A Veteran Tech Executive's Warning on AI, Greed, the Cost of Mass Layoffs w/ Wendy Turner-Williams

Sep 10, 2025

Wendy Turner-Williams, a distinguished tech executive with roots at Microsoft and Salesforce, explores the impact of AI on the workforce. She shares her experiences breaking barriers as a woman in tech while reflecting on her roles in groundbreaking projects like Azure Data Factory. Wendy warns of a looming crisis as AI rapidly disrupts job security and the economy, urging leaders to consider ethical implications and the importance of reskilling. Her insights ignite a vital conversation about the future of work in the age of technology.

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ANECDOTE

Early Big Tech Sexism

Wendy Turner-Williams recounts being the only woman on a team and being told her role was to 'mother the team.'
She refused demeaning tasks and used her EA to reassign seating instead of accepting the stereotype.

ANECDOTE

Digitizing Maps With Early GPS

Wendy describes digitizing physical maps and overlaying GPS for call-center and field crews in 2001.
The project cut call times and supported critical government contracts by revealing fiber locations in old oil pipelines.

INSIGHT

AI Replaces Decision Roles, Not Just Tools

Wendy argues AI is different because it can replace humans in decision trees rather than just augment them.
She warns the pace of AI adoption outstrips guardrails, risking broad economic disruption.

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In this episode, I sit down with Wendy Turner-Williams, a distinguished tech leader and executive with a deep history at companies like Microsoft and Salesforce. She's of the original minds behind what became Azure Data Factory, among other foundational tech.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Wendy charts the trajectory from the early days of the Internet to the current AI-driven hype cycle and looming crisis. She explains how these tools of innovation are now being turned against the workforce and why this technological revolution is fundamentally more disruptive than anything that has come before. This episode is a candid, unfiltered discussion about the real-world impact of AI on jobs, the economy, and our collective future, and a call for leaders to act before it's too late.

Timestamps:

00:22 - Catching up: The tough job market and writing new books.

05:49 - Wendy's impressive career history at Microsoft, Salesforce, and Tableau.

06:17 - The origin story of Azure Data Factory and other foundational projects at Microsoft.

09:18 - A personal story about the challenges of being a woman in Big Tech in the early days.

13:02 - A look back at a favorite early-career project: Digitizing physical maps with nascent GPS technology in 2001.

18:11 - The state of the tech industry: "Tech is cannibalizing itself because of AI."

20:31 - The massive, impending shock to the job market and why AI is different from previous industrial revolutions.

27:26 - Why the "human in the loop" is a temporary and misleading solution.

29:55 - Breaking down the numbers: The staggering quantity of white-collar jobs projected to be eliminated.

36:37 - Why leaders are failing to act and conversations are happening behind closed doors without solutions.

38:25 - Discussing potential solutions: Should companies have quotas for their human workforce?

45:21 - The need for "truth tellers" and leaders who are willing to question the current path and drive human-centric transformation.

53:15 - The grim reality for recent graduates with computer science degrees who can't find jobs.

56:22 - The risk of IP hoarding and engineers deliberately crippling systems to protect their jobs.

01:00:20 - Final thoughts: Are we waiting for a "let them eat cake" moment before we see real change?