI-generated children's content that is created rapidly without guardrails or human review. Carla, who holds a doctorate in education with 25 years of experience at Netflix and Sesame Street, argues that because children under eight are in a critical window for language and literacy acquisition, they cannot advocate for themselves or push back on AI hallucinations. Through her work, she reveals how creators can move from the "infinite scale" of low-effort production to a framework of Radical Ownership, ensuring that generative AI remains a tool for magic rather than a "horror movie" for the youngest audiences.

In this 7th interview or our second book collaboration, Carla Engelbrecht, Ed.D. explores her framework for “Anti-Slop,” where creators and parents can bridge the gap between high-fidelity AI imagery and genuine pedagogical value. She breaks down the shift from the “Illusion of Polish”, where an output looks studio-quality but is factually or phonetically wrong, to production-ready, evidence-based design.

Carla highlights the hidden risks of “statistical pattern matching,” where models confidently suggest “E is for elderberry” without knowing the fruit is toxic to children, and the danger of “context blindness” where AI conflates adult viral trends with toddler education. She offers a practical three-pillar framework — Radical Ownership, Intentional Design, and Pipeline Rigor — to set structural constraints that treat AI not as an autonomous agent, but as a system that requires strict human oversight to protect finite childhood encoding resources.

Intended Audience: This session is intended for content creators, educators, and parents interested in leveraging AI to create child-friendly stories in text, audio, and visual formats while maintaining ethical responsibility.

Welcome to the She Writes AI interview episodes covering our second book collaboration for the AI Everywhere series. We are kicking off this new cohort by exploring the personal journeys and professional expertise of 31 authors from 18 countries worldwide who are redefining our relationships with machine intelligence. This is the 2nd episode in our interview series with book2 chapter authors.

If you’re new to SheWritesAI, welcome! We’re a free, inclusive community of 750+ women and nonbinary writers in 60+ countries worldwide, with a focus on AI and data. Allies of all genders are welcome.

Learn more: About | Books | Categories | Directory | Digests | Donate | Herstory | Join | Subscribe | Updates | Welcome | World Map

For more insights from interviewer Farida Khalaf, see her Lights On by Farida newsletter or youtube.com/@faridakhalaf25.

About My Guest: Tatyana Amugo

Today I (Farida Khalaf) am joined by Tatyana Amugo. Representing the Builder perspective, her chapter addresses a profound and provoking reality: that most modern technological products were not actually built for everyone. Tatyana is a Gen Z software developer and AI engineer originally from Kenya and now based in Toronto.

Through her work and her chapter, she explores the “friction” experienced by Black and brown technologists and those from the Global South when using tools designed with a narrow, “default” worldview. Tatyana brings a powerful and necessary Gen Z perspective to the table, and it was a true pleasure to see her generation taking such deliberate action to embrace the AI conversation, ensuring they are in the rooms where the future is being decided rather than being left behind. Whether she is breaking down complex concepts in her newsletter, Lipgloss and LLMs, or advocating for Digital Justice, Tatyana is helping to shape a world where being “included” is just the starting point for genuine sovereignty

In this second interview for our second book collaboration, Tatyana explores how the physical "friction" of tools not designed for you can be reclaimed as "precise data" to measure system errors. She shares how the legacy of the Matilda Effect, the systematic erasure of women's technical contributions, drives her to ensure Gen Z isn't just demonstrating for change, but is actively participating in the rooms where AI architecture is decided. Whether you are a Black or brown technologist who has felt the "scissors pull wrong" or a curious learner looking to understand LLMs through the lens of your favorite lip gloss, Tatyana’s insights offer a roadmap for building a window to a future that prioritizes digital justice over mere inclusion.

This episode includes Tatyana’s full interview response to Farida Khalaf’s questions on her chapter, Building With AI Tools That Weren’t Built For You

Intended Audience: Anyone who has felt the "edges" of technology, specifically women, Black and brown technologists, and developers from the Global South, as well as those who want to understand the invisible barriers in AI design. It is also for anyone who feels intimidated by technical jargon and wants a safe, accessible space to learn

If you’re interested in more conversations like this, consider subscribing to She Writes AI. I’ll continue sharing insights from the voices shaping the future of AI, including contributors from new chapters in AI Everywhere where 31 women from across five continents explore how artificial intelligence is changing the world we live in, and how we can change it for the better.

Where To Buy, How To Read and Listen, Ways To Review, Ways To Support

In this episode of the She Writes AI podcast, Farida Khalaf talks with one of the co-authors of AI Everywhere, Volume 1 to explore the realities of building AI that is rooted in care and human connection. This is part of the ongoing interview series, and today we are joined by Andrea Hiott. Her Chapter 7: "More Love, Less Manipulated by Language: How LLMs Can Lead Us To Care, challenges the binary thinking that frames AI as either a savior or a monster.

The AI Everywhere book series brings together multidisciplinary voices to explore how artificial intelligence is being developed, who is shaping it, and what narratives are often left out. Rather than treating AI as purely technical innovation, it emphasizes history, responsibility, and the human decisions behind the systems we use every day.

Drawing from her background as an embodied philosopher with degrees in neuroscience, and her work as the host of Love and Philosophy, Andrea explores how AI can be oriented toward meaningful human and ecological connection. She reframes AI as a vehicle that humans must consciously orient toward a purpose, rather than focusing solely on the “loop” between a technology and a person.

In this conversation with Farida Khalaf, Andrea’s insights uncover why we must stop “mistaking the map for the territory” when interacting with large language models. She explores how to break the “trance” of automated interaction and why preserving relational friction, the tension and friction that define real life, is the most powerful way to ensure that technology serves our collective well-being.

To join future live video interviews and events, subscribe to SheWritesAI and get the Substack app.

For more insights on the book, see aiEverywhereBooks.com - our beautiful book series website created by Blessing Okpala, PhD.

Thanks for listening to She Writes AI Community! Subscribe for free to receive new posts like these interviews, weekly digests, & book news and to support our work.

In this episode of the She Writes AI podcast, Farida Khalaf talks with one of the co-authors of AI Everywhere, Volume 1 to explore the realities of building AI that is ethical, accountable, and inclusive. This is part of the ongoing interview series, and today we are joined by Celeste Garcia. Her Chapter 1: Challenging the Male Narrative and Building Accountable AI, sets the foundation for the entire book by re-examining how AI history has been told and whose contributions have been recognized.

The AI Everywhere book series brings together multidisciplinary voices to explore how artificial intelligence is being developed, who is shaping it, and what narratives are often left out. Rather than treating AI as purely technical innovation, it emphasizes history, responsibility, and the human decisions behind the systems we use every day.

Drawing from her experience at Microsoft and her work as the author of AI Baby, Celeste explores how AI is being developed in an environment driven by speed, competition, and deep uncertainty. At the same time, she challenges the dominant historical narrative that has overlooked key figures such as Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, and Radia Perlman.

In this conversation with Farida Khalaf, Celeste’s insights uncover how the story of AI has been shaped, how women’s contributions have often been erased from the narrative, and why building accountable AI requires confronting both history and the systems being built today.

To join future live video interviews and events, subscribe to SheWritesAI and get the Substack app.

For more insights on the book, see aiEverywhereBooks.com.

In this episode of the She Writes AI podcast, Farida Khalaf talks with one of the co-authors of AI Everywhere, Volume 1 to explore their insights, experiences, and guidance on building AI that is ethical, responsible, and human-centered. This is the 7th episode in the interview series, and today we are joined by Brie-Anna Willey. Her Chapter 9: AI Burnout and the Compassion Reset explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping our mental health, attention, and sense of identity.

The purpose of the AI Everywhere book series is to highlight not just the “what” of AI innovation, but the “how” of using AI systems safely and confidently. If you have ever felt overwhelmed by constant notifications, endless scrolling, or the pressure to keep up in an always-on digital world, Brie-Anna Willey brings a much-needed perspective. Drawing from her experience as a therapist and business strategist, she explores how AI-driven environments can contribute to burnout, how they influence our attention and emotional well-being, and why staying grounded in our humanity is more important than ever. She introduces the concept of the “Compassion Reset” as a way to reconnect with ourselves, set boundaries with technology, and restore balance in both our personal and professional lives.

In this conversation with Farida Khalaf, Brie-Anna’s insights shed light on the hidden cost of constant connectivity, the impact of AI on our daily lives beyond the workplace, and practical ways to protect our mental health while still benefiting from these powerful tools.

Thanks for listening to She Writes AI Community! Subscribe for free to receive new posts like these interviews and support our work.

In this episode of the She Writes AI podcast, Farida Khalaf talks with one of the co-authors of AI Everywhere, Volume 1 to explore their insights, experiences, and guidance on building AI that is ethical, responsible, and human-centered. This is the sixth episode in the interview series, and today we are joined by Dhani Ramadhani. Her Chapter 10: Raising a Family in an AI-Filled World covers key parenting challenges and how she is raising humans who recognize their own agency and understand that AI is a tool, not an oracle.

The purpose of the AI Everywhere book series is to highlight not just the “what” of AI innovation, but the “how” of using AI systems safely and confidently. In her chapter, Dhani Ramadhani explores the distinct challenges and opportunities families face in the AI era. She examines how parents navigate job uncertainty while AI reshapes children's education and relationships via AI companions, and addresses parental concerns around CSAM and unhealthy attachments while highlighting opportunities like AI tutors and household assistants..

In this conversation with Farida Khalaf, Dhani’s insights illuminate experiences with AI that will resonate with parents worldwide.

To join future live video interviews and events, subscribe to SheWritesAI and get the Substack app: