Jodi Hepner, Highlighted By Influential Women, Guides Organizations Through AI Adoption With People At The Center

PUNTA GORDA, FL, UNITED STATES, October 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Consultant and Founder of Prompting People LLC Combines Decades of Enterprise Transformation Experience With Change Management to Help Organizations Embrace AI

Punta Gorda, Florida – Jodi Hepner is a consultant and enterprise transformation strategist who founded Prompting People LLC, a consulting firm focused on change management with an emphasis on AI adoption. Her expertise spans change management and technology adoption, including the integration of new systems, processes, and digital solutions. She combines structured change methodologies with clear communication, stakeholder alignment, and user-focused approaches. Her work has focused on helping employees and stakeholders move through transitions by building understanding, engagement, and lasting adoption of new ways of working. Her specialties include implementing change management, AI adoption, user adoption, and transformation initiatives. Today her aim is to help organizations adopt AI while keeping people at the center of every initiative.

Jodi recently retired from UL Solutions, where she held several leadership roles over the course of her career there. For the last two decades, she led transformation work, redesigned processes, implemented emerging technologies, and supported people through change. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1989. She is a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner and a Project Management Professional, and she has completed certifications in Change Management for Generative AI, Transforming Business with AI Agents, and the Fundamentals of Agentic AI. She is a member of the Project Management Institute, the Association of Change Management Professionals, and Prosci.

In her Influential Women article, Finding Your Strengths, Jodi recalls a moment in 1983 when a high school guidance counselor discouraged her from pursuing engineering and suggested teaching instead. In her small town at the time, women were simply not expected to become engineers, and his comment only strengthened her determination. Setting out to prove him wrong, she built a career that blended technical work with work centered on people, moving from engineering into quality assurance, process improvement, and large-scale transformation. When she retired after about forty years, colleagues described her as a teacher, simplifier, helper, and mentor. That reflection helped her realize that teaching had been central to her work all along, and that her true passion is leading transformation rather than simply talking about it. She concludes that many of the greatest strengths do not show up early in a career, and that the most meaningful leadership comes when women stop measuring themselves against someone else’s version of success.

Jodi attributes her success to a lifelong drive to excel, instilled through her upbringing. She does not settle for partial effort and sees every task through to the end. She values thoroughness, follow-through, and the satisfaction of seeing projects completed, and she maintains high standards for the customers she serves. She enjoys leading change and transformation, and she has found more satisfaction in hands-on work, such as fixing broken systems, empowering teams, and seeing people grow more confident, than in climbing the corporate ladder. The best career advice she has received is that change is the only constant, and that it tends to accelerate as people age.

For young women entering her industry, Jodi recommends being open to change and new experiences rather than playing it safe. She reminds them that productivity matters but is not everything, and encourages them to focus on building a personal brand and to think about how they want to be recognized. She also urges them to build networks both inside and outside their organizations, even if networking feels uncomfortable for someone more technical than social, because a strong network provides the mentorship and support that help people advance beyond simply doing good work.

Jodi sees the human side of AI adoption as the biggest challenge in her field. Many employees fear that AI will replace them, and she believes targeted coaching and change leadership can shift that perspective. She points to studies suggesting that organizations grow faster when they use these tools. In her view, AI should be presented as augmentation and built into daily workflows so that it feels helpful rather than forced. When AI works like a helpful assistant instead of an imposed administrative burden, she believes fear can become a driver of productivity and innovation.

Trust is the core value that guides Jodi in both professional and personal relationships. She believes that explaining the reasons behind a change and supporting people as they move through it builds confidence. Trust matters most, she notes, during major organizational change. Mutual trust and respect for the expertise of others help her achieve lasting impact. Today she helps organizations navigate AI by simplifying complexity and guiding people through change, always putting the people side first.

From an engineering student told she belonged elsewhere to a transformation leader whose colleagues called her a teacher and mentor, Jodi has built a career on proving what is possible. Through Prompting People LLC, she now brings that experience to organizations facing one of the most significant technological shifts of their time. By helping people see AI as a partner rather than a threat, Jodi Hepner is making transformation more human, more confident, and more lasting.

Learn More about Jodi Hepner:

Through her Influential Women profile: https://influentialwomen.com/connect/jodi-hepner or through Prompting People LLC, https://promptingpeoplellc.com/

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