The AI Mixtape

Here's your show description for the Marie episode:Marie Doce spent 15 years in big tech. Then she came home, to Humboldt County, California, 300 miles north of San Francisco, where Google Maps is still wrong half the time and Amazon takes five to seven days. And instead of leaving her tech career behind, she built something new. Grounded AI is an AI consulting and learning firm helping rural businesses implement AI where it actually makes sense for them. In this episode Katie and Dr. Ericka sit down with Marie for an honest conversation about the rural tech gap, who AI actually belongs to, and why the people shouting loudest about it online are probably the least qualified to define it for the rest of us.What's Inside:The Rural Tech Gap — 20% of Americans live in rural areas but you'd never know it from the AI conversation. What the gap looks like on the ground and why it's about to get widerGrounded AI — How a coffee shop flyer, a local venture fund, and one conversation changed the trajectory of Marie's career and brought her expertise home where it was needed mostRandom Acts of AI — Why most small business owners are already using AI but saving zero time doing it, and what the next step actually looks likeHuman Enablement, Not Human Replacement — The framing that changed how Marie thinks about her work and why it should change how you think about yoursTotally Different Worlds — Why a business owner and an artist hear the word "AI" and think of completely different things, and why that gap matters more than the tech itselfEverybody's Tech — The case for local, grounded, community-rooted AI literacy before the big tech companies come in and define it for all of usWant to Learn More About Marie's Work? Marie Doce is the founder of Grounded AI, bringing practical, community-rooted AI consulting and training to businesses on California's North Coast, and showing the rest of us what it looks like when somebody who belongs to a place brings their expertise home. Find her at groundedai.coWant to Work With Us? If you are ready to bring AI into your work or your organization in a way that actually makes sense, we would love to talk. Visit us at empoweredailearning.com to learn more about our courses, workshops, and consulting. Subscribe to our Substack for weekly AI insights between episodes.Website: empoweredailearning.com Substack: empoweredai.substack.comConnect With Us: Have a question, a topic you want us to cover, or an AI win you want to share? Reach out — we want to hear from you.Contact: [email protected] Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human.

Earlier this year the federal government released a free 7-day AI course delivered straight to your phone, and 92 million Americans have never touched an AI tool. Sounds like a fix. But is it? In this episode Katie Branley and Dr. Ericka Pitman put the Make AI Ready program to the test, break down what it actually delivers, and give you the three rules for going from "I took a course once" to genuinely fluent. Because knowing what AI is and knowing how to use it are two very different things.What's Inside:Make AI Ready — Text READY to 20202, the free 7-day course the federal government dropped earlier this year and what you actually get out of itThe 92 Million Gap — Why most Americans have never opened an AI tool and what that means for the workforce right nowGoogle AI Essentials vs. Anthropic Academy — Which course is right for where you are and what each one actually teaches youThe On-Ramp Rule — A course is where you start, not where you stop. Theory without application is just a simulatorThe Role Swap Rule — Don't learn AI in general. Pick one task you do every week and learn AI for exactly that taskThe Audit Rule — Most people ask if AI is saving them time. The better question is whether it's making the work betterThis Week's Mixtape Rules:The On-Ramp Rule — finish a course and then get out on the road. Apply it to something real before you move onThe Role Swap Rule — start with the problem you want solved, not the tool you want to tryThe Audit Rule — make AI earn its place. Go back and look honestly at the output, not just the speedWant to Work With Us? If you are ready to bring AI into your work or your organization in a way that actually makes sense, we would love to talk. Visit us at empoweredailearning.com to learn more about our courses, workshops, and consulting. Subscribe to our Substack for weekly AI insights between episodes.Website: empoweredailearning.com Substack: empoweredai.substack.com Connect With Us: Have a question, a topic you want us to cover, or an AI win you want to share? Reach out — we want to hear from you.Contact: [email protected] Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human.

The average knowledge worker spends nine hours every week just searching for stuff — documents, emails, information scattered across every app in their life. Nine hours. And 60% of workers say they feel burned out. AI is supposed to fix this. In this episode Katie Branley and Dr. Ericka Pitman break down the roadmap from toy to tool to system — and give you the three rules to actually claw back your time.What's Inside:The Burnout Gap — Why 85% of AI users say it saves them hours but most people still can't feel it yetToy to Tool to System — The three stages every AI user goes through and why most people get stuck between one and twoThe Meeting Minutes Example — How one repetitive task becomes a full workflow that runs your week for youAI Has a Brain. Give It Hands. — Why ChatGPT alone can't move the needle and what Google Apps Scripts changesThe 409 Principle — Why your messy, imperfect first system is exactly what this moment needsThe Tool Trap — Why adding more apps is the red herring of this AI era and what to do insteadThis Week's Mixtape Rules:Find the nine hours — start with the problem you want solved, not the tool you want to tryBuild a system, not a collection of tools — stay in the messy middle, that's where the real work happensStay in the loop — AI drafts, you decide, alwaysWant to Work With Us? If you are ready to bring AI into your work or your organization in a way that actually makes sense, we would love to talk. Visit us at empoweredailearning.com to learn more about our courses, workshops, and consulting. Subscribe to our Substack for weekly AI insights between episodes.Website: empoweredailearning.com Substack: empoweredai.substack.comConnect With Us: Have a question, a topic you want us to cover, or an AI win you want to share? Reach out — we want to hear from you.Contact: [email protected] Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human.

Women's jobs are three times more likely to be automated by AI — yet women are using AI 25% less than men. In this episode Katie Branley and Dr. Ericka Pitman dig into the gap, why even experienced AI users feel like the tool is running the show, and eight no-skip rules to make sure you stay the authority in every conversation you have with AI.What's Inside:The Reese Effect — Why Reese Witherspoon's Instagram post hit a nerve and what the stats behind it actually mean for your careerYour Brain vs. AI — The Caltech research that explains why AI feels so overwhelming (it's biology, not a personal failure)Rule 1: Your Ideas First — Why going straight to AI is killing your best thinking, and the reverse prompting flip that fixes itRule 2: Context is Everything — AI is a prediction machine. Without your context it's just filling in blanks.Rule 3: Own Your Voice — How to stop getting generic outputs by defining what words like "professional" actually mean before you promptRule 4: Push Back — You are allowed to tell AI it is wrong. Here is how.Rule 5: The Goldilocks Check — Your professional reputation is on the line. Always be the last set of eyes.Rule 6: Protect Your Data — The postcard rule, free vs. pro vs. enterprise, and what AI is actually doing with what you typeRule 7: Right Tool for the Job — More AI output is not always better. Your expertise is the filter.This Week's Mixtape Rules:Brain dump your own ideas before you open AI — you are the creative oneGive AI your context: who you are, what you want, what you don't wantDefine your terms before you prompt — don't let AI decide what professional means for your brandPush back. Tell it when it's wrong. Ask where it got its information.Always do a final human check before anything goes outThink postcard — never type anything into AI you wouldn't want everyone to readAsk yourself if AI is actually the right tool before you open itWant to Work With Us? If you are ready to bring AI into your work or your organization in a way that actually makes sense, we would love to talk. Visit us at empoweredailearning.com to learn more about our courses, workshops, and consulting. Subscribe to our Substack for weekly AI insights between episodes.Website: empoweredailearning.com Substack: empoweredai.substack.comConnect With Us: Have a question, a topic you want us to cover, or an AI win you want to share? Reach out — we want to hear from you.Contact: [email protected] Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human.

You're paying $20 a month and suddenly your AI is cutting you off mid-afternoon. You're not imagining it. In March 2026, Anthropic and Google quietly changed how many tokens you get — no press release, no announcement. In this episode Katie Branley and Dr. Ericka Pitman break down what a token actually is, why the era of unlimited AI is ending, and four rules you can use right now to make your plan go further.What's Inside:What Is a Token — The unit of AI computation explained in plain language, and why your $20 plan is not as unlimited as you thoughtWhy Limits Changed — How usage shifted from simple chat to multi-page documents, agents, and workflows — and why the big AI companies quietly hit the brakes in March 2026Track Your Usage — How to find Claude's gas gauge in your settings and what Gemini is suspiciously not showing youThe Off-Peak Advantage — Why your tokens burn faster between 8am and 2pm Eastern and how to schedule your heavy AI work around itRight Model for the Job — Opus vs. Sonnet vs. Haiku, and why you don't need a sports car to pick up groceriesStart Fresh — Why that giant running chat is costing you thousands of tokens every time you ask a new question, and the smarter way to workThis Week's Mixtape Rules:Check your usage gauge in Claude settings — know your tank levelSchedule heavy AI work outside peak hours, after 2pm or before 8am EasternMatch the model to the task — save Opus for the hard stuffStart a new chat instead of letting one conversation run foreverWant to Work With Us? If you are ready to bring AI into your work or your organization in a way that actually makes sense, we would love to talk. Visit us at empoweredailearning.com to learn more about our courses, workshops, and consulting. Subscribe to our Substack for weekly AI insights between episodes.Website: empoweredailearning.com Substack: empoweredai.substack.comConnect With Us: Have a question, a topic you want us to cover, or an AI win you want to share? Reach out — we want to hear from you.Contact: [email protected] Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human.

Just because your company doesn't have an AI policy doesn't mean you shouldn't. In this episode, Katie Branley and Dr. Ericka Pitman — the AI Implementation Ladies and founders of Empowered AI Learning — break down the reality of the 2026 AI landscape, where 91% of companies use AI but only 37% provide any formal guidance on keeping data safe. Learn the Postcard Principle for prompting, why your browser extensions are hidden back doors, and how to treat your AI settings like your dental health. It's all about the hygiene.In This Episode: The Hasbro Breach — The April 2026 data breach and why digital toys put your family's data at riskThe Postcard Principle — Why you should never put anything in a prompt you wouldn't write on a public postcardShadow AI — The risks of using personal accounts for work and the updated Brenda from accounting phishing trap Tech Hygiene Audit — A 15-minute quarterly checklist to secure your settings and extensions Retention Comparison — Which platforms delete your data in 90 days vs. those that keep it foreverPolicy Guardrails — Using state frameworks like California and Illinois to guide your personal AI workflow before your company doesResources Mentioned:Hasbro SEC Form 8-K Filing — April 1, 2026IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025Search: Shadow AI risks for more on hidden extensionsSearch: your state + AI policy — California, Illinois, Texas, and North Carolina are good starting pointsSearch: your professional organization + AI guidelinesFind Us: 🌐 Empowered AI Learning 📰 Substack: EmpowerED AI with Dr. ErickaAI Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human. New episodes every Monday. Subscribe so you never miss one. — Katie & Dr. Ericka, The AI Implementation Ladies