Long before AI became a global obsession, Katherine Singson was already helping bring intelligent technology to market in Silicon Valley.
In a recent episode of Bite Happens, Katherine shared an extraordinary career journey that spans the earliest days of AI, working directly with Steve Jobs at NeXT and Pixar, leading Xbox marketing in Australia, and eventually turning her focus toward healthcare innovation after surviving breast cancer.
Building AI Before the World Was Watching
Katherine began her career in the 1980s at an AI startup focused on information search and retrieval systems, technology designed to uncover patterns in massive datasets long before modern AI tools existed. But even then, she believed the real challenge wasn’t just building technology. It was helping people understand it.
“I always asked myself: Could my mother understand this technology?” she explained. “My job was to break complex ideas down into something people could actually connect with.”
— Katherine Singson
Lessons from Steve Jobs and Pixar
That philosophy later shaped her experience working alongside Steve Jobs at NeXT and Pixar. According to Katherine, Jobs had an extraordinary ability to simplify ideas to their “elegant essence”, a mindset that deeply influenced her approach to leadership, branding, and communication. At Pixar, Katherine witnessed firsthand how storytelling and technology became inseparable. While engineers pushed the boundaries of computer graphics, the company’s real focus remained emotional connection.
"The technology enabled the storytelling, but it wasn’t the story itself.”
— Katherine Singson
Turning a Personal Challenge into a New Mission
Years later, after a successful global career across tech, entertainment, and consulting, Katherine faced a life-changing breast cancer diagnosis. The experience exposed major gaps in the healthcare system and sparked a new mission: using AI to improve patient outcomes and restore human connection in medicine.
Why AI Should Make Healthcare More Human
She believes AI has the potential to dramatically transform healthcare, from earlier diagnostics and AI-assisted screenings to reducing administrative burdens that prevent doctors from truly engaging with patients.
"AI can remove busywork so doctors can become more present with patients again."
— Katherine Singson
For Katherine, the future of AI isn’t about replacing people. It’s about helping humanity function better.
Her story is a reminder that behind every technological revolution are the people shaping how those technologies connect with the world.