At the TIME Women of the Year Leadership Forum, three influential women leaders in tech—Padmasree Warrior, CEO of Fable; Debby Soo, CEO of OpenTable; and Leslie Cafferty, Senior VP of Booking Holdings—shared insights on how they evaluate and integrate new technologies like AI in their businesses. The panel, moderated by TIME senior correspondent Alice Park, focused on leveraging technology in ways that truly benefit their respective companies and customers.
Debby Soo emphasized the importance of aligning technology with the business’s core mission. For OpenTable, that mission revolves around enhancing the experience for both restaurants and diners. “The way we evaluate is: What are our North Stars as a business?” Soo explained, highlighting that the goal is to adopt technologies that directly contribute to their service.
Leslie Cafferty discussed the process of testing new tech and ensuring its real-world utility. She shared an example from Booking Holdings, where they launched a Generative AI product, but the product didn’t gain traction among users. “It’s not tech for the sake of tech,” Cafferty said, stressing the necessity of value creation over novelty.
Padmasree Warrior spoke on the evolving nature of technological adoption. She acknowledged that while early adoption of technology can be risky, it often leads to innovation as the technology matures. She pointed to AI as an example where its accessibility has increased, allowing for the rise of entrepreneurs who build applications that enhance existing platforms. “If you think about it, for example, Uber couldn’t exist until Apple built the iPhone,” Warrior said.
Despite the optimism, the panelists also discussed concerns around emerging technologies. Warrior raised a critical point about the biases inherent in Generative AI, particularly in consumer-facing applications. She stressed the importance of training these models with culturally sensitive content and highlighted the need for diverse teams to test and mitigate biases.
Warrior shared a personal experience with Fable, where their AI-generated book summaries caused an uproar due to an offensive suggestion involving racial bias. She addressed the issue publicly, emphasizing the importance of owning up to mistakes and learning from them. “We should share our failures with this technology because that’s why the technology gets better,” Warrior encouraged.
The forum brought together leaders from across various industries, sponsored by major companies such as Amazon, Booking.com, Chase, and Toyota, to discuss the intersection of technology, leadership, and innovation, offering a platform for powerful women in business to reflect on both their challenges and successes.
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