Twenty years ago, I was the person people called when their laptop stopped working.
Not because it was my dream. Because I was good at it. Patient. Thorough. I could sit with someone who was frustrated and scared and translate the technical into something they could actually use. I did that for two decades. For helpdesks, for enterprise teams, for retail environments, for managed services. I did it at Macy’s for ten years. I did it at NCR. I did it at Hexaware. Most recently, I did it at RSC Solutions as Help Desk Lead.
I was very, very good at it.
And then more than once, a manager asked me to tone it down. To stop knowing so much. To make myself smaller so the room felt more comfortable.
That is a thing that happens to people like me. And I am naming it because I spent too long believing it was feedback instead of what it actually was: a failure of leadership on their part, not a flaw in mine.
In 2026, I attended the AI Advantage Summit. I was not in a good place. I was burnt out, unemployed, and trying to figure out what came next.
Something shifted in that room.
Not because of the hype. Not because of the slides or the promises about automation. It shifted because I looked at what AI enablement actually required and recognized every single skill in it. Teaching people technology at the level they are at. Translating complexity into something usable. Meeting people where they are instead of where you wish they were.
I have been doing this work for two decades. The title just caught up.
I enrolled in an AI bootcamp and completed it. Not when the timing was perfect. Timing is never perfect. I did it because the puzzle-finisher in me picked up the pieces, looked at the whole picture, and decided: the time is now.
There is something else you should know, because it is the reason I do not quit.
In 2011, I lost my best friend to ovarian cancer. Before she died, I made her a promise. To be as healthy as I could be. To live fully. To go to concerts and create things and leave a good impact on everyone I know.
Every decision I make that is worth anything comes back to that promise.
The career reinvention. The work I do helping people understand technology that feels like it is moving too fast. The commitment to staying in rooms that used to feel like they were not built for me.
She is the mission underneath everything. She is why I do not stop.
So no. I did not pivot.
I spent twenty years learning how to do this work. I have a Computer Science degree, a UX Certificate from Parsons, a Google Cloud Generative AI Leader certification, a Microsoft 365 Fundamentals certification, and a completed AI bootcamp. I know what it takes to get a non-technical team to actually adopt new technology, not just sit through the training and go back to doing things the old way.
Anyone can learn it. You just have to teach them at their level.
That is what I do. That is what I have always done.
I am Anne Wozniak. And I am done making myself smaller so the room feels more comfortable.
AI Enablement · Technology Translation · Human-Centered Learning
