AI is revolutionising work, communication, and daily life – but a gender gap in confidence threatens to leave women behind. How can we close this divide?
This is a question Women’s Agenda discussed with women leaders during a recent roundtable, in partnership with Salesforce.
The gender gap in AI confidence comes at a pivotal moment as AI continues to redefine how we live and work. The latest shift involves the rise of agentic AI. Salesforce describes its agentic AI offering, Agentforce, as a complete AI system for augmenting teams with trusted autonomous AI agents in the flow of work. AI agents can tap into data, reason, and operate within existing workflows to take action on behalf of overwhelmed teams.
Women in executive roles use AI at higher rates than their male counterparts, with 50 per cent saying they use generative AI “all the time” compared to just 38 per cent of their male counterparts, according to recent Salesforce research. Women in the C-suite are also more likely to see integrating generative AI as a top priority, at 48 per cent compared with 36 per cent for men.
The same research, however, found male C-suite executives were more likely than their female counterparts to say their skills in using generative AI to complete work tasks today were ‘highly proficient’ (54% compared to 37%), with a majority of female C-suite executives rating themselves as ‘somewhat proficient’. This is what Rowena Westphalen, SVP of Innovation, AI, and Customer Advisory at Salesforce, calls “the competence versus confidence issue” that can impact women when it comes to technology adoption in general, and AI in particular.
Below, we share some of the major takeaways from women who took part in the roundtable, including senior leaders from Telstra, Amazon Web Services Australia, CommBank, and others.
Gender gaps in AI matter
AI is only as unbiased as the data that trains it. With fewer women involved in AI development and decision-making, there’s a risk that these tools will reinforce existing gender biases. But there’s another emerging concern: the gap in AI confidence means women could miss out on AI’s transformative potential, particularly in improving efficiency and reducing workload.
This is especially true with the next evolution in AI – moving beyond generative AI and the tools many of us are familiar with – to agentic AI, with autonomous AI agents deployed to complete tasks on our behalf.
“While generative AI was all about efficiency and productivity, agentic AI is truly about transformation and new ways of working, so it’s a much more interesting business conversation,” said Westphalen.
What’s behind the gender gap in uptake?
Several factors contribute to this divide, according to the roundtable participants, including common misconceptions, time constraints, and concerns about authenticity.
1. The Confidence Myth: Many women assume others are far ahead in AI adoption, making it seem daunting to catch up. “It’s easy to think other businesses are more advanced, but that’s often not the case,” said Katie Rigg-Smith, Chief Strategy Officer at WPP.
2. Time Constraints: Women are already facing significant time constraints, especially those still taking on the bulk of the unpaid care and domestic work, creating a barrier to the idea of investing time in learning AI tools. “Many women evaluate whether the time investment in AI learning is worth it,” said Sarah Bassett, Head of Software Business at Amazon Web Services Australia. “Do I have an hour to learn this? Will it really help me scale my work and life?” she said.
“A recent AWS survey found nearly 80% of women in professional roles want to learn how to apply generative AI in their current roles, but they have limited time and don’t know where to start or what skills to focus on.”
She said free and low-cost AI courses like those offered through the AWS Skill Builder program can help bridge the gap in confidence and time constraints for women keen to learn.
3. Integrity and Perceptions of ‘Cheating’: Some women feel uneasy about using AI, fearing it undermines their work. “There’s this hesitation: ‘It’s not mine; it’s AI. Can I take credit for it?'” said Zak Hammer, Global Head of Delivery and Risk at BlueScope. In fields like law, where manual expertise is emphasised, AI can feel like cutting corners. There’s also the fear of mistakes and integrity in what AI has produced.
Brigid Clark, a partner at Macpherson Kelley, said she’s finding some of the biggest concerns about using AI are coming from graduates. “I’m expecting them to feel more comfortable with using technology, but through university they’re still taught to do things themselves and constantly warned about cheating,” she said.
Westphalen said these concerns stem from real-world barriers and can often relate to systemic and long-term barriers women have faced in the workplace.
“We hear over and over how a woman is judged by how to achieve something, while a man is judged by what they achieve,” she said.
“It’s understandable then that women are weary and feel concerned about judgement when using AI.”
Closing gender gaps in AI adoption
AI will improve and deliver better outcomes as more women get involved, meaning women’s participation is critical.
AI is here and is fast-evolving.
While concerns around privacy, ethics, bias and safety must be addressed, equal access to and adoption of AI is critical for maintaining diverse workforces.
Many echoed the need for participation during the discussion, with the fear raised that the fewer women participate, the less their needs and issues will be prioritised in the design and eventual outputs produced by AI.
Angela Logothetis, Group Owner for Edge, Cloud, Industrial Networks at Telstra, said evolving how we think about AI is essential.
“We need to reframe how we approach AI and see it as a constant conversation of adapting,” she said.
“It’s not about competing with the tools. And AI is evolving beyond this idea of being programmed by a couple of men in a garage.”
Take a leading role and showcase how AI enables your team
With women in executive roles already leading AI adoption, they’re well-positioned to drive change. By mentoring, leading workshops, and fostering open discussions, female leaders can normalise AI use and encourage more widespread adoption.
“Your team knows where inefficiencies lie,” said Renata Bertram, Vice President of Marketing at Salesforce.
“Instead of forcing AI into workflows, we encouraged our marketing team — primarily women — to pinpoint pain points and explore AI solutions. This builds confidence and clarity.”
Bertram said such discussions can be energising and productive long-term, and create confidence in a team’s ability to understand not only the options but how they can apply the technology and the permissions they have to use them.
Create new conversations about AI shortcuts and time investments
To move beyond misperceptions of AI as a form of “cheating” or shortcut, roundtable participants shared ideas on shifting the conversation.
“We need to reframe how we approach AI, and see it as a conversation, not competing with us,” said Logothetis.
Rigg-Smith said many people are already using AI and not realising it.
“You may not have created a specific agent, but you have tools sitting over documents, you’re using tools like Google Maps,” she said.
“Everyone thinks someone else is more advanced, when really it is just a case of getting in and giving it a go.”
Fiona McCauley, Head of Women in Focus at CommBank, noted how reframing AI as a conversation has resonated and supported her uptake of it.
“Reframing it resonated with me,” she said.
“It’s like asking for support from a colleague – sending work to a colleague and saying, ‘Can you try and tweak this? Can you make it a little stronger?’”
What else? More opportunities for transforming women’s AI uptake
Engaging more women in AI will not only support those directly participating but will ultimately support a healthier AI ecosystem.
The roundtable shared several ideas to help make this happen.
Bertram suggested that leaders run internal workshops with teams to help identify inefficient work processes that can be improved.
Other solutions raised included empowering women to drive discussions on what works for them, as well as opportunities for upskilling those in female-dominated industries to see the power of AI automation, such as in early childhood education.
Some ideas at the organisational level included:
- Playbooks: Workplaces can develop internal guides on ethical AI use, reducing uncertainty and boosting confidence for all team members.
- Upskilling Initiatives: Training programs tailored to female-dominated industries can demonstrate AI’s benefits firsthand and provide powerful efficiencies for women as well as for areas of the workforce facing critical talent shortages in the future, such as in nursing and aged care.
- Mentorship and Leadership Engagement: Women in leadership positions have a powerful opportunity to champion AI adoption through sharing their use cases and supporting workplace initiatives to engage teams in AI.
Beyond structured learning, storytelling can be powerful in demystifying AI for women outside knowledge-based industries. Roundtable participants shared personal uses of AI, like diary management and scheduling to help bring back time to their days, demonstrating AI’s potential beyond the workplace.
As Westphalen said in this discussion: “Perhaps the solution lies in asking women to find a value proposition for them: How can you use generative AI in your daily life?”
AI will only be as inclusive and effective as the people shaping it. By increasing women’s participation, we ensure that AI evolves to serve everyone.