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 style can give a small team outsized leverage.

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-style” workflow for communications + marketing (and why research becomes a superpower) ([00:17:00]–[00:23:10])
• 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