Who Gets the Advantage? Catharine Montgomery on AI, Equity, and Your Career
The closing keynote of the 2026 AdaMarie Career Navigation Summit is now available inside the AdaMarie Professional Network. Here's why it's worth your time and how to watch.
There's a question underneath most of the conversations we're having about AI right now, and we don't ask it nearly enough: not who has access to the tools, but who actually gets the advantage they create.
That distinction is at the heart of Catharine Montgomery's closing keynote, and it reframes AI as something it's easy to miss when you're just trying to keep up with the latest tool. Because when a technology starts changing how people do their jobs, it eventually changes who gets promoted, who becomes more valuable, and who gets left behind.
Catharine's warning to the room was direct: she doesn't want the AI gap to become the next career gap, especially for women and people of color in STEM.
Catharine is the founder and CEO of Better Together Agency, a founding member of Black Women Leading in AI, and a researcher on bias in generative AI — someone who noticed early, through her own communications work, how quietly these systems can reinforce the very inequities they could help solve.
She makes the case for "human plus AI" over "human versus AI," shares how she built AI into her own agency (including why she deliberately put a skeptic in the room), and challenges a assumption most of us carry without noticing: that saving time automatically translates into getting ahead.
The through-line is a reassuring one for anyone who feels like they're watching this revolution from the outside: you don't have to be an engineer to shape where AI goes. You have to bring your expertise, your questions, and your judgment.
Watch the full keynote inside the APN
Catharine's complete closing keynote is available now in the AdaMarie Professional Network, alongside every other session from this year's summit.
Inside, you'll find:
The full summit replay library, including the sessions you couldn't catch live
Live workshops and expert conversations year-round
Our spring Career Accelerator
A growing library of career resources
A Slack community full of people navigating their next steps right alongside you
