are now handled in minutes. Market research that required hours of deep focus is now synthesized in seconds. Sales pipeline management, client communication, proposal writing, supplier outreach — AI has stepped in as an intelligent, tireless partner, freeing us to do the higher-order work that only we can do. Our workspace has become sharper, more efficient, and more strategic. Our workforces benefit when their leaders are less burdened and more visionary. And our communities benefit when the women who serve them have the bandwidth to actually show up. This is not a small thing. When a woman-owned business owner can reclaim two, three, or four hours of her week, those hours do not evaporate into a screen. They go to a grandchild’s recital. They go to a mentoring conversation with a young woman who needs guidance. They go to a community board meeting, a neighborhood initiative, a charitable endeavor that would have otherwise been squeezed out by the demands of running a company alone. AI is, in the most beautiful sense, an act of generosity toward the women who have always given so much. Honoring the woman who taught me what living your legacy looks like I cannot write about purpose-driven entrepreneurship without honoring the woman who has shown me what it looks like to live this message — not just preach it. My co-chair of Entrepreneurs of Purpose, Edie Fraser, is one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Edie is the national chair of the Enterprising Women Foundation, a founding member of C200, one of the founding members of NAWBO — organizations that have reshaped the landscape of women’s business leadership in this country. She was the founding chair of the Women Business Collaborative, the founder of STEMconnector and Million Women Mentors, which generated over 2.5 million commitments to mentor, and the founder of Diversity Best Practices. She has been honored with well over 100 major leadership awards, inducted into the Enterprising Women Hall of Fame, and recognized with the Business Icon and Legacy Awards that bears the weight of a life truly, gloriously well-lived. I am deeply, unapologetically grateful to call Edie Fraser my mentor, my sister in purpose, and my friend. Serving alongside her as co-chair of Entrepreneurs of Purpose is not just an honor — it is one of the greatest gifts my entrepreneurial journey has given me. Living this legacy with her reminds me every single day why we do what we do. Life Is precious. AI reminds us of that Here is what I want every woman reading this to hold: life is precious, and it moves fast. The years we spent building our businesses, proving our worth, breaking barriers, and refusing to be invisible have been worthwhile — but they have also cost us moments. AI is not a miracle. It will not give us back time already spent. But it will, if we let it, give us more of the time ahead. More mornings free to sit with our families over breakfast without a to-do list screaming in the background. More evenings available to be present at community events. More capacity to mentor, to give, to pour into the people and places that need us. At Entrepreneurs of Purpose, we believe that the women who build with intention — who scale thoughtfully, invest in their communities, and carry their values into every contract and every conversation — are the leaders this world needs most. AI is simply the newest tool in service of that timeless mission. So let us use it unapologetically. Let us handle the urgent so we can protect the important. Let us give ourselves permission to show up for our families, our friends, our communities, and our own well-being — not as a reward when the work is done, but as the very point of the work itself. Because at the end of the day, the greatest legacy any of us will leave is not a contract won or a market captured. It is the love we gave freely, the time we protected fiercely, and the lives we touched on purpose. That is what it means to be an Entrepreneur of Purpose. SHARON W. REYNOLDS, MBA, is the CEO & President of DevMar Manufacturing, LLC, a purpose-driven manufacturing company based in Nashville, TN. A 2026 Enterprising Women Hall of Fame inductee, Nashville Titan 100 CEO, and MBDA Entrepreneur of the Decade, Sharon is the first womanowned business to be awarded a multi-year prime chemical contract with Nashville International Airport. She serves as co-chair of Entrepreneurs of Purpose, an inititiative of the Enterprising Women Foundation, and is active with WBENC, WBEC-South, WPO, and the International Women’s Forum. Sharon is a fifth-generation Nashville native whose work is guided by a singular conviction: business is most powerful when it is rooted in purpose. Learn more and connect at www.devmarmfg.com | LinkedIn: sharon-w-reynoldsmba-b8876925. Sharon is a member of the Enterprising Women Advisory Board. AI is not a miracle. It will not give us back time already spent. But it will, if we let it, give us more of the time ahead. enterprising Women 57
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