Reflections from AI-Powered Women Conference 2026

Attending the AI-powered women conference on Sep 12-13 was a powerful experience. Even virtually. Grateful to be invited as one of 100 changemakers.
I just came out of my daily meditation practice, and what I have learnt is trusting what emerges. Few reflections that came up:
Gratitude to Felicia Newhouse, and AI-Powered Women for creating this remarkable holding space where authentic, visionary, heartful, provocative conversations could be had on the most consequential topics today - humans and AI that serves life. With a "zoom on" what women bring as 50% of the population.  
Flow of each day went deep: poignant poetry, meditation & contemplation, insightful research with actions to take, strong conversations, connections and relationships. 1200+ women and men who support, began to see a new vision emerge for how we grow, what we can create together, re-designing outdated systems...creating new ones.

Few voices / conversations that reverberate for me -
"The most dangerous type of woman is one who forgives herself" - One of the Poets on Day 1 - just feel the power of that
"I need you to remember WHO you are" - One of the Poets
"The twelve-inch journey that must be taken - from the head to the heart" - @Mirabai Devi
"What about power of joy, of connection" - Felicia Newhouse, PhD
"We need to create deep sensing, deep listening infrastructures" - Otto Scharmer

Personally, for me the conference held a deep resonance asking the same fundamental questions that I am asking with the non-profit I formed, Hollow-Bamboo Innovations.  
I grew from the sheer diversity of perspectives that speakers brought all pointing to the same takeaway from different directions & diverse disciplines:
- Humans are overwhelmed going through a death and grieving, and the majority not even realizing it. 
- The intelligence of a human is multi-faceted. Much more beyond just the intellect. Let's cultivate the entire spectrum. 
- AI mirrors our individual and collective consciousness: strengths and blind spots both
- The current AI systems have built in gendered bias, beyond other problems. Multiple kinds of intelligence need to inform complex systems.
- Leaders need to lead differently, build differently >> cannot simply accelerate existing systems, they need to be re-designed entirely
- Organizations need to be live labs - learn as you go, moment-to-moment (Age of Vulnerability)

A few questions I am sitting with:
1. What does authentic power for women look like? What does this look like for whole, integrated humans?
I am thinking of wonderful, deeply rooted integrated women (and men) I have met on my journey - who radiate a different power that is based in love, empathy, clarity and strength - that affirms life.
2. How do we activate this power at a broader scale? 
3. How should organizations of the future look, be designed, to support, grow this evolving whole human, along with AI?

And feeling hopeful, connected for what's possible next.