Judia Krakowski

Honestly, I attribute my success to my mom. My mom was a refugee who came here from Cambodia during the genocide, and it was always so important to her that we go to college, we be successful, we do it all. I always worked hard because I love my mother and wanted to make her proud. Her journey and her values instilled in me the drive to push myself and achieve everything I've accomplished.

The best career advice I've ever received is don't be afraid to make mistakes. Sometimes the first thing you try doesn't work out, but you should always be open to advice and willing to experiment. You're always going to find what you're good at, as long as you experiment and keep trying. Failure is part of the journey to discovering your strengths.

Don't ever be afraid to stand up for yourself, because if you don't, nobody else will. It's gonna be hard, there's gonna be people that will walk all over you, but you can get right back up and keep on going. You have to be your own advocate and have the resilience to push through the challenges, because this industry isn't always easy for women.

It's all about AI right now, honestly. AI is integrated with everything, even marketing. In many ways, it's a great tool that boosts productivity and makes you more efficient. But in other ways, there's just some things that it can't do that you just need that human touch. The challenge is finding the right balance and understanding where AI helps and where human expertise is irreplaceable. From a technical standpoint, true autonomous AI is still hundreds or thousands of years down the road because of the processing power and storage space constraints. Each time the system learns, it has to retain that knowledge, and unlike humans, AI systems are constrained to what the materials are capable of producing. We can't produce the systems needed for truly inventive AI right now.

Staying organized is so important to me, but so is experimenting with new ideas. Once you stop experimenting and stop growing, you stagnate. But if you don't stay organized, everything else falls apart. I believe in balancing structure with creativity and innovation. I also value helping young people discover what they do best, whether that's through college or hands-on learning, because some people learn better when they're building something rather than learning from courses and presentations.