AI Took Her Job But Not Her Humanity: Wanjiku Kamau, the Human Guide to AI

Wanjiku Kamau was laid off from Google — during one of the biggest AI investment booms in history — and realized she'd barely used the technology her own company was betting everything on.So she taught herself and wrote a book about it: Out of the Loop, Into the Algorithm: How I Finally Made Friends with AI.But this conversation isn't really about AI. It's about what Wanjiku lost when she lost her job — the barista who remembered her dog's name, the colleagues she spoke to every day for years, the quiet rituals that made her feel like she belonged somewhere. She calls it "an unintended colleague breakup." And if you've ever left a job and been surprised by the grief, you'll know exactly what she means.About our guest: Wanjiku Kamau is the author of Out of the Loop, Into the Algorithm: How I Finally Made Friends with AI. A former executive at Intel and employee at Google, she now works as a consultant and educator helping professionals understand and work with artificial intelligence without needing to code. Today she speaks and teaches about practical AI literacy, career transitions, and the human skills that matter more as technology accelerates.Find her book: Amazon or TikTok ShopYour analog assignment: Find a place where someone knows your name — or, at the very least, your dog's name. Show up and invest in the people there. We are slowly realizing we cannot take these seemingly minor encounters for granted.