We are at a historical inflection point. Artificial intelligence is reshaping every industry, every government, every military operation on the planet. And the people building it, governing it, and deciding how it's used are still overwhelmingly not women.
That's not a diversity talking point. It's a security and strategic risk. When the people designing AI systems all think the same way, share the same blind spots, and come from the same backgrounds, you don't get better AI. You get brittle AI. You get AI that fails the people it never had in the room when it was built.
I came to AI through a path most people haven't walked: Special Forces intelligence, 19 years in cybersecurity, a decade of operating in environments where getting it wrong has real-world consequences. That background gives me a perspective on AI that boardrooms, labs, and conference stages desperately need more of — not despite my being a woman, but partly because of it.
Through Outpost Gray and theZaraAI.com, I'm working to change the ratio. I teach AI concepts to people who think AI isn't for them. I show women in cybersecurity how to build AI agents, automate their workflows, and position themselves at the front of the AI wave — not the back of it. I speak at conferences not just to be the woman on stage, but to be the voice on stage that sounds like someone they haven't heard before.
If you're a woman trying to break into AI, cybersecurity, or both — I'm not ahead of you, waiting to pull the ladder up. I'm here to hand it down. Let's build this together.
