2B Bolder Podcast : Career Visibility Strategies & Leadership Stories from Women in Business, Tech & Sports

#146 Monica Livingston, AI Leadership With A Human Core

• Mary Killelea, Host • Season 6 • Episode 146

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AI only works at scale when the shiny demo meets the gritty realities of deployment, security, and change management. In episode #146 of the 2B Bolder Podcast, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Monica Livingston, AI Platform Lead for the Americas at Red Hat and a former Intel leader, to unpack how open source accelerates real outcomes, and why the “plumbing” behind enterprise AI matters more than most roadmaps admit. Monica shares a clear view of what platforms must do in production: version control, monitoring, governance, policy, and cost discipline, all while staying flexible enough to avoid stack lock-in.

We get candid about the two biggest misconceptions leaders hold: AI isn’t a black box you plug in once, and the most complex variable is people, not models. Monica explains how to align teams through transparency, psychological safety, and clear KPIs so pilots survive the leap to operations. She also offers practical advice for new managers under pressure, from building trust to making recognition routine, and reflects on mentors who pushed her to trade constant breadth for deep expertise that compounds.

For anyone mapping a career in AI, this conversation covers real paths forward, including accessible learning, hands-on projects, and emerging roles that are reshaping the field. We discuss early STEM exposure as a lever for agency, guidance for young women entering the tech field, and the value of calculated risk anchored in personal values such as family and health. Monica also shares her perspective on how to stand out in crowded applicant pools, the power of referrals, and why transformation often occurs on your own time before it becomes a job title.

If this resonates, follow and share with a colleague who’s building AI for the real world. Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of open technology, human leadership, and careers with purpose, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.


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Monica Livingston's Career Tips for Women Transcript


The 2B Bolder Podcast provides first-hand access to some amazing women. Guests will include women from leading enterprise companies to startups, women execs, coders, account execs, engineers, doctors, and innovators.

Mary Killelea (Host): Hi there, my name is Mary Killelea. Welcome to the 2B Bolder podcast, providing career insights for the next generation of women in business and tech. 2B Bolder was created out of my love for technology and marketing, my desire to bring together like-minded women, and my hope to be a great role model and source of inspiration for my two girls and other young women like you. Encouraging you guys to show up and to be bolder and to know that anything you guys dream of, it's totally possible. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation.

Artificial intelligence isn't just reshaping technology. It's rewriting the playbook for how we work, learn, and lead. Few people understand that shift better than Monica Livingston, AI platform lead for the Americas at Red Hat. After nearly two decades at Intel driving AI innovation, Monica now partners with global customers to turn bold AI strategies into real world impact. But what sets her apart isn't just her technical expertise.

It's her passion for building strong teams, coaching future leaders, and opening STEM doors for the next generation. Today on TB Boulder, we're exploring how Monica blends cutting edge AI with people first leadership, proving that the future of tech is as much about humanity as it is about algorithms. Monica, thank you so much for being here.

Monica Livingston (Guest): Oh, thank you for having me, Mary. It's so great to see you and I look forward to talking to you. Thank you.

Mary Killelea: Okay, so tell us a bit about Red Hat for those listening that might not know what they do. We'll start there and then we'll kind of get into your roles and responsibilities.

Monica Livingston: Yeah, absolutely. So, Red Hat is an open-source company. Our entire culture is built on open source. What we do is in addition to, of course, contributing to the open source community quite widely, we take open source projects and turn them into enterprise-grade software. So, if you're an enterprise and you see something cool in open source, the last thing you want to do is just grab a bunch of code that has not been tested, has not been validated, is not version controlled, so you don't know what changes might happen to it because open source is open source. We all are able to contribute to it.
So Red Hat's expertise is really turning these open- source projects into tested, version controlled, supported and secure platforms for our customers. And then of course if we see something that is not available in open source yet, we develop that and open source it then provide it to the community. So it's a really interesting ecosystem that has built around this and we have a lot of supporters. Lots of people love open source and of course in the AI space so much of the AI innovation is open sourced and so it's very very natural for us to be in this space.

Mary Killelea: Thank you for explaining that because that was so easy to understand. Sometimes I think things get so complicated and so you put it so perfectly. As an AI platform lead, what kind of role and responsibilities or or is there like a typical day? What is it? What does your life look like?

Monica Livingston: Yeah. And so let me start at a high level. AI platforms are a relatively new function for Red Hat. We've had AI products for the past couple of years, but it's really this year that we're doubling down on AI platforms. So my day is a little bit different because we are building a team and so what does my day look like? So certainly starting off with internalizing what's happened in AI while I was sleeping, right? I think that hits all of us. Things are changing so quickly in the AI world. So inadvertently there is something every week certainly that has us have to sit down and say okay what does this mean to us and how do we do differently based on this new technology, this new information, this new announcement.

But then other than that we're spending a lot of time building the AI sales function within Red Hat and it's not unlike many other large companies that are transforming their sales teams for AI and towards AI. So that's a lot of fun. And then my favorite part of the day is when I get to meet with customers and with partners and really understand what an AI engagement with them looks like. And it varies very broadly between customers that are really far along in their AI journey.

And for them we're looking at something that needs to be customized. So they're using some kind of code that needs to be customized or optimized and it's a very deep specific problem to customers that are still trying to figure out what AI means to them. And so the conversations vary widely and I enjoy that. I enjoy that kind of breath.

Mary Killelea: I wish people could see you really do light up when you talk about what you do which is amazing. You spent nearly 21 years at Intel before joining Red Hat. What inspired the move and how did that transition stretch you as a leader because I think a lot of women they're just not sure when they should make a move in their career.

Monica Livingston: So I'd love to hear your take. Yeah. So for me I've always been interested in the scale out and deployment aspect of AI. It's not just the hype around models. I know that's what we read about and I read about it too. Let's not, let's not assume I don't. But if it's the nitty-gritty of okay, how do we actually use this model? How do we use this application in a sustainable long-term way? And so model management, maintenance, usability, building metrics around it, and then return on investment, right?

Because nobody has an unlimited budget. And by the way, if anybody listening does have an unlimited budget, please give me a call. I would love to hear from you. But that return on investment is important as well. And so I think it's a really complex problem that doesn't necessarily get the hype and the recognition. So you know take for example an agentic framework that let's say that it's supposed to approve building permits.

Nobody talks about how well the system gets deployed securely? How is it monitored? How is it maintained? How do you make sure you have sufficient compute capacity? Everyone talks about what the app actually does and so they should be fair. But they talk about the savings. They talk about the time savings, money savings, but nobody talks about the plumbing underneath.

And this is what Red Hat actually provides and that's what we're uniquely building for the market. We're building the platform that can securely deploy, manage, maintain those types of frameworks. So really any AI applications and the benefit of Red Hat and being able to utilize open-source and transform open source for enterprise is we can move incredibly quickly with what the market wants. Our customers are not locked into any particular stack. They were essentially a platform that's the glue that brings other pieces together.

And we don't tell customers that they can't use any other platform if they're using us. We're the glue that keeps everything together. And so when you know I do think that this is a gap in the market that Red Hat uniquely fills from a platform level but then also with the open source connection. And so when the opportunity came up to help build a tech enablement team for Red Hat AI and as you know Mary this is essentially the function that I was doing at Intel for the last several years. I felt like it was a really good blend of my experience and what I know what to do, but then also learning a new muscle in a new organization and with the type of product that I really think is needed in the future.

Mary Killelea: Thank you. You've helped so many organizations craft AI strategies that actually deliver results, which is really what it comes down to. What's the biggest misconception companies have about implementing AI? Because I think there's a lot of companies jumping on the AI bandwagon without thinking about underneath the plumbing or thinking about, you know, KPIs around what they're doing. They're just like, "Oh my gosh, I got to get a part of this AI program thing." And, you know, they're leaping in and not really thinking. So, what are some of the misconceptions?

Monica Livingston: Yeah. So since this isn't a seven-hour podcast, I'm going to talk about two because there are many, but I'll talk about two. So the first one, and I say this all the time, AI is not a single box that you plug into the wall and it does AI and it's good to go. It's very complex. It is now incorporated in many types of applications, enterprise applications that are already being used. It spans the lines of business. It doesn't just live in IT. And so the complexity is not just from a technology perspective, it's also from the people perspective. And that's the second misconception. I don't think we talk enough about how people need to transform in order for AI to be successfully adopted.

I think organizations try to move quickly. They forget the people. They forget the human aspect. And I'll tell you that nothing kills a project faster than internal conflict. It's not that we're not competing externally. It's internal conflict that is our biggest threat here. You know if people aren't given agency, if change management doesn't happen or isn't given sufficient time to really be internalized and more importantly if people aren't shown why it's good for them. And look, it's great to show why something is good for the company and we all care, but intrinsically if you want a movement, you need to show people why it's good for them very specifically.

And all these things have to happen in order for some of these larger projects to be adopted and to be used. And I think that's something that anytime we're trying to move fast is always overlooked.

Mary Killelea: You've said that good managers are the glue that keeps people motivated. What practices have helped you build and retain high performing teams?

Monica Livingston: Yeah. Yeah. So for me it's always been honesty and transparency. And I know both of these are overused. But if I think back to when I am, when am I personally unhappy in a role? It's when I don't understand a decision and it's when I don't know what page my leader my direct leader leader line is, what page they're on and why they're making certain decisions. And so that's really when I feel most unsafe. And so I try for my part to make sure that my teams don't feel that they get the transparency that they need. And it's hard because I think I communicate what I think they need to know. But I'm always encouraging people to ask questions too because I'm sure there are questions that I'm not aware of. But I think that's really important to make sure that safety and security is in place.

I think to provide career growth and a path and really you know not getting in the way giving credit to the team making sure that everybody's work is recognized. But I'll tell you there's nothing more fulfilling than getting an employee promoted to be my peer. And that happened to me a couple of times and that to this day is still the best thing just knowing that I was able to help and mentor and be part of somebody's career succession plan like that.

Mary Killelea: There's so many companies out there that promote ideally in a perfect world they're promoting from within but you know there's that progression where a woman can go from let's say a grade eight or or nine into management but then they kind of let them free fall. So what truth or I guess advice do you have for new managers in dealing with high pressure business environments?

Through my conversations with women leaders, I've learned just how urgent the need is for AI strategies that actually make sense. It's not about adopting tools just to keep up. It's about building a smart foundation. That's exactly what Beyond Soft is doing. Go check out their data plus AI playlist on YouTube to learn more.

Monica Livingston: Yeah. So I think that we're spoiled. Intel had a very very robust management training and manager training and resources. So I'm coming from that perspective of knowing to use the tools you have. Of course they're there. But I think first of all think about how you want to be managed and led. That is just a really good, just really good lighthouse of how you should lead others. But then ask people what they need. And then I think from a you know women perspective, I think women are actually really well equipped to deal with a current work environment. Let's look at what people want now. They want more flexibility. They want more agency. They want more affirmation. And all of these are things that women are traditionally good at. And so I actually do think that women now, I think they do have it a little bit easier. And then of course we stand, you know, on top of the work of women that came before us. But I do think that given what workers need today, it's actually a little bit easier to be a woman manager than it used to be.

Mary Killelea: I love hearing that. Did you have meaningful mentors? And if so, how did they change the trajectory of your career?

Monica Livingston: Yeah. And so, I've had a lot of meaningful mentors from, you know, folks that have spent a lot of time with me to folks that have just had one incredibly meaningful conversation that I don't get out of my mind. But here are a couple of things that I've learned. So one really really useful thing you know a couple years back there used to be a movement in building breath rather than depth. It was more well you've done this job for 3 years what's your next thing and that next thing better not look like your last thing right so it's what how are you different today and then I had one leader who you know kind of sat me down as I was trying to make a decision be between a you know depth job versus a breath job and I'm like oh look at all the cool new experiences I can get and she sat me down she's like “Look you really want to build that area of expertise. You can't always be a Swiss Army knife. You want to be an expert in something and make sure that you're building on top of that. And even if that means taking a step back and yes, the title isn't so flashy, but you want to build that area of expertise, you're not going to regret it”

And she was right. I do not regret it. It's absolutely the right role and then the other things make sure you're passionate about what you do about what you do and then really understand that you do have the luxury to choose and you can have a choice. You do not have to stay in a situation that is not beneficial to you. We are we are in a relatively transactional relationship with our with our employers right especially now in the tech world right you owe them you know 100% of your best work for the time that you're with them but that's that's that so being able to really find what you're passionate about.

Another one is to always collaborate well. This goes in line with all of the org changes and movement that we see in the tech world. You really never know who you're going to work for in the next reorg. So, don't burn any bridges. It's not worth it. You will reorg and that person will work for you or you will work for them. and you want to make sure that you have that solid relationship established before the reporting relationship.

Then the last one I'll talk about and it's from my all time favorite manager. He lived this more than just said it, but family is worth more than any job or promotion. So act like it every day. No compromises. It's not just something you say. It's something that you do. And so the choices that you make, the travel that you accept that may or may not be needed, the promotion that you accept that is going to take you further away from your family. All of these things need to be considered and really think about what matters to you. And it's hard when you're offered that flashy cool job that you would love to do, but it compromises your family time.

Or hey, you know, I'm sure this is a time in anybody's career where I want to be in all of these meetings. I need to be there. The reality is no, you don't necessarily need to be there. It's okay if a meeting happens without you. It's not that big of a deal. And so really keeping that in mind and living it has been that this has been a great example to me and I always need to remind myself of that. It doesn't always come naturally to me.

Mary Killelea: There are so many gold nuggets in there. I hope those listening are going to push re rewind and like to replay that over and over. There were so many good things there. For leaders out there, AI is moving very fast and teams can feel overwhelmed. I know, you know, ambiguity is like so key in business today. How do you help teams stay focused and inspired during the rapid change and how can other managers do the same?

Monica Livingston: Yeah, I think with AI and maybe because the work I do is in driving AI, not just adopting AI, it provides a lot of inspiration in and of itself because it's such a cool new technology. Everybody wants to talk about it. I mean, I go to parties and people ask me about AI. That did not happen, you know, 10 years ago and I was still doing AI and that is not something that people wanted to talk to me about. And so, that builds interest. I think also knowing that building up an AI skill set does set you up for future success. There's not a shortage of that. But I think, you know, always building safety, the world is uncertain. You have to emphasize what we can control and you know make it clear that several possible outcomes are positive. There isn't just one way that is good and everything else is bad, right? There's a lot of talk about whether AI will take my job. Sure, AI might change some jobs, right? I mean, we no longer go around the city and light the lights by hand, right? That job no longer exists. And so, there are many jobs that over time need to evolve. But I think actually, you know, AI can change jobs for the better. And the really cool thing right now is you have the agency to chart what that inflection looks like for you. You adapt, you learn new skills, you transform how you work. And the beauty of AI, and I'm going to plug open source in there as well, is it's accessible. It's accessible right now. And you don't need to get a new college degree. You can learn immediately online for free very, very quickly. And you can experiment with AI. It's actually not even that expensive to start using AI. And in many cases, it's free. So, it's so incredibly accessible that you really have the agency to to really explore AI and transform what that might mean for you.

And there are many ways in which AI can make the world better and can make our lives and jobs better. And just be open to that.

Mary Killelea: For the beginner out there, do you have one or two resources where they could go to learn some AI?

Monica Livingston: I don't think there's any one place. If you're an academic, there are many universities that will offer free online courses. I mean I think even like Stanford, MIT, if you learn that way, go do that. YouTube is a great resource for videos about everything under the sun. So, you can look at, you know, how do I get started with AI? What sort of chatbot should I use? How do I build AI images for my presentations? You know, you can go many, many different directions. So, I would know, good old search engine, for the topic that you're interested in.

Mary Killelea: But the key really is to encourage people to get their hands wet and do it, right?

Monica Livingston: Yeah. Just just leverage it as much as you know, learn about it and leverage it as much as you're comfortable doing. And it also just kind of depends on where you are in your career and where you want to go, right? Because certainly AI will have a very meaningful place in how we work in the future. But you know say that hey you know I want to transform and become a potter then you maybe don't need to go and immerse yourself in AI right so it just kind of depends on okay how do you see yourself in the future and how might your role evolve how might your job evolve how might what you actually want to do evolve. I mean we have this fun job now called prompt engineer and you actually get paid a lot of money well that didn't exist 5 years ago, right? No, nobody thought that would be their job. And now it's there and it's you know, it's a sizable salary. And so being adaptable to these new types of opportunities that come up if it's interesting to you, but more than likely something in your field or in your area of interest will pop up because we're seeing AI come everywhere.

Mary Killelea: Let's talk about STEM because you've dedicated time to teaching coding and to elementary students and supporting science fairs which I think is amazing. Why is early STEM exposure so critical and what changes do you hope to see I guess in the near future?

Monica Livingston: Yeah. Well, I think technology is not slowing down and I think it's important that we have as many people understanding technology, understanding math and science as possible. I personally went into AI and at the time it was AI and robotics when I was in college and then frankly the robotics part was super interesting to me but I kind of had a feeling that it would be impactful. What really drew me is I wanted to make sure I know how it works so I can control it. I think it was definitely a bit of a control thing for me. I was like look this stuff is going to show up everywhere envisioning a world full of robots. I want to know how to build them. That was initially what drew me to it. But you know as we go go forward because technology is more and more complex I think it's important for society that we build the workforce to function in this world and it's important that we want as many students as possible to understand the technology so that it it actually does become accessible rather than than controlled by a few. At the end of the day, we want everybody to know how to build robots rather than, you know, they're around us, but we could not make one. You know, so I think it'd be really great if, if we, you know, still knew how to build stuff. And yes, leverage the technology, but understand it.

Mary Killelea: Okay. Looking back at your own journey, your career journey in computer engineering and AI, what advice would you give to young women listening considering a career in tech?

Monica Livingston: Go for it. Go do it. And look, and I think this goes back to the comment I met I made about building expertise. STEM is the type of expertise that is learned. Nobody's born with it. Nobody has sort of that innate talent that doesn't require you to learn it. You have to learn it. And so any education that builds in terms of depth I think is really really important because the breath will come and a lot of things you learn along the way but really building that solid basis of things that look we're not I wasn't born knowing Calculus. None of us were. It's something that you have to learn and I think any time you get a chance to do that it's really really impactful.

Mary Killelea: What bold steps have you taken in your own career that you're most proud of and what did it teach you about risk taking?

Monica Livingston: That's actually an interesting question because I actually consider myself much more calculated than bold. I do think I take calculated risk. I've generally kept a big picture in mind for what I wanted in my life. And my career was part of that, but it was never the entirety of it. And I think that didn't always feel good. At times I was like, man, if I just really f wanted to focus on work, I could be at this level and I could do this cuz by golly, this other person's doing it and I am just as good as them and I too can get one of those jobs. And then it was really hard to just say, "But I don't, I really want that. Is that really what's going to make me happy?" And then, you know, anytime you're keeping the big picture in mind, I almost feel like nothing I do in my career is this huge of a risk because even if it fails, the majority of what I care about in life is my family. It's my health. It's not just work. And it just almost derisks a lot of what I do at work. That is that is very freeing because it's almost like well no fear right just do the right thing and you know job security is just not something that I stress about and I understand that's a luxury certainly at this time in my career but job satisfaction is much higher on the list and that allows me to do things that I think are right not just easy or you know mandated and I do I think in general I am much more calculated than than bold.

Mary Killelea: And I think it's so interesting your response because I think it's so important to convey how you know yourself. You know what I mean? You know what you value. You know what you want and you're aligning your career goals to that. And I think a lot of women don't sometimes listen to truly what they want to help them steer their careers. So I think that's great advice.

Monica Livingston: Yeah. And so I think that's all of us, right? I think it's women and men alike, right? Because we compare ourselves to our peers and we need to check all the boxes and do all the things and I think it's hard, right? I definitely went through times when I felt like I needed a couple more boxes checked and times where I did and but I think over time I just learned that's ultimately not what I remember and that's not that's not what provides me satisfaction. And when I'm sitting here with you and talking about it, those are not the things that I'm most proud about. I think I've learned over time that I want to do less of the checkboxing and much more of what is the right thing to do right now.

Mary Killelea: Where do you see the greatest opportunities for women leaders in AI over the next five years since you probably have more insight than most?

Monica Livingston: Well, look, I think AI is a very new field and new AI jobs are coming online all the time. I think that's an opportunity for women and men to go for some of the roles that weren't there before and to prepare for that and to position themselves for it knowing that there aren't people that are, you know, 30 years tenured in these jobs. And so I think that allows everybody again, women and men, an opportunity to go after roles that might not have been accessible if AI were a more mature industry. And so yeah, I mean you can be an entrepreneur, you can the AI startup community is still going strong. You can work for a larger company. Everybody is doing some kind of an AI activity. There are AI centers of excellence. There are chief data scientist roles. There are a number of roles that are popping up and nobody's been in those jobs for 30 plus years. And so I think I think they're just a lot more accessible for everybody.

Mary Killelea: And I think that's so important to talk about because a lot of women will and I say this just because I've read the stats around this. They'll see a job posting and if they don't check 100% of the boxes, they won't apply for it. Whereas, they could still have really great transferable skills that would put them in the running and look quite attractive to a boss hiring for that position.

Monica Livingston: So, I have news for you, Mary. As I've said, I have been hiring this year quite a bit. I have read hundreds of résumés and I can tell you that after we have very much advertised the fact that people should not be checking every box of qualifications, people in fact do not check every box and they are applying to these jobs. So you should be happy to know that people are very much applying to jobs without checking all the boxes for better or for worse. We can discuss that in a later podcast.

Mary Killelea: Okay. But I think the takeaway here is still to go for it. I mean, you've got to be cool.

Monica Livingston: Yeah, you can go for it. But look, I think because so many people go for it. Yeah. That's when you ultimately get the hey, I didn't quite get the response from the job that I applied to. Right. And because we see that discourse all the time. Look, I applied to 10 jobs and I didn't get an answer. Well, let me tell you, as a hiring manager, if I have a role and I have 548 applicants for that role and you know, and I read those resumes, the recruiters read those resumes and you know, I have maybe the ability to talk to about 20 of those people at best. And no, not everybody's going to get that feedback. And so I think that this changes the experience for everybody.

So certainly go for it, but be aware that it's very possible that there are applicants that are more qualified than you and then you might not necessarily get that immediate response of here's you know we'll give you a chance, right? I think the other thing that I want to point out is that I actually had this conversation with one of our colleagues the other day. There's also the discourse around how well you're transforming yourself. You're going to go and do something different. Fabulous. I think you should. But also keep in mind that people aren't going to pay you to do that. That's on your own dime.

That transformation is on your own dime. And I think that's something that gets lost in the discourse. Of course, you can go and do whatever you want to do, but as you know, I hire people with experience in the area that I need them to work in. And I think that's what we're seeing in the market as well. So, you have to balance that out a little bit. Go for a stretch job for sure. But know that you do have to have reasonable experience for the role as well.

Mary Killelea: And that's a fantastic response from your seat. So, if you were applying to a job today, how would you make your resume stand out for someone else hiring?

Monica Livingston: You know, I don't know that I have a good read on necessarily a resume. I would talk about the experience I have in the exact field they're looking for because that is immediately what attracts my attention. And then also just references and recommendations also still play a huge part because when I have 538 applicants and I get an email from somebody, oh, I know this person, they're really good, you need to talk to this woman, then I do that immediately goes to the top of my list. I don't know if it's necessarily the resume. You somehow have to convey to that hiring manager that you know what to do, what they're asking for, how to do what they're asking for.

Mary Killelea: That's awesome. Okay, last question. What does 2B bolder mean to you?

Monica Livingston: You know, I think it's knowing what you stand for and showing up like that. Don't just say it, actually show up like it every day.

Mary Killelea: I love that. So, how can more people learn about Red Hat open source and connect with you?

Mary Killelea: Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm on LinkedIn. Feel free to connect. And then, redhat.com is online and, on our website, we have a YouTube channel as well for Red Hat and Red Hat AI, also. And so lots of resources to learn, but yeah, I'm always always happy to share more information.

Mary Killelea: Thank you for everything that you do for STEM. Thank you for being a female leader who is accessible and thanks for being on the show.

Monica Livingston: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, Mary.

Mary Killelea: Thanks for listening to the episode today. It was really fun chatting with my guest. If you liked our show, please like it and share it with your friends. If you want to learn what we're up to, please go check out our website at 2bbolder.com. That's the number 2 little bbolder.com.