(The following transcript has been revised and polished for clarity and conciseness without losing the essence of the conversation in this episode.)
VO: Welcome to Women Wisdom Worth, the podcast series from Uplevyl, where we learn from women around the world about what they’re doing to find success and joy in this digital age. For show notes and free bonus resources, visit Uplevyl.com/podcast. We’d love it if you subscribe, like, leave a review, and share the show with your friends and colleagues. Remember to check out Uplevyl, the global leader of women-trained generative AI transforming society and business featuring women-centric data inputs, insight, and advice. You’ll find the answers you need as you navigate the complexities of modern life.
Check it out at Uplevyl.com. Let’s get started with your host, Sara Bhonsale. Over to you, Sara.
Sara Bhonsale: I am so excited because today we are honored to have Shubhi Rao joining us, an accomplished executive board member and advisor who has led strategic and operational initiatives at some of the world’s most dynamic companies, including Alphabet, Google, Tesco, PWC, Tyco, and Ford. Shubhi made history as the first woman and the first person of color to hold the role of treasurer at both Alphabet, Google, and Tesco. She currently serves on the board and as Chair of the Compensation Committee at Open Lending Corp. She has also been an influential leader in organizations like UNESCO’s Women for Ethical AI and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Advisory Council.
Drawing from her experience in tech, finance, and leadership, Shubhi founded Uplevyl, a first-of-its-kind AI platform designed to bridge the gender gap in organizations and uplift professional women. Uplevyl leverages AI to provide personalized, data-driven support that empowers women to advance in their careers, breaking barriers that have historically limited gender equity in the workplace. Throughout her career, Shubhi has been a trailblazer in using emerging technologies such as machine learning, robotics, and blockchain to drive innovative, sustainable solutions across industries. Her focus on integrating technology into business operations has enhanced shareholder value and set new standards for how organizations approach equity, compliance, and innovation. In addition to being an amazing human, a mother, and an advocate for ethical AI, Shubhi is deeply committed to creating opportunities for women. She helps them navigate professional paths and ensures technology serves inclusivity rather than becoming a barrier.
Today, Shubhi will share how Uplevyl is leveraging AI to close the gender gap and create a more equitable future across the globe. Shubhi, it is a privilege to have you on the show. Welcome.
Shubhi Rao: Thank you, Sara. It is a pleasure to be talking to you.
Sara Bhonsale: You are such a fantastic leader in this space. One common thread emerging in conversations with women leaders across HR, training, and tech is that we are at a moment in history where we have an opportunity to leverage what is happening. AI has exploded into the workplace, and we’re all using it in different ways. We remember where we were when we first realized how AI would change our day. Now we have an opportunity to use it as a democratizer and enable economic impact and equity. I want to talk about how Uplevyl is doing that and what you are doing to leverage this historic opportunity for us as women.
Shubhi Rao: I agree with you, Sara. Today, we live in an amazing time, and this is truly a historical moment. When ChatGPT came along, there were many comments, discussions, and papers written on how the internet is biased. Big Tech has used the internet to train their models. From my perspective, what Big Tech has done is incredible because those computational models required significant funding and resources. I don’t think Big Tech started with the intent of building generative AI tools to serve specific applications. They created foundational LLMs (large language models). Generative AI is projected to add something like $2.2 trillion to the economy by 2030 because the applications will be vast.
From a Uplevyl perspective, we need to build our own data sets. The internet, started in 1983, contains a huge volume of historical data, and it reflects racism, sexism, misogyny. It’s not curated or moderated because the priority was training mathematical models. That is valuable and important, but companies like Uplevyl must build specific applications that serve four and a half billion women worldwide. Our data set must be future-forward and focused on advancing gender equity in leadership and entrepreneurship, research on women, impact of climate, and more. To power those algorithms, we need pure gender-specific data sets. We need to build our own algorithms through a gender lens.
That is what Uplevyl is doing: taking the foundational LLMs and building scalable AI on top of them so we can provide curated, moderated, gender-lens-based applications to women globally. It must be a virtuous circle where women worldwide participate, share knowledge, and build an ecosystem connecting each other to peers, mentors, and experts. We need both human intelligence and digital intelligence, bringing them together.
Sara Bhonsale: I’m so inspired. Can you talk about the urgency that Uplevyl has to build this data set and capitalize on this moment?
Shubhi Rao: The biggest urgency is the shift in the workforce. Unfortunately, a large majority of women in the workforce are in pink-collar jobs that lend themselves to automation. Studies, including one by the World Economic Forum, show that over 108 million women could lose jobs due to automation. Entry-level jobs will disappear. First-level manager roles will become the new entry point, but the first rung is already broken for women. If that’s now the starting point, how do we prepare women for leadership roles immediately? Leadership now includes digital acumen. Every organization will have an AI wrapper around it. We must develop women early to address that broken rung so displaced women can transition to the 300 million new jobs projected to be created. That urgency drives Uplevyl.
Sara Bhonsale: Move forward ten years... if Uplevyl’s mission succeeds, what does the world look like?
Shubhi Rao: Women will have access to highly personalized content and resources, a safe and trusted environment where data is protected, and psychological safety is built in. If we deliver what we promise, we will see increased numbers of women in senior leadership, more women running governments, more women in C-suite roles and boardrooms, more women publishing, and more women in AI and STEM. Today, only 0.2% of AI engineers are women. We must change that.
Sara Bhonsale: It is absolutely doable. Uplevyl gives other educators and trainers the product and data to support their work.
Shubhi Rao: There are so many incredible women and organizations doing coaching and leadership development, but it isn’t scalable. Technology provides scale, and that’s what Uplevyl will do. We also need diverse voices globally and content across languages and cultures. Intentionality matters. The internet wasn’t designed to intentionally collect balanced data; it collected everything without curation. To address specific needs, we must be thoughtful.
Sara Bhonsale: What does intentional action look like inside Uplevyl today?
Shubhi Rao: Uplevyl Studios creates content across professional, personal, and financial topics, sourcing diverse domain experts. We are expanding globally. We process, cleanse, and prepare data for the Uplevyl Genie and our library.
Sara Bhonsale: Before we close, if you could sum up what you want people to know about Uplevyl, what would it be?
Shubhi Rao: Uplevyl is focused on advancing women around the world through technology. We are an accelerant. Many organizations work to advance women, and we help them scale their efforts.
Sara Bhonsale: Beautiful. Shubhi Rao, founder of Uplevyl, thank you.
VO: Thanks for joining us today on Women Wisdom Worth. For show notes and resources, visit Uplevyl.com/podcast. Share with friends and colleagues seeking ideas to help women succeed in this digital age. Remember to check out Uplevyl, the global leader of women-trained generative AI featuring women-centric data inputs, insight, and advice. See you soon.