GenAI Creates Opportunities for Women
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by William Arruda for Forbes about the opportunities that GenAI opens up for women.
The story grew out of a conversation we had about how GenAI is transforming the future of work. We started by talking about the Harvard Business School study that focused on how women outscored men on 17 of 19 leadership traits. Many of the traits where women scored the highest are the ones I believe are most critical for driving the AI transformation.
I became familiar with issues related to women in tech while at Adobe Research lab, where I got to work closely with a scholarship focused on women in tech as well as an extensive internship program. It's a complex, nuanced topic, and we could only address the tip of the iceberg in the article.
A recent study from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) provided some interesting nuances about the adoption of GenAI among women:
Senior women in technical roles are in the lead. The study shows senior women in technical roles are ahead of men in adopting AI in the workplace (75% vs. 61%). These women are 10% more aware than their male counterparts that generative AI will be critical for their success. The study quoted one woman saying, "I saw this coming. I knew it was going to be important. And like in my whole career, I've had to figure things out, and get ahead of the next thing that I need to know.”
However, the women in non-tech senior roles lagged slightly in generative AI adoption compared with men (63% vs. 71%). And when looking at junior women, particularly in non-tech functions, the gap is even more pronounced - there's a 21% gap between junior women (48%) and junior men (69%) in using generative AI tools. Other research suggests some of the factors behind these gaps for junior women relate to gender-specific confidence levels, access to opportunities, role models, and more.
Despite these persistent, systemic issues that can be slow to change, I believe the generative AI revolution presents a real opportunity to increase women's representation and leadership in the technology field.
We have a chance to be more intentional about creating pathways and driving cultural change as these powerful AI capabilities get adopted across industries.
#womenshistorymonth #ai #generativeai #artificialintelligence #career #womenempowerment #womenleaders #womeninstem
The Forbes interview with William is here How Women Will Lead the AI Revolution
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