The Future
is HER.

A room full of women
who are building.

The Future is HER: Highlighting Excellence and Resiliency is Georgia AIM's annual conference bringing together industry leaders, practitioners, and emerging professionals to address one of the most consequential questions of our time: how does AI reshape work, and how do we ensure women are at the center of that transformation, not just as users, but as builders, decision-makers, and architects of what comes next.

The second annual event drew professionals from across Atlanta's technology, manufacturing, fintech, healthcare, beauty, and entrepreneurship sectors to the Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center for a full day of keynotes, panels, and fireside conversations. The morning opened with a keynote from Jennifer Kattula, GM and CMO of Microsoft Advertising, setting the tone for a day of honest, substantive conversation about AI, accountability, and opportunity.

Heather Gibbons · Denise Smith · Dr. Tina Woodard · Dr. Maxine Cain at the Fireside Chat

Heather Gibbons · KeAndrea Rivers, Partnership for Innovation, Georgia Tech

The Georgia AIM event team · Welcome, The Future is HER 2026

Dr. Tina Woodard (CEO, Capstone Performance Solutions) · Denise Smith (CIO, AI InnoVision)

Fireside Chat: AI for Entrepreneurs, on stage at GTRI

Heather Gibbons · Kristin Morales, Georgia AIM · Tashee Hawkins

What the room
agreed on.

A few themes came up in every session, almost word for word. These weren't talking points. They were things people in the room have lived firsthand.

• 01
  The job market is being rewritten in real time. Microsoft is hiring "AI builders" for roles that didn't exist six months ago. The question hiring managers are asking now: "What are you building?" Not what you've done. What are you making happen right now.
• 02
  95% of companies still need to transform their workflows. Only 5.5% of companies qualify as AI high-performing. Those companies are 3x more likely to redesign workflows fundamentally. The gap is enormous and the opportunity is real.
• 03
  Human skills are the competitive moat. Learning velocity, the ability to translate complexity into clarity, ethical judgment, and genuine human connection are the skills AI cannot replicate, and organizations are actively looking for.
• 04
  Governance has to be built from the ground up. The honest admission from industry leaders: "We moved fast, broke stuff, spent more than we made." The companies winning now are the ones who built accountability structures before they needed them.
• 05
  Underrepresented communities must be part of the creation process. AI is only as good as the data it's trained on and the people who build it. Diverse input isn't a nicety. It's a technical requirement for systems that work for everyone.
• 06
  Don't wait for company policy: employees are using AI regardless. The smarter move is providing approved tools with proper training. Companies sitting this out aren't protecting themselves; they're just losing visibility into what's happening.

Eight panels.
One conversation.

The day was structured around the industries where AI is moving fastest, and where the need for intentional, accountable leadership is most urgent.

Panel: AI in Fintech · Feagen · Shirey · Smith · Vaughan · Chesmer Williams · Mod: Davidson, EY

Panel: AI in Hiring · Andrews · Donaldson · Hagan · Johnson · Mitchell · Tuggle · Mod: Dr. Maxine Cain

Panel: AI in Marketing & PR · Brandt · Foote · Griffith Girtz · Griggs · Turner Hall · Mod: Dunn

Midday Spotlight · Tim Brown · Tech AI, Georgia Tech College of Lifelong Learning · "Embrace AI with Purpose" · GTRI Conference Center

What to actually
do with this.

This was a room focused on application, not inspiration. Here's what came up repeatedly: the tools, habits, and shifts that actually move the needle.

What this
conversation means.

There's something hard to put into words about being in a room full of women who are not watching this happen. They're making it happen. Fintech executives rolling out AI company-wide. Beauty founders using machine learning to develop products. Cybersecurity researchers. Manufacturing operators. All in the same room on the same day, and nobody was waiting around.

The industry breadth was striking, but the consistency of message was more so: across every sector, the women shaping this transformation are doing it with real intention and real responsibility.

What ran through every session was accountability. Not just enthusiasm about what AI can do, but honest conversation about governance, bias, access, and who's in the room when these systems get built. Those conversations aren't happening enough. This room was having them.

Jennifer Kattula · GM & CMO, Microsoft Advertising · Morning Keynote · Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center