Local Agents, Big Ambitions, and a Little Watercolor: Inside WxAI Fall Retreat
Updated: 4 days ago
By Jenny Kay Pollock and Reut Lazo, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of WOMEN x AI (WxAI).
Get clearer. Get connected. Shape what happens next.
What happens when you bring women together, give them space to learn something new, and invite them to help one another move forward?
On October 10, 2026, we hosted our in-person WOMEN x AI Fall Leadership Retreat.
We designed the day around three things: strengthening AI capabilities, building deeper connections, and turning new perspectives into action.
We wanted to create something different from a typical conference or workshop. A smaller, more interactive experience where every woman had time to share what she was working on, learn from others, and get meaningful support from the community.
There were laptops open, AI agents running, thoughtful conversations, a little troubleshooting, and eventually, paint pens and postcards. Here's a look inside the day.
You Can Be Strong at Something and Still Want to Grow
We explored our WOMEN x AI Skill Map, a facilitated learning exercise built around five AI capabilities:
Use: Apply AI tools to everyday tasks and workflows.
Build: Create custom AI-powered tools and solutions.
Delegate: Give AI agents tasks to complete.
Evaluate: Assess AI outputs, risks, and reliability.
Lead: Guide how people and organizations adopt AI.
Each woman used colored stickers to identify where she felt confident and where she wanted to grow.
Something interesting emerged: several women identified the same capability as both a strength and a growth opportunity. Which makes perfect sense.
You can be highly capable at delegating to AI and still want to improve how you establish guardrails. You can be skilled at evaluating AI outputs while wanting to better understand emerging risks.
And you don't need to be an engineer to lead AI adoption. As WOMEN x AI co-founder Reut Lazo reminded the room, "You don't have to build in order to lead. You don't have to delegate in order to lead."
The exercise sparked a thoughtful conversation about trust, technical skills, human judgment, and what it really means to lead in the age of AI.
The Power of Learning Something New Together
From there, we moved into one of the most hands-on parts of the retreat: AI agents.
Reut demonstrated a job-search agent she'd built, for our AI Career Lab, showing how it could identify relevant opportunities, evaluate potential fit, find connections, and prepare personalized outreach.
She also shared the learning process behind building it, including the tools, trial and error, and satisfaction of creating something useful without an engineering background.
Then we opened our laptops to explore local AI agents using Google Antigravity, GitHub, Ollama, and other tools. Soon, computers around the room were filled with GitHub repositories, coding interfaces, and visual maps of how AI agents and their tools connect.
One of our favorite moments was looking around the room and seeing women working through unfamiliar tools together. There were plenty of questions, a little troubleshooting, and moments when someone would discover something useful and immediately share it with the woman sitting next to her.
We kept hearing variations of the same thing:
"I'm so glad we're doing this here."
"It's so nice to have someone to ask all my questions."
We think that captures something important about learning in community.
You can absolutely learn to build with AI on your own. You can ask questions, share screenshots when you're stuck, and troubleshoot your way through something new.
But, you have to make the time to do it.
The retreat gave everyone dedicated time to stop talking about what they wanted to try and actually try it. And instead of figuring everything out alone, they had other women beside them, asking questions, sharing discoveries, and working through the frustrating parts together.
Sometimes the most valuable thing a learning community provides isn't another answer. It's the space, support, and momentum to actually begin.
We also wanted the learning to extend beyond the technical setup. Our Plan Your Agent worksheet helped women think through what they actually wanted an agent to do, which tools and information it would need, how to establish appropriate guardrails, and what first task they could test.
Getting a new tool working is exciting, figuring out how it can meaningfully support your work is where the real opportunity begins.
The Best Part of Our AI Retreat Wasn't the AI
As much as we loved seeing the laptops open and women exploring new AI tools, some of our favorite moments happened away from the screens.
They happened during the paired walks, over lunch, and in small-group conversations.
We designed the retreat to make room for something that's easy to miss at larger events: the opportunity to go deeper.
Instead of quick introductions and surface-level networking, we wanted women to have time to talk about what they were working on, what they were excited about, and where they could use a little help.
During our paired walks, each woman introduced her partner to the group. Even among women we've known for years, we learned new things about one another.
One particularly fun connection happened when one woman shared that she hopes to develop a video game someday. Another woman, who has worked in the gaming industry, was sitting right there.
Over a Mediterranean lunch, the room was lively with conversation. Women gathered around tables talking about everything from AI and work to personal interests and life outside the office.
We intentionally left room for those unstructured moments, too. Not every valuable conversation needs a worksheet or a facilitator. Sometimes people just need the opportunity to sit together and talk.
Later, we brought that same spirit of connection into our structured Brain Trust sessions.
Each woman had dedicated time to share something meaningful she wanted to move forward. The others offered fresh perspectives, shared expertise, and even volunteered introductions to people who might be able to help.
We asked: What perspective, connection, resource, or help would move this forward?
And ended with: What will you do next because of this conversation?
What stayed with us was the generosity in the room. Women openly sharing what worked, what didn't, what they're still figuring out, and what they could offer someone else.
Sometimes that meant a practical suggestion. Sometimes it meant an introduction. Other times, it was simply having someone listen carefully and ask a better question.
What we loved was seeing women show up for one another, not because they were assigned to network, but because they'd been given the time and space to understand what someone else needed.
The AI learning was valuable. But so were the conversations over lunch, the unexpected connections, and the chance to spend more than five minutes talking about something that mattered.
Sometimes the most valuable thing you leave with isn't something you learned. It's someone you met.
A Little Magic, a Lot of Community Creativity
We also invited the women who have helped build WOMEN x AI to help shape what comes next.
We asked three questions:
What should we KEEP? What should we CHANGE? What should we CREATE?
Reut took that simple exercise and turned it into something much more memorable.
Using Lovable, she built an interactive experience where everyone's ideas appeared as colorful bubbles floating into a shared digital vessel. As women submitted their thoughts, we could watch the collective ideas take shape in real time.
It was a fun way to gather feedback, but it also gave us a chance to see what this group values, where they see opportunities, and what they'd like to help create next.
And Reut had another surprise, she designed custom WOMEN x AI-inspired tarot cards representing different community superpowers, including speakers, connectors, amplifiers, workshop leaders, and program builders.
Each woman discovered a superpower she could bring to the community.
We loved seeing the different strengths represented around the room. Some women are incredible at making introductions. Others love teaching, organizing, building, or helping someone else find her voice.
There are so many ways to contribute to a community, and so many ways to lead.
For us, this was a reminder that WOMEN x AI grows through the creativity, expertise, and generosity of the women who are part of it. We're excited to see what we create together next.
Turning Ideas Into a 90-Day Catalyst
We closed the retreat with our 90-Day Catalyst, a guided leadership development exercise designed to turn reflection into action. Women worked through a worksheet to identify one meaningful move they wanted to make over the next 90 days.
They considered why it mattered, what they would do first, what they might need to deprioritize, who could help, and how AI could support their progress.
Then we traded laptops for watercolor postcards, paint pens, and markers.
Each woman created a personal Catalyst Card, a visual representation of the goal she wanted to pursue.
One of the highlights was seeing the different creative interpretations emerge. Everyone took the same prompt and made something personal, using colors, symbols, and artwork to represent what mattered to them.
The artwork live sin their home on the fridge or at their desk as a reminder of what they wanted to accomplish.
Sometimes learning AI means going analogue.
After a day of exploring digital tools and possibilities, there was something satisfying about slowing down, making something with our hands, and turning an intention into a tangible reminder.
The Retreat Was One Day. The Connections Continue.
One of the things this retreat reinforced for us is that meaningful learning doesn't have to happen in a lecture hall or a large conference room.
It can happen when women sit together with their laptops, figure out something unfamiliar, ask questions they might hesitate to ask elsewhere, and help each other see new possibilities. It can happen on a walk, in a small-group conversation, or around a table covered in paint pens.
This retreat gave us a chance to experiment with something we've been thinking about for a long time: what becomes possible when women have the time and space to learn, build, and genuinely support each other?
We saw women try unfamiliar technology, share what they're building, offer their expertise, make new connections, and leave with concrete next steps.
We also learned more about the community we're building together and what our members want to see next.
At WOMEN x AI, we're building spaces where women can strengthen their AI capabilities while becoming more connected, confident, and intentional about their leadership.
We want women to leave with more than information.
We want them to leave with new skills they can use, relationships they can build on, and a clearer sense of what they can do next.
Join Us for What's Next
WOMEN x AI Fall Leadership Retreat brought together hands-on AI education, leadership development, and deeper community connections in an intimate, interactive setting.
We're excited to create more opportunities for women to learn by doing, connect in smaller groups, and support one another's next moves.
If you're looking for a community where you can explore AI, experiment with emerging tools, learn alongside other women, and find support for your next move, we'd love to have you join us.
Join the WOMEN x AI community to hear about future retreats, workshops, and learning opportunities.
Jenny Kay Pollock is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of WOMEN x AI (WxAI) and Founder of Luminizing Growth. Through her work with executives, founders, and AI practitioners, she helps organizations navigate AI-driven transformation and adoption.
