Welcome back to Superheroes in Heels, the show where powerful women rise up, break barriers, and lead with confidence in every room they enter. I’m Kimberly Borgens, your host, here to ignite bold conversations and empower women like you not just to succeed, but to thrive—especially in spaces where we’ve historically been overlooked.

In this episode, we’re tackling a topic that’s at the forefront of business transformation and personal growth: artificial intelligence. Whether you’re hiding from it, resisting the change, or fully embracing AI, this conversation is for you. Kimberly Borgens draws on three decades of leadership in male-dominated industries to share real-life stories from her own company—like the employee who hesitated to use AI tools, fearing it might undermine her credibility, and what happened when she finally gave it a try.

We’ll explore why women are statistically less likely to use AI than men, and why those trust issues with new technology are real—but surmountable. Kimberly Borgens walks us through the pitfalls of both extremes: shunning AI altogether and becoming invisible in a fast-paced marketplace, or overusing it to the point that your unique voice and presence are lost amid a sea of generic, forgettable content.

You’ll get practical advice on making AI your ally, not your replacement. Discover actionable ways to leverage AI for drafting emails, brainstorming ideas, or negotiating contracts—while always editing and adding your personal touch before hitting send. Kimberly Borgens reminds us that AI can’t replace the lived experiences, leadership intuition, and command presence that you bring to the table. In fact, in a world flooded with automation, your authentic perspective and story are now more valuable than ever.

If you’ve ever worried that embracing AI means selling out or falling behind, this episode is your reality check and your roadmap. You’ll learn how to stay ahead of the curve, keep your credibility intact, and use AI as a resource to amplify—not diminish—your superpowers as a woman in business. So get ready to reframe your relationship with technology, find your sweet spot between innovation and authenticity, and walk away bolder, braver, and more equipped to lead in the era of AI.

Let’s step into this new world together—heels on, capes ready—because superheroes like us don’t get left behind.

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Until next time, keep showing up, standing tall, and wearing those heels like the superhero you are.

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Welcome to Superheroes in Heels, the podcast where powerful women rise, lead, and own the room. I'm Kimberley Borgens, your host, fellow trailblazer, and unapologetic advocate for women in the world of business. With over 30 years of experience building success in a male dominant industry, I'm here to empower you to do the same. Each week, you'll hear bold conversations with inspiring guests who embody strength, resilience, a little dash of sass, and a little bit of grace. Together, we'll challenge the status quo, break through barriers, unlock your confidence, and unleash your inner superhero. You ready? Let's go. Hello.

Welcome back to Superheroes and Heels. I'm Kimberley Borgen, your host, and today I'm going to talk about something that women are either hiding behind it or they're resisting it or avoiding it. So what could that possibly be? Well, let's talk a little bit about AI and business. Okay. So I really wanted to have this conversation with the ladies. I, you know, I'm in my office and one of my staff comes into my office and he says, your, you know, it's kind of accusatory sound. She says, your president says I have to use AI. And I was like, yeah.

And she's like, I don't want to use AI. And I'm like, okay, so I'm not asking you to go have AI make things up for you, but could AI support you in writing emails to clients, sending emails to staff? Could it look at a letter that you've written or a proposal that you've done, and can it, like, enhance it and make it sound better, make it sound, you know, more in alignment with our company? And she said, maybe. And I said, this week, why don't you just chat? Why don't you challenge yourself and see if maybe letters or emails going out to employees that you could use copilot and see if they could help you do that. See if it, you know, saves you some time. See if it, you know, can support you in any way. She sighed. She huffed out of my office. She was hoping that I would say that she didn't have to use the AI.

I know that's kind of where she was coming from. And I said, look, you know, I'm not telling you that you have to do it all on AI. What we're asking you to do is start to explore it. Now, in some cases, if you think about yourself as a business is she's way behind the line of starting an AI, but that's just how it is. And so Sometimes you get people that are resistant, right? And it's not about the people who are resistant. And maybe I'm talking to you, maybe you're the resistant one. I can be a little resistant. I'm not always the, the first one to adopt everything, right? But think about it.

It's not about capability. It's really about context. What's the context that, that people using AI are putting it in, or the people that are requesting you to use AI? How are, how are you putting it? Know, he just kind of said, hey, you need to start learning to do this. And I gave her some examples of how she could start using it. Did you know that, like, women are 20 to 25% less likely to use AI tools than men? Come on, ladies, right? That's what the research shows is. And many worry that AI is going to seem like they're cheating or undermine their credibility, right? That's not what AI is about. Now some people are utilizing it that way. I get it.

You know, everything can get abused. And so it. Those of you that are resisting, you know, you just have to understand that it is the world that we live in. I mean, come on, Those of you that are resisting, let me ask you, have you asked your phone and said like, hey, you know her name, right? Or, hey, Google, or hey, whatever, right? How do you use those things on your phones to help you search for a phone number, a business, a person that you're looking to connect with? Well, guess what? That's AI, right? If you ever asked Alexa to set you a timer in your home or to search the web for a song that you're looking for, that you've been using AI. Maybe you have appliances in your home that are connected to Bluetooth, that are connected to AI, right? They need updates, things like that. So I want you to understand, those who might be resistant to it is that you're already using it. If you have an Apple watch, right? Or a smartwatch in any way, smartphone smartwatch, guess what? You're smart because it's got AI behind it. Even look, even Apple got involved in this in a really big way.

Apple says, go ahead, throw all your AI stuff into us, because they've just launched that out. And the reality is Apple's doing something that nobody else is doing is they're opening up the platform for you to put all your AI content. Why? Because they're building in the background, right? They know. So you're already exposed to using on every social media platform form, right? AI. Now, I'm not a huge proponent of doing everything AI. And I also want to caution you because this is where you know, the resistance comes in is that there's lower trust or lack of clear rules around how to use the AI. And some people are not using it for the best benefit. The other thing is businesses are using it without looking at the rules.

That says you can't put people's, your employees, personal information, right? Their name, their Social Security number, you know, data about their medical issues, all of that stuff. You can't put that in AI, right? Don't do it. It's not smart. But that's where, you know, that's where the problems can come. But you can if you, as long as you know some of the clear rules. Now some of, there's not every rule for everything, just like life, right? So. But if you know some of those clear rules that can keep you from getting into trouble, then you know, you, it doesn't lower the trust. Women that aren't behind AI isn't because they're incapable.

It's because they just have been conditioned, right, to protect their credibility. Look, I am insecurity, right? I've been insecurity for almost 35 years now. I was pre Google insecurity, okay? Free computers, everyday computers. We sure as heck didn't have smartphones or smartwatches or anything like that. But you always had to have that, that little space of, you know, distance. Not everybody needs to know everything, okay? This is security, ladies and gentlemen. So you have to protect your credibility and I understand that. But can you forget find the way to utilize the AI in such a way that it's a benefit for your business? Now, of course, on the other side, those of you that have already been like slamming into the AI, the over automation side, right? To the other extreme of this, you're women who are like AI, just write it all for me, right? Write my, my content.

Can you just write my, you know, all my proposals? Can you write my book for me? Right? All of this stuff that, that's when it goes just a little too far, right? You just want AI to write everything for you. But then who are you if you're, you know, you're leaving yourself out? Yeah, it might speed things up and it might boost your engagement a little bit. But what it, that's where it erodes the trust and it, it creates that lack of human depth and authenticity. That's where the, the people who are so resistant, they see the extreme side and they haven't found the space in the middle, right? By overusing AI, it Creates generic, forgettable content that sounds like everybody else because AI is just using stuff from everybody else. Consumers are increasingly, you know, skeptical about it because that AI generated content is the same. Everybody's using the same things, the same wording, the same thing, and you lose the uniqueness. So if you're that person who's on the, the over extreme side of just having AI do everything for you, you know, AI can make you visible, but it doesn't make you credible. It doesn't bring out your gifting that you brought to the game that you've been practicing and playing.

Many people want to just overuse AI because they want to do the quick rich, you know, quick get rich scheme utilizing AI. And it'll work for a short time, but then it peters out, it fades out, you lose it unless you bring yourself to every piece of it. And really, the truth here is AI is just a tool, ladies and gentlemen. Just like a car is just a tool so that you can get to and from work, go to your friend's house, go on vacation. It's just a tool. It's not a voice. You're the one who has a voice. It's not a strategy.

You create the strategy based on what it is that you're looking to create out in the world. And it's definitely not your leadership identity. We're all different. Look, if you don't know me by now, I'm kind of bossy sometimes. But you know what? The only reason I'm bossy is because I care. I care about women in business. I want women to succeed. I was a single mom on welfare.

I didn't feel like I had friends. I didn't feel like I had people on my side. Right? It was lonely. It was hard. I had no money. Right? I know what it feels like to not be able to have the funds to take care of my kids. You know, my, my rent, my. My check was $529.

My rent was $495. I still had to pay PG&E. I still had to pay my phone that was still on the wall. Right? And I still had to buy groceries. Right? $32, $32 extra. That sucked. I don't want women to feel like they have to live off a welfare system that isn't really treating them nice. It's not treating them fair, and it sure isn't paying them the kind of life that they deserve to live.

And here's the truth. Women, come on, we gotta win. Look, I love my men. I love. I raised three sons I have an amazing husband. I have some wonderful men who are great mentors in my life. I love my men, but I don't rely on everything about them taking care of me. I want to be a partner, want to be equal.

I want to stand there and say, I can match wits with you because I, I, I have that value. And that's what I want for other women. So think about AI as that tool, right? If you're avoiding AI, please stop. It's, it's going to be a tool if you utilize it. Look, I'm not using it for everything, but I use it for a few things here and there when I'm writing letters, especially like collections letters for people who aren't paying their bills. Right? I'll go, okay, say this nicely. Here's the context. Say it nicely, bring it back to me, and guess what? Then I J it up with my special flare, right? And if you're just using AI, you're.

You're outsourcing yourself to AI and it doesn't have your voice, doesn't have your authenticity, and people are missing you. They want you to bring you to the table. So how do we balance this, right? Is, you know, AI can be a great draft for you. It's faster, right? So the bonus, the biggest bonus that AI can do for you is speed. Humans, we can do stuff pretty quick, but AI can do it instantaneously. They can create a draft, they can brainstorm some ideas, they can organize your thoughts, but you have to decide what's true. You have to decide what aligns with you, right? You have to decide what gets published. Did you know that, like, 66% of employees admit that they've used AI output without even checking it? And the mistakes happen because they didn't bother to take a look at what it really said.

They just trusted AI and sent it on out. I told my team, look, you can use AI I want you to use AI I want you to. And then I want you to go back and really judge it up. Right? Leadership has to always have the final say. You're the leader, so you have to have the final say. Don't let AI have the final say. And those of you that are concerned that AI is going to take over your job, guess what? It is taking over. If you're in coaching, it's taking over a lot of the coaching businesses.

It is. It's a reality. Because it used to be a coach could help you find the information, but the information is everywhere now. It's all over all of social, all AI across the platform. They don't want you as a regular coach. They want you. Your authenticness. They want to know what you've been through.

They want to know how you can pull them out of things. They, they want to know how you're going to be different than AI right? And you can use AI for speed, but also know that it has to be you. The other thing, AI the benefit of it is it handles the what and the how. The what and the how. What is it that you want to create? How can that be done? You own the why, right? It's. AI is great at explaining things and structuring things and rewriting things, but it can never duplicate, replicate, you know, implicate your lived experiences, your decision making processes, your command presence. It doesn't walk in the room for you, okay? You're the one who has to walk in the room. You're the one has to know your stuff so well that when AI is not around, people are still listening.

And because this is a heavy AI world right now, your perspective becomes premium. They need to know you. And the third reason, Look, AI is great for drafts. There's a difference that most women miss in this. An AI writes the average of the Internet. It doesn't write spectacular, it doesn't write your why, it doesn't write your identity. Right? What it does is it gives you the average, the safe, the polish, the forgettable, right? Your job is to put your opinion in it, to add your stories, right? Add real leadership moments. Look, here's something I'll tell you that we've used AI for, you know, I remember a couple years ago, you know, we're negotiating, we negotiate every, every March for insurances.

Our insurances, that's our liability insurance, our workers comp insurance, our, you know, automobile insurance. All the insurances happen at the same time every year around March. So if you try to get a hold of me in March, forget it, I'm busy. But what we have been able to do is utilize AI and say, hey, these are the bids that we have here. You know, this is, We've already put in what we need. So here's the bids that we have. We input these bids and then we say which one looks like it would be the best benefit for us or which one is missing something, right? And then we do all that and then we go back and forth, you know, with the, with the people that were who are bidding and then we go, okay, how can we, here's the bid that we received is X amount of dollars. How can we Reduce these costs.

And we took the notes, we looked at everything that AI said, we polished it up based on what worked for us and our identity and what our company needed. And we went back to the insurance agent and said, hey, because of this, this and this, you know, how can we reduce this? We end up getting $5,000 for the year less than because we had those negotiating tools that AI was able to bring for us. It was our decision making process, it was us understanding our business, but allowing AI to show us some other things to go. Hm, could those things work? And so we use it for contracts in the sense of negotiating bids and things like that around insurances. It, you know, it could be, you could negotiate around, you know, creating your lease, things like that. If some, you're leasing a piece of property or you know, something to that effect. So there's a lot of different ways that you can use it, but you have to know what your own personal opinions are, what your leadership moments are, what your goal is. When you do that around AI, that's what makes people trust you.

Look, the actual solution with high level AI is AI is great for drafts. It's great to be an editor for you, right, to edit the humanness that you bring to it, but you have to human approve it. And you're the one who has to human publish it. Nothing should go out without your brain touching it, period. Did you hear that? You should never send anything out to anybody without your brain touching it. It's you, it's your credibility, it's your reputation. Why are you leaving up to average AI? Look, AI is not there to replace your thinking, it's not there to replace you, right? There will be some jobs that are replaced due to robotics and you know, all the, the fast situations, but there's a lot of stuff out in the world that AI cannot replace. So how are you making yourself non replaceable AI is there to help you expand, right? You use it for trend analysis, right? Idea expansion, content repurposing, getting some ideas.

You don't use it for full content replacement. You don't use it to think for you, right? It's there to help you scale your message. It should never be right. Your message. So what happens if you get this wrong? Well, let's be real for a second. I don't know about you, but I think every CEO has, you know, inputted or implemented something in their business and in their life that went wrong. Okay? And if they, if they haven't, then they're not risking very much, right? They're not trying real hard, but I know you can talk to some of the top level CEOs around the world and they'll tell you that there have been failures and there have been mishaps and there have been things that have gone wrong and you have to make new decisions and new decisions based on the new information and everything else that has happened. But what happens is if you avoid AI, you fall behind in speed and visibility.

That employee that came into me and was complaining about using AI, she sent me, she sent an email to a client, she copied me on it and then she came in, she said, I let AI help me. And I said, well, it looks good, it sounds like us, it sounds like you. And she said, it is. I, I went over everything and I made sure everything was accurate and you know, I put my little adding to it. But she said it really was a lot faster. And I said, absolutely. I said, look, it's either you are going to learn it or I'm going to have to hire somebody to replace you who knows it. And she didn't like hearing that.

I said, so we're giving you the opportunity to learn it and I want you to take advantage of that opportunity because it's not going away. Sorry ladies out there that aren't using it yet, it's not going away. Stop being afraid of it. There's some parts to be afraid of, right? Just like there's the dark web, right? Don't play in those spaces. Play in the space that's honest and real and, and you know, encouraging and confident and bold for you that, that brings together your greatness, right? But if you don't, you're going to, you're going to fall behind. You're, you're risk, you're risking becoming irrelevant because business. Look, like I said, I'm pre Google. If I haven't been willing to learn software and you know, learn how to do research and you know, it used to be for investigations.

Honest to goodness, I used to have to hire these companies that could go and look for information on people that we were doing an investigation for. Do you know, I can pretty much do everything through Google now because y' all put everything out there. There's a few cases that we got to dig a little deeper. But the reality is, is it's out there. I can find so much information so fast, it even surprises my own husband because I was willing to adapt to it. I was willing to step into the next realm. Is it comfortable? No. Did I like it? No.

But I know that in order to Continue in business. I have to become. I have to be relevant and I have to, you know, be in business, right? So I have to adapt. Then those of you that are overusing it, guess what? You're losing your voice, ladies. You're losing trust. You become replaceable. And that's not what I want for you either. Trust is the new currency.

This is a trust. I heard somebody say a trust recession right now, right? People don't care about all the information we're putting out there as much as they care about us. Putting our two cents into it, putting our. Our humanness into it, our why and our understanding. I don't like all this technology. I hate having to have all these passwords in the world, okay, These authenticator and this double authenticator and da, da, da. I hate all that. But I have to know it in order to do my business.

So what are you learning and having to know to do your business, you don't need AI to speak for you. You just need AI to help you say it better. So think about it this week. You know, here's the challenge for this week is use AI as a draft for something, whether it's a post, an email, an idea, and then ask yourself, does this sound like me? Would I actually say this in a room? If not, then keep digging, okay? Ask it for more. Ask it to go search you out in the, in the web to find out what's your voice, what's missing for you, right? But create something and rewrite at least 30% of it with your own story, your own opinion, or your own edge, right? Like, come on, let's get real, ladies. We have something to say. And if you don't, then why are you in business? And I'm saying that in the most loving way possible. We have something to say.

We have an edge. We have an opinion. We're doing this. So this week put that out there somehow, some way. And for women who, who want to win in the AI Era, you don't have to be the most technical, right? You don't. You don't have to be the fastest creators. Did you hear me? You don't have to be perfect at it. My perfectionist.

The business is going to come to the ones that are most trusted. But trust only comes when you use your voice, your experience, your leadership presence. When you walk into a room, you have command presence. And you know what you're going to say because you're not relying on AI to say it for you. AI can't replicate that. It just can't. But it absolutely can amplify it if you use it right. So I hope that you'll look at AI and say, is this a resource I can use? This is what I'm telling my team.

It's just a resource. Take advantage of the resource. Don't abuse it, don't overdo it. Make sure you put yourself into it. But don't be caught by holding out so long that you're no longer relevant that people you've lost your edge and you have to start all over again. That's no fun. Most importantly, just be you the superhero that you are. We are superheroes in heels.

We can do so much when we put our mind to it and we understand the reasons behind it. Understand your why don't become irrelevant. Let your voice be heard and know that AI is not your enemy. It's also not your best friend. You got to find the space in the middle and you can win there too. Be blessed.

Thanks for tuning in to Superheroes in Heels with Kimberley Borgens. If you're walking away feeling a little braver, a little bolder, and a whole lot more powerful, mission accomplished. Be sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review. It helps us to reach more women who are ready to unleash their power and lead with confidence. And if you do leave a review, you might just hear your name in an upcoming episode. If today's conversation lit a fire in you, share it with your network and join us inside the hive society at kimberleyborgens.com where powerful women gather to break barriers and rise together. Until next time, keep showing up, standing strong and heels or not, keep embracing your inner superhero.