The Good, The Bad, and The Promising For Women in Generative AI Workforce
The potential for women to lead in the booming field of GenAI is enormous.
The historic and ongoing tech workforce gender gap is being replicated in the Generative AI field, with the latest introduction of global giant DeepSeek competing with ChatGPT and other players. Today, only 22% of the AI workforce is women.
The possibility is that as GenAI expands its reach, access, and innovation, the roles for women in AI leadership can blossom to equity.
A recent Statista report finds that in 2025, the AI market in the U.S. was worth $66 billion. It is expected to grow to $224 billion by 2030. It is impossible to ignore the effects on not only the U.S. economy, but the global economy, and the entire workforce as a whole. Still, there has been reticence to adopt AI practices and tools in the workforce.
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Whether it is for digital twins, content creation, data support and research, or other uses, the full trust of the tools is not universal—and has been gendered.
“Whether it is for #digitaltwins, #contentcreation, #datasupport and #research, or other uses, the full trust of the tools is not universal—and has been #gendered. ”
According to Deloitte Global’s 2025 Predictions, the gender gap in adoption of GenAI usage is narrowing. In 2025, “Women’s experimentation and usage of GenAI is projected to meet or exceed that of men, but tech companies still should improve trust, representation in training models, and diversity in the AI workforce.”
Deloitte Global TMT Industry Leader Ariane Bucaille, reports, “As we define the roadmap for Generative AI, we must navigate many challenges. By embracing trust, inclusivity, and sustainability, we can ensure that technological advancements positively impact not only the current generation but also businesses, consumers, and broader communities for generations to come.”
“By embracing #trust, #inclusivity, and #sustainability, we can ensure that #technologicaladvancements #positivelyimpact not only the current generation but also #businesses, #consumers, and broader #communities. –@ariane_bucaille, Deloitte Global TMT Industry Leader”
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In other words, women need to get on board to move to the top of this burgeoning field.
Deloitte reports that in 2023, “Women’s use of GenAI was just half that of men. However, over the past year, the proportion of women in the U.S. adopting GenAI has tripled. Around the world, countries and regions are expected to close the adoption gap at varying rates with some achieving equal usage by men and women in 2025 and others in 2026.”
“We need soft skills and hard skills around the table,” Christie Smith, Ph.D., founder and CEO of The Humanity Studio, and co-author with Kelly Monahan of Essential: How Distributed Teams, Generative AI and Global Shifts Arte Creating A New Human-Powered Leadership, recently told Take The Lead. “We need skills around emotional security, self-awareness, empathy, contextual competence, and understanding people where they are. Those skills are not gender specific. Emotional intelligence is one of the greatest gifts we have.”
“We need #skills around #emotionalsecurity, #selfawareness, #empathy, #contextualcompetence, and understanding people where they are. -Christie Smith, Founder and CEO of The Humanity Studio”
According to IBM, one survey revealed “71% of all respondents say men are adopting generative AI faster than women—and 68% say men are seeing greater benefits.” Additionally, “56% of all respondents—and 67% of women—say there aren’t enough women leading the conversation about generative AI.”
Another IBM study found that “73% of business leaders believe that having more women leaders in their sector is important for mitigating gender bias in AI—but only 33% currently have a woman in charge of making decisions on AI strategy.”
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Virginia Tech recently reports, “The best way to look at the future is to look at the past. When you look at the industrial revolutions and other technologies that have come, they have not taken away jobs. The technology actually created jobs, it's just different work,” said Susan Doniz, chief information and data analytics officer at The Boeing Company.
“The best way to look at the #future is to look at the past. When you look at the #industrialrevolutions and other #technologies that have come, they have not taken away #jobs. -Susan Doniz, Chief Information and Data Analytics Officer at @Boeing.”
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One recent platform, Uplevyl, “leverages AI to provide personalized leadership development, mentorship, and career advancement tools, focusing on empowering women in the digital age. The initiative aims to address the underrepresentation of women in AI leadership roles and equip them with the skills to lead in the rapidly evolving AI landscape,” reports Ed Tech Innovation Hub.
With women representing only 22% of the global AI workforce, and less than 14% holding senior executive positions, “The accelerator seeks to change this dynamic by offering training and resources to prepare women for leadership in an AI-driven world,” Ed Tech Innovation details.
The necessity for this newly burgeoning and robust workforce having gender equity in leadership is an accepted mission. According to AI Business, recent research shows, “73% of business leaders believe that increased female leadership in the sector is important for mitigating gender bias in AI, while 74% view it as important for ensuring the economic benefits of AI are equally felt in society.”
In order to eradicate bias from AI systems, “development teams need to include a wide range of diverse talent, from different social and ethnic groups. But having more women in AI leadership roles will have a trickle-down effect, encouraging more diverse talent to join and stay in the industry. This will result in AI technology that is truly inclusive, meeting the needs of all current and potential users and, hopefully, AI discriminating against certain groups will be a thing of the past.”
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The fear of AI as a replacement for human workers has subsided, as it is now seen as a key to productivity and innovation, as well as economic advantages. CEO World reports, “PwC’s 28th Annual Global CEO Survey, which gathered responses from 4,701 CEOs across 109 countries, revealed that 56% of respondents experienced enhanced workforce efficiency due to GenAI in the past year, while 34% observed increased profitability and 32% reported revenue growth.”
The future and present possibilities for women to succeed in this field is enormous. IBM reports, “Many of the early use cases for this emerging technology are focused on functions that have historically been dominated by women, such as marketing and customer service. This means that, as generative AI disrupts workflows and demands organization-wide transformation, women have a once-in-a-career opportunity to gain equal footing.”
“This means that, as #generativeAI disrupts #workflows and demands organization-wide #transformation, #women have a once-in-a-career opportunity to gain equal footing. -@IBM”
Additionally, “By distinguishing themselves as change agents and embracing the skill sets that are quickly becoming essential, women can not only ascend to positions of power—but also help redefine the leadership roles of the future.”
The World Economic Forum reports that globally with women in the majority of administrative positions, women can “benefit disproportionately from the digital transformation. AI can take over menial tasks, freeing up time for improving skills, for working on their own vision or for strategic planning, networking and mentoring.”
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The Financial Times concurs and reports, “AI brings hope for women to gain greater representation in senior management—both by fighting gender bias and by using it to develop their leadership skillsets.”
But GenAI is not without inherent bias and problems embedded in its processes. It adopts the gender discrimination of its creators and users, so it can perpetuate these faults, if there is not a diverse pool of creators and users in the data.
According to Sciences, “One study last year found that language-based generative AI risked perpetuating gender biases in leadership. When researchers asked AI to provide examples of leaders, good and bad, women were more likely to be presented as ‘bad leaders.’ Bad male leaders were tyrannical and power-hungry despots, whereas bad female leaders were much more often deemed plain incompetent.”
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There are grave ethical and fairness compromises when GenAI goes unchecked with human correction or intervention. All Together reports, ”While AI can provide data-driven recommendations, human judgment is essential for making well-rounded business decisions that account for long-term impact.”
“There are grave #ethical and #fairness compromises when #GenAI goes #unchecked with #humancorrection or #intervention.”
The solution is to have more women in the tech workforce. “Women engineers can lead the charge in advocating for ethical AI. Understand data privacy laws and learn techniques for detecting and mitigating bias in AI models,” Forbes reports.
These solutions increase not only the fairness but also the reliability of AI systems in diverse applications.
