More women are employed in artificial intelligence (AI) today than ever — in fact, since 2016, the number of women in the field has increased by 171 per cent. However, women still remain in the minority and hold fewer senior positions.
That’s according to a new survey by Microsoft and LinkedIn, which has found that the number of women being hired for leadership positions in the field has increased from 34 per cent in 2016 to 41 per cent in 2024. That percentage was higher in Australia than the US, UK, and France.
The survey involved 31,000 participants across 31 countries, assessing the representation of women in the field of AI engineering and the shifting trends of AI use in the workplace.
While the number of women has been growing, they still remain a minority both in the general cohort and at higher ranks. Currently, women make up just 27 per cent of workers creating AI technology — a mere 3.5 per cent rise since 2016.
The higher a position, the less women are seen filling the ranks. The survey revealed that women held 39 per cent of managerial positions, 36 per cent of directors and just 23 per cent of vice-presidents.
According to the research, addressing such a gender imbalance will require a range of systemic changes, including skills-based approaches to hiring, inclusive hiring practices, mentoring models and equitable training in AI.
LinkedIn Australia and New Zealand country manager Matt Tindale is urging companies to be careful when considering how they deliver on-the-job AI training to offer greater gender balance.
“We are reaching a pivotal moment as generative AI starts to impact the labour market with a recalibration of the skills employers value most,” he said.
“Employers must ensure they apply a gender lens to their approach in up-skilling to establish the future workplace in a fair and equitable way.”
The study also revealed that in Australia, more than four in five knowledge workers were using AI tools, while the total number of people listing AI skills on their LinkedIn profiles had soared since 2023.
Almost 70 per cent of participants who identified as a leader said they would not hire someone without AI skills and that they would prefer a less experienced candidate with AI skills over a more experienced person without them.
Aneesh Raman, a vice president and workforce expert at LinkedIn told CNBC, “Learning basic AI skills — such as prompt engineering, machine learning or data literacy — is the best insurance to shortcut your competitiveness against people who might have more experience.”
Earlier this year, a Slack Workforce Lab survey of more than 10,000 professionals found that AI skills can give employees a competitive edge in the workplace, with nearly all executives — 96 per cent— reporting an urgency to incorporate AI into their business operations.