AI is being built right now. The values it carries, the problems it prioritizes, the blind spots it inherits: all of it is being decided in rooms that don't yet reflect the full range of human experience. Women have both the standing and the responsibility to be in those rooms. Not as a matter of fairness. As a matter of consequence.
Liz B. Baker founded and leads AI Ready RVA's Women & AI Cohort because she's seen what happens when women engage AI with strategy and intent: they don't just adopt it faster, they deploy it smarter. Women are already navigating careers, caregiving, community leadership, and institutional barriers simultaneously. AI doesn't change that math. It multiplies the capacity of whoever learns to use it well. That advantage belongs to women who move now.
This keynote doesn't frame AI as a threat to be managed. It frames it as leverage to be seized. Attendees leave with a configured AI thinking partner, a practical framework for deployment, and a clear-eyed view of where their influence is most needed in the AI conversation happening without them.
Why Centering Women in AI Is Strategic, Not Symbolic
Women account for the majority of consumer spending and are disproportionately represented in the caregiving, education, healthcare, and nonprofit sectors where AI will have the deepest operational impact. The organizations that put women at the center of their AI strategy aren't being generous. They're being accurate. And the conferences that bring this keynote aren't checking a box. They're giving their audience a competitive edge.