AI - Do Women Have A Seat At The Artificial Intelligence Table?

I recently had the privilege of attending the Women + AI Summit in Nashville, an event that brought together 150 to 200 incredibly smart and passionate individuals.

The common theme among us is that we are all committed to leading, teaching, supporting, and engaging in the critical conversations surrounding artificial intelligence.

Your Choice: Podcast or Blog Post

If you would like to listen to this via my podcast, Legal Marketing Minutes, just click the player below. If you would rather read, keep scrolling and you will find it below the player.

A Vision for Inclusion in AI

The summit was the brainchild of Professor Cat Moon of Vanderbilt University Law School. In just 60 days, she put together an event that ensured women had a seat at the AI table. Cat recognized a glaring issue: many articles and reports were highlighting male-driven AI advancements and overlooking womens’ contributions. Rather than simply observing this disparity, she took action. If you don’t know Cat, you should because she’s amazing.

Her goal was clear, which was to create a space for women and allies of women to contribute to and lead discussions about artificial intelligence. The event was open to anyone interested, and while predominantly attended by women, it was inclusive. After knowing him for many years via social media, I was happy to finally meet Dennis Kennedy, a well-respected name in the legal profession.

The Power of In-Person and Virtual Connections

Just like meeting Dennis, one of the most rewarding aspects of the summit was the opportunity to meet people I had only interacted with online. Out of all of the attendees, I had only previously met one, Lydia Flocchini, a very smart legal tech advisor, before the event. I met Lydia during Ari Kaplan, another legal tech leader’s Virtual Lunch, which he has hosted since the pandemic started. Lydia and I met at the LMA, or Legal Marketing Association, conference a few years ago, so it was wonderful to see her again. Thanks to social media, we had already built a friendship.

This reinforced something I often talk about, which is the power of virtual relationships. Social and digital media allow us to develop meaningful professional relationships long before we meet in person. I consider this a gift that we have all been given, and that is waiting for each of us to take advantage of.

Learning Beyond Legal

I enjoyed the diversity of attendees at the summit. While the summit was rooted in legal because of Cat Moon, she posted the invitation publicly on LinkedIn so that anyone who was interested knew they were welcome to attend.

I met new friends from inside and outside the legal profession, including professionals from, among others:

  • WebMD
  • Microsoft
  • Education
  • Public health organizations
  • The Washington Court System

This interdisciplinary approach is invaluable to me. Learning from professionals outside the legal bubble expands my perspective and helps me provide better guidance to my law firms clients.

“Expertise” in AI: A Journey, Not a Title

A key takeaway from the summit was a sentiment shared by one of the speakers: “There aren’t necessarily a lot of people who can call themselves experts in AI, but there are a lot of people with expertise.”

I like that distinction because, like you, I am on a journey of AI discernment, which means I help firms think through their AI adoption strategies. I am committed to continuing to learn from experts and those with expertise. AI has been around since the 1950s, and while some AI pioneers are true experts, many of us are still developing our expertise in this fast-evolving field.

What’s Next? More Insights to Come

I’ll be looking at my notes to share a few summaries of key sessions from the summit in the coming weeks. Some of this content will be written (blog and social media), some will be spoken (my 2 podcasts), and some will be visual (videos and graphics on social media), a concept I teach called The Relationship Continuum.

As AI becomes an integral part of the legal profession, I will help firms integrate AI wisely, effectively, efficiently, and ethically while continuing to focus on the foundational marketing and business development strategies I teach every day, such as:

  • LinkedIn
  • Podcasting
  • Personal branding
  • Video
  • Livestreaming
  • Zoom and virtual presentation skills
  • Content marketing, and
  • Marketing and business development planning

Let’s Continue the Conversation

I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions. Feel free to leave a comment, or message me privately at  nancy@myrlandmarketing.com.

About Nancy Myrland

Nancy Myrland, Legal Marketing & Business Development Advisor

Nancy Myrland is a Marketing and Business Development Advisor, specializing in Content, Social & Digital Media. She helps lawyers grow their practices by integrating the most important marketing practices to build their reputations and their relationships, which leads to building their practices.

Highly regarded internationally as a top independent* LinkedIn consultant, Nancy is a highly respected LinkedIn trainer and content marketing specialist. She helps lawyers, law firms, and legal marketers learn and implement content, social, and digital media strategies that cut through the clutter, making them more relevant to their current and potential clients.

She is also a personal branding speaker, trainer, and advisor, helping legal and business professionals understand the importance and the impact of defining and reinforcing their personal brand.

Nancy is also the founder of the hybrid self-study and online course about LinkedIn, LICFL*, which is a course where she personally guides lawyers through the sequential creation of their LinkedIn profile and presence.*

As an early and constant adopter of social and digital media and technology, she also helps firms with blogging, podcasting, video marketing, voice marketing, and livestreaming. Nancy also works with many firms and lawyers on Zoom and virtual presentation training and coaching to be the best they can be when presenting online.

She also helps lead select law firms through their online social media strategy when dealing with high-stakes, visible cases.

Long story short, Nancy spends a lot of time helping lawyers and legal marketers with:

*Nancy is not an employee or consultant hired by LinkedIn, although she was named a LinkedIn Top Voice on the platform in 2024! Top Voices is an invitation-only program featuring a global group of experts on LinkedIn covering a range of topics across the professional world, helping members uncover valuable knowledge relevant to them. Top Voices was previously known as the Influencer program before October 2022. Top Voices are vetted to ensure that they meet high trust standards, are consistently active on the platform, and share valuable expertise through content that demonstrates their unique, original contributions to a topic.

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