International Women’s Day: 'Gen AI will become critical for job success for many women'

AI is shaping the world around us – there’s no doubt about that.

Although there are whispers of privacy invasions, job threats, and ethical discrepancies, AI is expected to bring a host of benefits - especially to the workplace.

In fact, when integrated and utilized properly, AI has the potential to increase productivity, automate mundane tasks, and improve the quality of work.

New research from BCG supports this, as a survey of more that 6,500 employees found that 55% of tech workers believe that Gen AI will be critical to career success.

Although AI is a trend that’s only just beginning, there’s already a disconcerting gender disparity, with women representing only 25% of the industry.

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As with most of the strains within the tech sector, much needs to be done to bolster women’s visibility within the sector.

“The integration of AI into our professional lives is accelerating, and for women, this carries a particular threat of disruption,” says Marni Baker Stein, chief content officer at Coursera.

“Research suggests that women are at a heightened risk of experiencing AI-related job automation, underlining the urgency for proactive upskilling to ensure their careers evolve alongside technology rather than being replaced by it. In this area, there is more to be done.

"Currently, women are underrepresented in AI-related upskilling, with men being three times more likely to have enrolled in the most popular AI courses on Coursera’s platform.

This disparity threatens to widen existing gender gaps in the workplace as AI literacy becomes increasingly necessary for career advancement."This disparity threatens to widen existing gender gaps in the workplace as AI literacy becomes increasingly necessary for career advancement."

To ensure the full benefits of AI is being utilized, these disparities need to be recognized, with organizations ensuring the right support is provided to reap the full benefits – both to businesses itself, and its employees.

To discover this issue in more depth, we engaged in exclusive conversation with BCG and Workday, to find out exactly how much work needs to be done.

Diversifying AI to better support women

Let’s start with some basic stats: The BCG study found that women are 40% less likely to adopt new tech and that if women continue to lag behind men, the gender gap in the tech industry will only get bigger.

But what’s holding these women back?

Well, for starters the gender gap in STEM careers – in which AI falls – is three times larger than other industries.

What’s more, Clare Hickie, CTO, EMEA at Workday shares that she believes the tech industry needs to focus on becoming more inclusive.

“Having the right culture and policies is essential to achieving this, and that means having a leadership team that is open, transparent and encourages an innovative mindset,” she says.

Yet surprisingly, BCG’s survey – which included an equal number of participants from the US, UK, India, Germany, and Japan – found that women in senior leadership positions within the tech industry are leading the charge in AI adoption, so much so, they’re surpassing men by a significant margin of 75% to 61%.

If this continues, the representation of women could increase drastically.

Sadly, the same optimism wasn’t found among women that weren’t in the tech sector, as they slightly lag behind with an adoption split of 63% to 71%.

These findings highlight that senior women in other industries need to ensure they’re adopting AI to keep up with the rising trend and their male counterparts.

“Gen AI, as a new technology, is rapidly disrupting the workplace. Over the next few years, 46% of all workers globally will need to be upskilled for Gen AI,” says Maria Barisano, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group and a core member of its TMT practice.

Thus, successfully adopting Gen AI will become critical for job success for many women across functions and could contribute to closing the gender gap for women in tech.Thus, successfully adopting Gen AI will become critical for job success for many women across functions and could contribute to closing the gender gap for women in tech.

“Our research indicates that senior women in the tech functions are right now leading the way on Gen AI – by 14% points – creating an exciting opportunity to improve representation in tech going forward.”

What’s more, the research shows that there is a notable gap of 21 percentage points between junior women and junior men in the adoption of Gen AI tools at work (48% vs. 69%). This drastic gap highlights the need for urgent action to ensure there is a robust pipeline of future women leaders across functions.

To support this, HR leaders need to work to foster safe and inclusive environments that promote DEI.

“Technology plays a critical role in enabling DEI, from measuring demographic data and empowering employee development and skills strategies, to enabling closer communication, transparency and collaboration,” Hickie adds.“Technology plays a critical role in enabling DEI, from measuring demographic data and empowering employee development and skills strategies, to enabling closer communication, transparency and collaboration,” Hickie adds.

“While humans need to remain the focus and the decision-makers, today AI can help gather data more effectively, which in turn can inform DEI approaches.

“The bottom line is that leaders need to inspire inclusion themselves, while providing teams with the tools to build a better workplace for everyone.”