Rupali Kumbhani, Sudha Murthy, and The Skills Women in Tech Need for the AI Era

Host: Nicole Donnelly

Guest: Rupali Kumbhani — Global Executive in Digital Transformation, AI Strategy Leader, and Champion of Human-Centered Leadership

In this powerful and reframing episode, host Nicole Donnelly is joined by Rupali Kumbhani, a global executive who has spent two decades leading digital transformation across real estate tech, healthcare tech, and fintech. Rupali is the woman C-suite leaders bring in when AI strategy is on the table — and her thesis on this episode is that most of them are getting it wrong.

Rupali shares the boardroom moment that defines her approach: a CEO asked her which AI tool to buy, and she told him the question was wrong. The conversation explores what it actually takes to lead in the AI era — not by chasing tools, but by asking better questions, prioritizing ruthlessly, and trusting the skills women have been undervalued for the past thirty years.

🌟 Rupali and Nicole dive into:

• The real question every leader should ask before adopting AI
• Why "10 priorities" guarantees failure (and what to do instead)
• How women's empathy, cultural intelligence, and active listening become the differentiators in the AI era
• The difference between AI panic and AI strategy
• Calling out systemic bias from positions of power
• Rupali also honors three women who shaped how she shows up in rooms that weren't built for her — Mary Kom, the six-time world boxing champion from Manipur; Sudha Murthy, the engineer-philanthropist who modeled how to redirect bias mid-conversation; and her mother, whose phrase "if you have a will, you will find a way" is the foundation underneath everything she does.
• This episode will reframe the AI conversation, validate what you have been feeling in your workplace, and remind you that the skills you have been told are "soft" are the skills that determine who leads what comes next.

🔥 Highlights

• 🤖 AI is not tool-focused: the strategic reframe every leader needs
• 💬 The boardroom moment when Rupali called out a CEO mid-meeting
• 📋 Why "high priorities" cannot be a list of ten
• 🌱 The skills women have been undervalued for are about to be revalued
• 🚀 Mary Kom, Sudha Murthy, and Rupali's mother — three women, three lessons in resilience
• 💡 "AI is not replacing human. AI is an enhancer of human." — Rupali on the human side of digital transformation

💼 About Rupali Kumbhani

Rupali is a global executive leading digital strategic transformation across real estate tech, healthcare tech, and fintech. With over two decades of experience driving change through COVID, political shifts, and now the AI scramble, she has built governance models for AI adoption, parallel training programs for employees, and a personal framework for sustainable leadership. She is a member of the Executive Club of Chicago and a passionate advocate for human-centered AI.

📬 Connect with Rupali

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupalikumbhani/

💬 Memorable Quote

"Don't keep 10 as your high priorities. You are asking for failure."

🎧 Listen Now

Wherever you are in your career — whether you are surviving AI panic, leading a team through transformation, or rebuilding what success means after burnout — this episode will hand you the language and the framework to do the work differently. The system was not built for you. The skills you already have are exactly what this era requires.

Join the Community Become a member to stay up to date on the latest and greatest from Hello Moxie, plus get access to exclusive bonus content from our guests with every episode → https://hellomoxie.us/member-registration/

Join the Community

Become a member and to stay up to date on the latest and greatest from Hello Moxie, plus get access to exclusive bonus content from our guests with every episode https://hellomoxie.us/member-registration/