Leveraging AI to Go from Doer to Leader, w/ Miri Rodriguez, former Storyteller at Microsoft and CEO of Empressa.AI

About this episode

Could AI help you lead—not just do—especially if you’re thinking about building something entrepreneurial?

In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Miri Rodriguez, formerly a “storyteller” at Microsoft, now the CEO of Empressa.AI, about what it means to go from Doer to Leader in an AI era—and how an AI-first operating >

Miri shares how storytelling functioned as a practical tool inside Microsoft (not fluffy marketing), why she decided to leave Corporate America, what she's focused on at Empressa.AI, and what she’s learned building an AI-first company—especially around agent-like workflows, research automation, and the discipline of separating real value from AI hype.

What we cover

• Why “storytelling” matters in business and how it works at Microsoft
• The origin-story lens: how companies reinvent themselves (and why transformation stories matter)
• Miri’s path from Microsoft into entrepreneurship—and the “gaps” she saw as an early adopter of Copilot-era tools 
• Why she believes AI can either widen or narrow workplace gaps—and why adoption, not just access, is the real issue ([00:06:40]–[00:09:30])
• What “skilling up” actually means now: moving from execution to strategy + orchestration as AI takes on more of the doing ([00:11:15]–[00:14:30])
• Where agentic workflows are showing up first—and the looming mismatch between automation and employee upskilling ([00:14:30]–[00:16:45])
• A concrete, real-world example of an “agent->
• The simplest anti-hype test: if you can’t explain the value without saying “AI,” you may be building a trend, not a solution 
• Advice for would-be entrepreneurs: why mission and clarity matter more than “AI-first” branding 
• How Miri uses AI personally and creatively—especially translation, voice, and writing experiments 

Key takeaway

AI isn’t just a productivity boost—it’s a forcing function for how we lead: setting direction, designing workflows, making judgment calls, and supervising a growing layer of digital labor.

Please enjoy our conversation with Miri Rodriguez.

Empressa.AI