BETTER TOGETHER
As AI is adopted worldwide, UNO’s new columnist Amanda Jeffs wants women to be leading the conversation.
As AI is adopted worldwide, UNO’s new columnist Amanda Jeffs wants women to be leading the conversation.
PHOTO DEBORAH DE GRAAF
These days, when the words “artificial intelligence” pop up, they often come with a sense of panic. We’re constantly hearing warnings about jobs disappearing and workplaces changing faster than anyone can keep up with, but according to She Is AI founder Amanda Jeffs, that fear misses the bigger picture.
Amanda believes the future won’t belong to robots taking human jobs, but to people who learn how to use AI well.
“People think AI is coming for all of our jobs, but what we’re actually seeing is a change in the workforce. Businesses still need people. AI's not a replacement for humanity.”
It’s a conversation she’s particularly passionate about having with women, many of whom report feeling intimidated by the speed at which AI has entered our lives.
Amanda’s background covers communications, marketing, digital strategy and tech, through roles in government, startups, agencies and consulting in New Zealand, Asia and the UK.
Rather than seeing herself as purely “tech”, she describes her role as translating between people and technology.
“I understand how computers think, but I also understand people and psychology,” she says. “I’ve naturally always sat somewhere in the middle.”
Her mix of skills became unexpectedly useful in 2022, when AI tools suddenly exploded into the mainstream. At the time, Amanda was on maternity leave with her daughter after losing her job in a company restructure. While navigating newborn life on very little sleep, she started diving headfirst into AI. What stood out to her in those early days was the number of women trying to figure it out on their own.
“There were all these women learning AI in isolation,” she says. “They were saying, ‘This is huge, but where are my people?’”
Eventually, she came up with She Is AI, which first launched as a digital magazine that showcased women working in the AI space, before growing into a global education and consulting platform operating across more than 28 countries.
Today, the organisation runs workshops, training programmes and events focused on helping women and businesses adopt AI in practical ways.
Amanda says the more we can rethink AI as a support tool that can remove repetitive admin, the more we can free people up to focus on bigger-picture thinking.
At the moment, though, she believes many workplaces are getting AI wrong, by either resisting it completely or trying to replace people without understanding its limitations.
“We’re in this weird stage where companies think AI can run everything on its own, but it’s not there yet,” she says. “In the future, we’ll see businesses realise they still need those people and hire them back.”
As AI adoption grows, Amanda hopes fear will gradually become curiosity. “We’ve been through huge technology shifts before. This is just the next one.”
Amanda’s joining UNO as a new columnist, to share practical insights into AI, the future of work and how you can use emerging technology in ways that feel useful rather than overwhelming.
Watch this space!