You Will Never Be AI Ready If...
Dedicated to all those who try!
My AI Journey: Finding My Voice and my Calling!
In honor of International Women's Day, I dedicate this story to all the amazing women I've met throughout my AI journey, and to the remarkable man in my life – My Husband - Pranay Joshi, my personal AI coach.
It was January of 2023, the year we received the most snowfall in as long as I can remember! Cars parked in the driveways looked like Tesla’s Cybertruck!!
On a gloomy & lifeless day, I received a call from my mother. Her voice, though & composed, made my heart sink.
She told me my father’s health was deteriorating, and she wanted me to visit him.
Here I was, trying to stay calm on the surface while a storm was brewing in my mind.
The fear of losing him, the helplessness of being miles away—it all crashed over me at once.
There I was, February 3, 2023, finally stepping into Mumbai International Airport after an exhausting 35-hour journey, including an endless 11-hour layover at Heathrow, London.
Holding onto hope with every passing day with my parents, I found myself craving moments of normalcy amidst the emotional whirlwind.
One afternoon, seeking a brief escape from the heaviness, I wandered into my sister’s home office.
There she was, typing a few words into ChatGPT and watching as paragraphs of polished content materialized before her eyes.
My jaw literally dropped.
"What sorcery is this?" I asked, only half-joking.
"ChatGPT," she replied with a casual shrug. "It makes my work so easy."
Easy? As someone who had spent countless hours struggling with blank screens, "easy" was not a word in my dictionary.
And little did I know this would be a starting point to something so profound!
The Personal Struggle!
When I returned to Canada, I arranged a session with HR and IT leaders, eager to share what I had discovered.
I created a lame ppt explaining what ChatGPT is and when I tried to show it in action it wouldn’t run (remember those days!!)
Beneath this discovery, life didn’t change much!
I was still battling my personal struggles!
I had struggled with writing for years. I would sit in front of my computer, type a sentence….delete it…..sigh in frustration, and repeat the cycle—sometimes making endless cups of tea just to escape the process.
Staring at a blank screen, unable to translate my thoughts into words, felt like FAILURE.
My mind kept yelling at me-"You have so much knowledge to share! Why can't you just write it down?"
It felt like a personal shortcoming.
I knew I had knowledge to share, yet I felt helpless when I couldn’t express it.
Then, my husband was the one who encouraged me to start writing as a way to clear my frustration and brain fog.
That’s when I started using ChatGPT! Why hadn’t I thought of this earlier!!
I started posting, and people resonated with my ideas. In no time, I had written over 30 articles on Substack, shared 200+ posts and comments on LinkedIn, and found my voice.
I was not aiming for more subscribers, I just wanted to share my knowledge and these messages that I received from my readers made my day!
From Personal Discovery to Professional Transformation
Energized by my newfound voice, I joined Toastmasters International and started teaching AI to my fellow club members.
But my first presentation? Let’s just say it didn’t go as planned. I packed in so much technical detail that I could literally see people zoning out. That was my wake-up call!
My Toastmasters group helped me simplify my approach, turning dense explanations into relatable stories.
Meanwhile, my LinkedIn networking was slowly taking off. I connected with inspiring women building products, CEOs leading innovation, and fellow AI enthusiasts.
I had started talking at webinars and partnering with companies doing research in AI.
Back at work, I approached my HR leadership team with what I thought was casual confidence.
"We need a Microsoft Copilot license to start exploring AI," I said, trying to sound calm while internally doing a mental tap dance of excitement.
When they agreed, I tried to maintain my professional composure.
But when that activation email arrived during my day off? ( I was having brunch with my husband) Let's just say it was an "enthusiastic tech happy dance."
I abandoned my avocado toast to immediately open MS Teams, Outlook, Excel—everything—to see Copilot in action
It wasn’t just another software, it was freedom.
I met with every single HR function to demonstrate the power of MS Copilot!
The goal was to spark ideas and get my team to adopt an AI First Mindset.
I encouraged them to share use cases on where they thought AI can help.
At the core of any Generative AI tool, be it ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot lies the Art of Prompting it to get what you want.
So, I started learning and started teaching my HR team - the Art of Prompt Engineering!
You need to talk to an AI just like you would talk to a person - be curious, ask questions and ask AI to ask you questions!
They found value and these testimonials meant so much! They meant the world to me:
Then… I went all in!
In December, I attended Microsoft's AI journey event in Toronto, becoming that person who keeps raising their hand in Q&A sessions!
"What are clients doing with AI? What helpers have they built? How are they handling adoption challenges?" I was relentless.
Information overload soon set in. I'd lie awake at night with terms like "vector search" and "neural networks" running through my head like caffeinated squirrels.
I even created my new email ID - priyatheAILady@icloud.com
That’s when I knew—I had officially gone AI crazy!
Overwhelmed, I turned to my husband—my personal AI coach—for help.
I had called for SOS!
With the patience of a saint, he helped me break down these complex ideas into bite-sized chunks.
That simplified understanding made all the difference as I designed an AI plan for my HR team.
It was finally starting - Practical AI Application!
Practical AI Application Begins!
HR is vast—where do you even begin?
We started with one of the most time-consuming and repetitive tasks: answering employee questions about HR policies and processes.
The information was there, stored on the Intranet, yet employees still submitted a flood of tickets. That’s when it hit me—“Available isn’t the same as searchable or accessible.”
With this realization, my goal was set for the year: Make HR information easy to find and use.
I worked closely with HR and IT leaders, analyzing ticket volumes and identifying recurring employee queries and patterns. We categorized them into key themes to determine where the virtual assistant could provide immediate value.
As I explored further, I realized AI was already embedded in several of our systems—our HRIS, our ticketing tool—AI was everywhere!
After days of research and partnering with IT, we narrowed our focus on the AI tool to build the virtual assistant!
And this is just the beginning!
What's In It For You (The Real Talk)
Where to Start?
For HR experts who are hesitant about AI or unsure where to begin, here’s my advice: start small, start with ONE pilot project!
Find a tangible problem: Choose a real, everyday challenge that AI can help solve—something measurable and impactful.
Be Agile: There’s no universal roadmap for AI. Everyone is learning as they go. You will make mistakes, and that’s okay.
The key is to start fast, fail fast, pivot fast
-From a LinkedIn Live session
Create a Strong Knowledge Base: No matter what AI tool you use, its effectiveness depends on the quality of the data it relies on. Start by building reliable, trustworthy information sources.
Build Trust in Your Teams: AI isn’t replacing your expertise—it’s amplifying it. It gives you back time to focus on what truly matters: people.
A Special Message on International Women's Day
As I reflect on my journey on this International Women's Day, I'm struck by how much I owe to the incredible women who've shared this path with me—the pioneers building AI tools, the leaders implementing them, and the countless women navigating this new landscape with grace and determination.
I am lucky to be part of the HR community which also means being surrounded by incredible and inspiring women!
I am thankful to my HR team that trusted in me to venture into the space of AI - There's something powerful about having someone who believes in you when you're venturing into uncharted territory.
To every woman reading this: your perspective, your empathy, and your leadership are exactly what's needed to start the AI journey.
You don't need to code. You don't need to understand the algorithmic models. You just need to bring your human expertise and ask the right questions. The technical details? You'll learn them along the way, just as I did.
Remember: every AI expert started as a beginner.
The only difference between them and you is that they started.
So start now, start small, and start where you are.
You've got this. If I can do it, you can do it too.