The Importance of Family and the Future of AI, with Asha Saxena

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Today, I'm so excited to have with me Asha Saxena, serial entrepreneur, Columbia University professor, CEO, coach, and bestselling author and international speaker. Her new book, The AI Factor, was just in time for the AI revolution. And as you know, on this podcast, we talk about adaptability as one of the most important qualities in resilience. And AI is a game-changing tool that we need to look at and adapt to because it's here to stay and it's going to make a massive impact in all of our lives, personal and professional. Asha, thank you so much for joining me today, especially on a Saturday. I can't thank you enough. I met you way back in Cliff Shorter's class at Columbia Business School where I was an officer there, um, as a physician, an attending physician at Columbia Medical Center, and they had this amazing thing that you can sit in on classes and I contacted Cliff and I was so interested in the greenhouse. So I don't know if you knew that, but that's why I was there and that's how I met you and you look exactly the same.

Oh my God, that's a good thing.

And you were on the panel. You used to be one of the people who would sit in and all the kids who won, I think they had to win a competition to be in that greenhouse, right? And they would pitch to you and you'd give them all kinds of amazing business advice.

Yes, exactly.

And you're kind of like one of my idols because not only are you a woman in leadership in data and technology, but you're also a mom of two amazing now men, right? And you moved here after college, right? So you started here as an immigrant. Where were you from originally?

Delhi, India.

Wow. You know, when people see you now and they see you like at the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange and you're like, on all these boards, and you're this, uh, amazing keynote speaker and author of this bestselling book now, which was incredible timing, The AI Factor, which I'm listening to on Audible, and it's— I love it. Everybody should get it. So when you see all this and all the success you've had, and you're a professor at Columbia, I mean, you've done so many things. So it's kind of hard to break it down into those little steps that happen between you moving here and starting your education, and then founding a tech business and then founding more businesses and, and being an in-demand CEO coach. I mean, it just sounds so out there. So maybe you could just give us a little bit about the very beginning. Absolutely. You know, like, how did you do it? What did you do? Did you never go out? Did you work in your dorm room all night? What were you doing?

So first of all, I have to say that, um, you're asking me this question at a time when I think I'm kind of emotional because I lost my mom 2 weeks back. And a lot of the people who were there at the memorial spoke about my mom and the impact my mom had on me. And I didn't realize it at that time. But then everybody got up and said how strong my mom was and how she was there for me, made me realize and think about what you just said, you know, from where I started to where I am today. It's something I wouldn't have believed if you asked me, you know, 25, 30 years back and said, "Ashia, you're gonna be a bestseller author. You would have all these successful companies. You'll be ringing the New York Stock Exchange bell, be a commencement speaker at the graduate school." I would probably laugh and I would not believe you. But I think, truly believe that, I think it really started from a lot before I went to school. And I would definitely say, you know, how you, you know, your upbringing has a lot to do with what happens later in life. And I had a mom who was an entrepreneur, was a hustler. She didn't go to college and she was a hardworking, talented woman in an age where women couldn't go to work. My mom was in India and she had to stay at home and take care of me. But she had a talent. She was a seamstress and very good. She learned a skill she could use sitting at home, and she started her own school. She had like 11 siblings.

Wow.

And she was the richest woman because she built a business sitting at home. She had 300 students who came to her school And, you know, and it's so funny, my son said that to me. Somebody said, your mom, I mean, they were talking about my mom and they said she was the woman in the age where the women couldn't go out and get the education and couldn't go to work. And she, my mom they were referring to, actually empowered women and taught a skill that women could stay at home and, you know, create microeconomic world.. And my son looked at me and said, "Oh my God, you're doing what Grandma did. You're empowering women." And I said, "Oh my God, I never thought about that." You know, it was like an unspoken thing. But I think somewhere there I learned about resilience. Somewhere there I learned about working hard and never giving up. I did not— if you had asked me this question 2 weeks back, I would have probably given another answer. But wow, this moment, my mom's memorial, made me realize that how many people saw my mom as a strong woman, an entrepreneur who created, um, in, in a world, a third world country, an economic environment for so many women. And I think somewhere there I learned to have those core values which kind of helped me be a hustler, you know. It's about survival, and things are not going to be your way, and you still have to get up and run, and you can't sit and cry about it. You just have to do things. And I think that attitude definitely helped me where I am today, for sure.

Wow, that was such a beautiful story. Thank you so much for sharing that, and my deepest condolences to you. I mean, I read post about her and, and I thought that she sounded like an amazing woman. But now that you tell me this story about her being an entrepreneur in those times in India without an education and just, I mean, that's incredible. Were you the only child?

I was the only child. And, you know, she started this school where she taught people how to be a seamstress and she taught them how to make dresses and, and she used to make these bed sheets, beautiful bed sheets with hand embroidery.

And wow.

And my uncle was telling me that your mom would go, you know, in India the gold is like big thing. And my uncle was telling me that she was single-handedly made more money than any of the brothers did. And she would go to the brothers and, and buy gold for them for any of their weddings or, you know, their kids' wedding. And she would give so much gold. And she was, he was just saying that not only that she made money, she was so generous, she actually paid forward. She took care of the entire family. And I think for the listeners who are listening to your show, I think there's such a big lesson in that. You can be successful. If you don't pay forward, you're not rich, you know, you're just rich for yourself.

Mm.

Able to be remembered to be a generous human being, I think, is such a great gift.

I have goosebumps and tears in my eyes, and it's just so beautiful to hear all this about your mom. And she lived to an old age, right?

She lived till 84. And my caretaker for my mom, the housekeeper and the caretaker, she was telling me that, you know, on April 1st, I had— I was traveling and I was not home. And my mom had fallen at 2 AM. And she was saying she was definitely gone. But she came back at 9 AM when the ambulance came and did the CPR, because she wouldn't go when I wasn't there. Oh, and 2 weeks back when she left, I was home. I was the first one to see her. I was with her. She told me 100 times that she loves me in last 3 months. Oh, you know, so it was just a perfect goodbye. Perfect goodbye.

Oh my God, I'm so sorry for your loss, but at the same time, I know she's always with you. Did she live with you?

And yes, yes.

Oh, that's amazing.

So I have to tell you that Yes, talk about building businesses, having family, having kids. I had it all because of my mom, you know. And I always say you have to have support system. If you don't have support system, you can't— I'm so sorry to make you cry.

I didn't mean to cry today. It's such a beautiful thing. And, and, you know, as a mom myself, like, that is one of the most important things Well, for me anyway, it doesn't mean everybody, but for me, that was such a special thing that I did in my life. And just to hear you talk about your mom like that, and, you know, sometimes as a mom, you know, you don't know if you're making all the difference all the time.

So absolutely. No, I have to tell you, my mom was my world because I couldn't have done any of this without her. When you talk about all my accomplishments, you know, my mom closed her business When I had my second child and I was here in US, I came to US be a programmer. I was already, I already had a child and I was 24 with pregnant with a second child. And my mom closed her business, moved with my dad to US to take care of my kids, both my kids, and take care of the house. And I had help. So, but she still said, I'm going to be there. You go make things happen. I built businesses. I would have my kids showered and, you know, dinner fed, and I would come home and do homework with them. And she was right there. She was the mother for the whole family. And I built businesses. I sold businesses. I wrote books. I taught at Columbia. You know, I was a CEO coach, and my mom was always waiting for me, always waiting for me to say, did you eat? You know, are you okay? And I think that's the power of a mother, that she stood by me till 2 weeks back. And I think she's still with me. And I think because of her, I could accomplish so much because I had the support system. And again, you know, people who are listening, any kind of support system is a great system. I was lucky that my mom was by my side every minute. My mom and dad just moved in. And wow, thank God for my husband who didn't mind. But my mom and my parents doted on my husband. He would walk in and my parents were like cooking for him and pampering him. And I just having that support system really truly helped me achieve what I achieved, you know?

That's beautiful. And how old were they when they moved with you into the United States?

I was 24 and my mom must be 50, 51, 52, you know?

And she moved to a whole new country. Did she ever work again?

Did she teach sewing or did she, you know, she always, was it her passion? It was her passion. She always made— I have like 300 wrap dresses.

I want to see these.

They're gorgeous.

You're going to have to show it to me sometime. Oh my God. This is just an amazing story. Thank you so much. Wow.

You had no clue. You had no clue this story would go here.

No, I mean, like, I wanted to talk to you about your mom, but I didn't— I hadn't seen you in a while. So anyway, this is such a wonderful tribute and it's It's just such a beautiful thing that you're talking about and the resilience and the support system that you need. And I mean, you were so lucky to have that work ethic you learned as a child. So what were you doing when your mom was working with these students? Was it in the house that she had the students?

Yeah, my mom wouldn't go out to work, right? But she was not allowed to go out to work. So our home was the school and she would have these, she would arrange this all this in a way that she could arrange like different hours, you know, every 90 minutes her batch would rotate and she would have X number of students, you know, and she would work all day long. And I would come from school and I would get right into it.

I was—

I grew up in the school because that was our home. So yeah, so I just saw firsthand how hard she worked, firsthand how she was there for all her students, how she cared every single minute about about doing what she was doing. And she was so hardworking. I mean, from the morning till night, she would work, take care of the house, take care of me.

How does she take care of herself?

I never asked. I was a kid, self-centered kid, you know. I was just growing up, and I knew my mom was there, and my mom was around me, and that's all that mattered to me, that my mom was around. I mean, when I was growing up and I was a kid, I don't know how she care of herself. You know what, actually, I remember on the weekend she would go visit her brothers. Like, Sunday night was the big night because we would go visit grandparents and hang out with the family. So that was like the best thing for her. She loved going, you know, home and having dinner with her parents.

And which child was she out of the 11?

Second. She was the second child.

Okay. And the first child was a boy or a girl? I'm just asking weird questions.

I'm sorry.

I just get so curious. Yeah, she sounds like an amazing person, and it sounds like you guys had an amazing family life too. So it must have been a little hard for you guys when you all moved here because you probably didn't have as much family here, so I'm assuming, you know, it's funny you say that because, uh, my parents were—

I was the only child, so for me, having my parents was my world. And then I had my husband and I had my two kids. And I had my parents, so I was complete. You know, for me, my husband, my two kids, and my parents made my world.

Let's go on to some of the questions that I had for you about resilience and questions about your book, about AI. And again, this book that you wrote was amazing timing. Did you know that they were coming out in November with ChatGPT 3?

Listen, I'm not friends with Sam Altman. I always laugh. I say I have to thank Sam Altman because he positioned launching ChatGPT according to my book release, you know. But, uh, in all fairness, I think, um, COVID was the reason I wrote the book. And I wrote the book because a lot of people around me— my landscaper passed away from COVID I have friends who the father passed away from COVID And so during the COVID time, it was a time when I think a lot of people reflected, and I got a chance to reflect on my life and what, what am I leaving behind. And my worry was that I spent 30 years in this industry building tech companies— data management consulting firm, e-commerce, healthcare software company— and I haven't shared my knowledge with anyone. So my thought was that I'm gonna put everything on the paper Turn it into a book, and my goal is not so much, you know, a lot of time publishers will say, "You have to sell your book, you have to sell your book." In my heart was, I don't care if I sell even one book. I wanted to get this on paper for me. I wanted to share my knowledge and all that I learned, and I really systematically put it on the paper why you should care about big data and AI and how to implement. And so those are the two sections I want to talk about. So I divide the book into two parts. The first part is really telling you stories about the companies who've done well, like Netflix and Starbucks. And so I tell stories in the first part of the book, so very easy to read. And the second part of the book really gives you frameworks and best practices. It tells you how to implement artificial intelligence in your business. And as I was writing the book, I came across I mean, of course, listen, we grew up in the tech world where women were very few and you just take it for granted. And during the time when I was writing the book, everything was going digital so fast. My whole thought was, oh my God, it's only 18% of women are coding these algorithms, which is a problem because we are not gonna have a seat at the table. And then I was having lunch with a dear friend of mine who was the president of First Women's Bank top women in Chemical Bank in 1970s, which is now JPMorgan Chase. And she was reporting to David Rockefeller. And she said, Asha, I had to go home to my unemployed husband, get his signature to open my bank account at the bank I was working. And I was the top woman in 1973 in New York. And so I hear this story and I go then later to watch Hamilton, the play. And then I'm like, oh my God, what a beautiful play, but there is no woman on the stage. So the women were not, you know, we didn't have women at the founding fathers who were writing the laws and regulations, but women were not there as we were building the world, physical world. And so my whole thought was that, oh my God, I will not be remembered. So for selfishly, I was like, oh my God, we need to do something about this. And I started the organization called Women Leaders in Data and AI. With a mission to bring senior leaders together to create an impactful world, digital world, fair digital world with parity and equity. And so this whole mission started from the book to building an organization called Women Leaders in Data and AI, which is, we call WLDA, W-L-D-A. And the thought was to leave a legacy behind, you know, as we are building algorithms, these Artificial intelligence is only going to exponentially enhance everything, performance, efficiencies, and biases. So how we built our models, they'll be impacted by the data they consume. Diversity enough.

Yeah, and women representation as well. Yes. Yeah. You created Wilda and you bring women together and you also mentor, right?

Yes.

Talk to me about mentorship and like how that, what's that meant for you over your lifetime and also what you wanna do now?

So what we do in Wilder is that we first started the organization with just women leaders, and then we realized that, oh my God, we can't do it without men. So we actually added 30% men, male allies we call them, male members. And the male members sit with women leaders, and the goal is that they all come together to help each other and take care of me, which is really important. As a female leader who's at the C-suite level, you know, it's pretty lonely on top. So taking care of them first and then taking care of their team. So me, mine, and ours. You take care of me, then you take care of mine, which is your team and your immediate managers, and then take care of ours, which is your community. The community could be your whole organization, or it could be the impact you pay forward. And it's really about, You know, I would say 3 things: community, growth, and impact. You know, we need community as me. We need to be growing constantly so we can create the impact. And without paying forward, you come to a stage where you feel that your work is not, uh, paying rewards because you're not paying forward.

And by paying forward is like helping others in the field to come along, mentoring, and also giving back to the community.

Exactly. And also, as you think about building AI in your organization, be responsible, be ethical, make sure you have diverse teams, you have diverse thought process, make sure you have female at the table. Not, not only that, oh, we have X number of women, but also have equity. Make sure that these women have a say. They're not just a token woman, but they also have the command to be able to execute. So that's really, really important. And you talk about mentorship and I'll share a little bit about that. And mentorship can come from women or men, right? So I, I grew in my career because I had a mentor early on in my career who helped me get ahead. And again, it's a great story because I was pregnant with my second child and I was 8 months pregnant and my boss called me in. I was, you know, I started my career as a programmer in a consulting firm, and very quickly I became a project manager and then engagement manager. And I was running the P&L for the organization. Merrill Lynch was my first customer, and I grew that account from 2 people to 80 people in my 2 and a half years of career at that work, at that job. And my boss calls me and he says, you know what, we are going to have to, we are getting acquired and we need to let go strategically people. And he said, you know, I can't say that to you, but it's really your bonus. You have a huge bonus coming up. You're one of the most expensive employees and you are on the list. And he said, I'm sorry, you, because you're a high performer and you are going to get a big paycheck, you're on the cutting board, you know, chopping board. And he said, but you, he said, Asha, I can't do this to you 'cause you are such an excellent, I haven't seen somebody who works so hard and does such a good job. He says, I'm gonna give you your non-compete back. Merrill Lynch loves you.

Wow.

Start your own business and continue serving the client. And I was pregnant and confused and I started my own business. And I always say that I gave birth to twins. One was my human child, and one was my work child. So my business was born the same month, same year when my, you know, the little boy was born.

And, uh, I love that.

And we, I mean, they both were such great kids because my younger son grew up to be, you know, he went to UC Berkeley, got computer science engineer, uh, and my, my work child, my company Future Technologies became a huge data management consulting firm. We doubled every year, but I couldn't have been successful if I didn't have a mentor who believed in me and took a chance on me and said, I want you to be successful.

And to give you your non-compete back, that's huge.

Of course, listen, I always say that you have to pay your dues. You have to work hard. Nothing comes to you.

So how many years was that between school and at that point when you started?

2 and a half years.

2 and a half years only.

Only 2 and a half years.

So you had all these management skills. Was that inborn or you learned it from someone?

No, I made tons of mistakes.

Okay.

Tons of mistakes. Are you kidding me?

Please tell us. Yes. This is what I mean. You see the success and you don't see like all the failures. Yes.

There were so many failures. I have to tell you, I want to finish that loop on my boss at that point. Remember, he also got bonus points because He got a huge brownie point from Merrill Lynch because he didn't pull me off. He did it so gracefully. So he did good and it got paid, rewarded big time for him because Merrill Lynch saw that he did the right thing.

Oh, so he's working smart.

It was very smart for him to do that. And then I continued supporting him even though I parted. I made sure that they were successful. So it was really wise of him to do the right thing.

Wise compassion.

Yeah, it was win-win from all different direction.

I love it.

Everyone won in that transaction. So when you talk about failure, my God, so many failures. I mean, I can go on and on and on. I mean, it was really lucky. The timing was really good. So when I'm talking about 1990s, when I started my business, technology industry was booming. So when you talk about only 2 and a half years, people were starting businesses with no experience. And they were doing well. The market was so hot that you could turn around. And all I did, I remember 3 years down the line or 4 years down the line, I was— all my job was signing contracts. We were every day, we were closing business. It was so much business that, you know, I had the whole contracting department and they would say, Asha, we need your signature. So I got to a point where, you know, of course then I had to build all that and make sure that I move on to bigger things. But you know, when you start your business, you're so hands-on and you're all in. And the mistakes, I made multiple mistakes. The biggest mistake, first mistake I made was when you are a new entrepreneur, you don't realize the value of your team and building your team. You are an individual player, you're an individual high performance player, and you run so fast and you expect everybody in your company to run fast with you. So as a leader, individual high performer, you lack compassion for the people who can't run as fast as you. And I've seen so many leaders, so many managers who still have the mindset of an individual player. And they forget that not everybody runs as fast as you. People will say to me, oh, Asha, if they were running as fast as you were, they would be entrepreneurs, or if they were running as fast as you, they would be at your position, or they would be a leader. So what I realized, my biggest mistake I would say, is that at that early age, I didn't realize the value of building people. If you have time, if you have team members, you cannot focus on just winning alone. You have to invest in mentoring, building your team members to succeed. And only then you as an organization, you as a leader succeeds.

And noticing their strengths and building on their strengths, which is probably not the same as yours, obviously, because you're the leader.

There is a great saying, don't expect a monkey to swim like a fish or expect a fish to climb the tree. You have to know the difference between a fish and a monkey. You can't expect a fish to climb the tree and get disappointed.

Yeah, and you're not going to have, uh, 50 Ashas working for you because then you'd all be CEOs.

Exactly. So I think compassion is really, really important.

That's an amazing tip.

Early days, you know, I had this financial analyst, I remember, and she would come to my to the office and bring these reports. My God, there were simple mistakes, simple mistakes she would make. And every time I would look at her Excel and I'll say, calculation is wrong, and I would get upset. And I remember I got so upset one day, you know, in those days we would print out the reports and they would bring it and leave it on my table. And I got so upset, I looked at the report and I just threw it on the table again and I said, this cannot be, you know, this can't be the way you work with, you know. And because I was You know, I expected much better from her. And then a few days later, I was at the fax machine. Those days we had fax machine. I was at the fax machine picking up some papers and she was standing at the printer and I turned around and like started laughing with her and talking to her. And I had this conversation with her, which was really pleasant. She comes over to my office the next day and she says, "Asha, I just have to tell you, I had a really good night's sleep." I looked at her and I said, What does that have to do with me? And I'm completely confused because remember, I was an individual player. I was a high performer.

You're only like 24.

By that time I was like 26, 27.

Okay.

And I'm looking at her and I'm saying, I don't understand that. And I didn't say that out loud. So I just looked confused. And she said, Asha, you were so nice to me yesterday and I really got a good night's sleep. And I was like, oh my God, when did I become responsible for my employees sleep, their happiness.

Because you were the boss.

Bingo.

Wow. And that power leverage.

And you forget when you're every day working, all you're thinking about, oh my God, I have to hit the number. I have to run fast. I have to close more deals. You forget the human element.

Hmm.

I forgot to be human. I became a machine of producing.

But it worked for a while.

Gives you numbers, but it doesn't give you sustainability.

Sustainability, that's key. We're under stress, so then—

Exactly.

We put the stress on them, right?

I think younger leaders or younger professionals have to remember when they become a manager, the difference between individual, like high performer to a manager, and to manager to a leader is when you truly take care of others and make sure that you're responsible for other people's life.

And guide them and mentor them and give them the tools that they can become stronger, right? But then there's also, you have to recognize when someone's not good for the team. Then you move, right?

That's your responsibility.

Yeah.

Not performing. I should have kept her in the same job. I should have sat down with her and said, you know what, it's not a good fit.

Yeah.

You would do very well somewhere else and do it gracefully instead of getting frustrated and not be happy because you're not happy, she's not happy, doesn't work.

Yeah, I had this one girl who was working at the front desk, and I was interim director of the department at one point, and I said to her, I said, you're really smart, you can do more, you want, you know, you can get a promotion. And she just looked at me and she was like, I don't want that. And I was like, what? I had no understanding, like, somebody wouldn't want that. And then over the years I realized, well, you know, she was happy with what she was doing. She didn't want more responsibility. She didn't want to move up that ladder. And that was something that I couldn't even understand in my 20s.

Exactly.

Because I was always like, yeah, give me more responsibility. So going back to what you said about the '90s being this crazy opening of all of the technology companies, like open to all the, the money in that field, do you think it's the same thing now for AI companies that are starting? Are they in a level playing field? Like people could just get into it now?

I think everybody needs to get their hands dirty with AI, you know, let's say that AI needs to be your friend. You can't worry about is it good for me, bad for me. I always say that, Sain, the group of people who are scared of science, there, when you think about biological weapons, you talk about chemical weapons, you talk about nuclear weapons, you can use science for good or bad. It depends upon humans of how we use it.

Absolutely.

When we are in the age of AI, period, there is no discussion about it. I had my publisher, you know, we're talking about my book, my publisher called me and said, "Asha, we wanna schedule a call with you because we wanna learn about, you are the in-house expert for AI and we wanna learn from you what should we do about publishing." And the first thing he says is that publishing is a dying industry. We cannot accept AI because if we bring AI, IP infringement. And, and I said, the first thing I said back to him, you cannot fear AI. Say we are AI publishing house, we are AI-driven publishing house. I said you can use AI for just negotiating contracts. It doesn't have to be giving away IP content. You can still work with authors, but you can maybe have an AI-driven editor. Before the editor actually reviews it, they can just do a cleanup before it goes to the editor. So the editor is not worrying about spelling mistakes or, you know.

Yeah. I mean, using AI as a tool to exponentially increase our productivity and accuracy, hopefully.

Exactly.

And I know you're a big proponent, like fan of medical AI, and so am I. I know it's gonna be amazing and it's gonna help my doctor friends who are inundated with work, right? Exactly. And less mistakes and all of that stuff. I think we're a few years out. I have no idea. We, we'll see. Back in the old days where they started doing AI with trying to double read mammograms with us, and that didn't work out very well. But I know that the underlying technology has completely changed now, so it is working and they're working on it at MIT and Harvard. I'm sure we're gonna have huge changes. I would love that. I would love to have a personalized physician who has seen 100,000 patients instead of hundreds, you know, thousands, right?

Exactly.

So when you're talking to people who are in their teens, or let's say in high school or college, let's start with high school. If you're in high school now and you're looking at AI and the teachers are kind of like, no, that's cheating, or, you know, what would you tell your kid? I know what I would tell my kid. My kids are in college. I'm like, you really need to get familiar with AI. But what would you say?

Listen, I say the same thing. I say you have to get your hands dirty. I said that to the publisher and I said, get your hands dirty with make sure everybody's playing with it. I was giving a talk at Meta, Facebook, and I was talking to the entire DevOps team. There were a lot of young college graduated employees and they were all technical, but they were all in DevOps or different technology, not AI. And they said, how do we get started? And I said, everybody needs to get their hands dirty. I don't care if you're a teacher, you are publisher, you are DevOps person, you are technology infrastructure person, I don't care what you do, you're a physician, no matter what your profession is, you need to start playing with AI tools. You know, I built a movie for my mom to play at her memorial. You know, use the AI tools to build your movie. So the AI tool automatically picked the pictures and arranged it and, you know, created a movie for my mom.

So all these SaaS companies coming out with the AI, the, uh, software as a service.

A lot of application— there tons of applications which are out there. So what I would—

I find a lot of them are kind of janky though. I guess they're like going through iterations. So if you're in high school, you should still be like trying to talk to ChatGPT.

Absolutely. And learn about what are the other tools, how do you use the tools, you know, how do you engage that tool in your day-to-day life. I mean, you know, I have friends who are using ChatGPT to create itinerary when they're traveling, recipes, or, you know, so you can start working with generative AI is one type of AI, right? But when you can start working with different kinds of technology and get familiar, not run away from it, in high school or in your college or you're a professional, you need to get your hands dirty.

Harvard CS50 course, which is like the basic computer science course they start with, they are actually using AI in the course. However, I don't think most universities are allowing it as part of the program. So what would you say to kids who are in universities who are not using it and telling people not to use it for their courses? What would you say to them? I mean, they do need to learn coding, but they can use AI to learn coding, right?

Exactly. So listen, Khan Academy, which of course, you know, gives— creates learning paths for you, and Sal Khan, the founder, did a TED Talk and said, we are working with OpenAI to share our data to create AI-powered learning tracks. They launched KhanMingle, which is an AI tutor.

Yes.

What a great story that is, you know. So If you think about the educational system, and I, you and I spoke about healthcare, healthcare and education is what I'm really passionate about. I truly believe that AI can create a huge impact in healthcare. I saw this robot, which, you know, aging and loneliness is a huge issue. And yes, you know, you, you are a spokesperson for MindBody. And so when you think about this older generation who are in rehab, they feel lonely. And I saw this robot at MIT lab. They showed us the video. The robot comes over and tells this woman, the older woman in rehab, come on, let's work out. And so the woman rolls her eyes at the robot and says, you know, like doesn't respond to him. It's like a computer coming in to talk to me. And he, they say robots have the best jokes. So he starts picking on her and he says, oh really? 'You don't like the way I look? You think I'm a robot so I can't be?' So she starts smiling at him, he's like, 'Come on!' And it's like, 'Okay, fine.' And so she gets up and they're laughing together and she's working out.

I know some people might be creeped out by that, but honestly, I think it would be like safety-wise, you know, they have— they're recording everything. If there's elder abuse going on in these homes, I think it would be great. You know, you can look at their cameras. Exactly. What's going on?

Exactly.

Industries, I think it would be amazing. But of course, the human touch is always the human touch. But who knows, some of these robots are going to have that human touch, right?

Also, you know, they make you feel that they care about you. They're centrally focused on it. When you talk about personalization, it's a true personalization.

I mean, we're going to have to have a whole other conversation about this, Asha, because I know some people are going to be like, what? We need people. My doctor friends, absolutely, we need people. Yeah, but sometimes we don't have people around. Yeah, for some reason, I don't know, like, there's a huge problem with that. But yes, that's like out of the scope of— I know you have to leave.

I have tons more stories I can tell you.

Oh my gosh, we have to do more. Okay. Oh, next time. Yeah, I'm so excited. Okay, so I just want to ask you a few questions if you have a few minutes before you go. What kept you— what keeps you grounded? Do you have any strategies that work for you? You're a mom, like, all these things that you've done. Oh my God, that's an easy one.

I have failed so many times. I've seen going really up really fast. I've seen hard times. I've seen how failure feels and how you get depressed. I had to lay off close to 100 people in my company. It was the hardest time. I prayed a lot, um, tried meditating a lot, and getting up in the morning and cheering myself up. I know that what goes up can come down, and you meet the same people. You meet going up, same people when you come down. So be humble because they are the one who are going to kick you if you're not nice to them, and they're the one who are going to cheer for you even you're coming down. I, uh, my businesses have survived two recessions in 2001 and 2008. My recession in 2008 was so much nicer and smoother because I had gone through hard times and failure in 2001. So staying humble is the only way. There is no other way.

So what is your advice to young women out there right now, how to succeed in AI, in an AI-driven world in the future, and who wants to have a family?

I would say always be curious and always be learning. If you are curious and ask good questions and be open to playing and engaging with technology, you would continue growing. And you— the second important thing is always be open to learning. If you are Life-long learner, it never ends no matter what position you get. So always be a life-long learner to continue learning about new technology, new tools, new methods, new processes. And that has always helped me to be a life-long learner. So I would say, stay curious.

Love it. When you're learning something, it feels so hard sometimes and you feel like you're failing. What do you say to those people? Because I know a lot of people, including myself, you know, when things don't come easily or quickly, then you're like, oh, frustrated.

You have to learn the style of learning. You have to be self-aware. How do you learn the best? You know, for me, when I pick up a book, I feel like, oh, I have to rush because I only have 10 minutes to read. So what I do is I'm always listening to podcasts or books on audio because I can run, or when I'm running or I'm working out, I can always listen to a book. So I've figured out when and how I can learn the best I'm also very curious, so I'm always asking questions when I meet people or when I'm talking to my staff or I have my research team. I'm always talking to them and asking them questions. It's like asking good questions. Be curious. Asking good questions can help you also understand about yourself and understand what you need to learn.

That's great advice. I'm listening to AI Factor, by the way. I always use Audible. I'm sad that it wasn't your voice, though. Yes. Thank you so much, Asha, for spending your Saturday afternoon with me. I can't thank you enough.

Thank you so much for having me.

Of course.

Thank you so much for listening. Forward this to a friend, a family member, anyone who needs to stress less, and soon enough you'll be surrounded by more Zen people. Your support is literally what makes this possible. Subscribe and head on over to YouTube to my Fall Asleep Easy channel. Sign up for for your updates at mindbodyspace.com and get special tips into your inbox once a month. Until next time, this is Dr. Juna Bobby MD wishing you wellness.