Exciting new developments in AI come out every day – but emerging research has found a gender gap with women falling behind men in the uptake of these revolutionary tools, apps and services.
In the podcast series AI Unlocked, a three-part special supported by Salesforce, Women’s Agenda co-founder Angela Priestley says it’s a critical problem that needs urgent action.
“Women and girls are at risk of being left behind,” she says.
“As AI rapidly evolves, there’s a very real risk of being left behind whether you’re an employee trying to stay ahead of the change or a business owner in a competitive market.
“Which is why the emerging gender gap in who is designing AI tools and who’s actually using them on the other end, is concerning.”
As AI rapidly evolves, transforming how we work, do business and go about our day-to-day lives, how do you keep up?
How do you start using AI in a safe and responsible way while taking advantage of it?
Rowena Westphalen, Senior Vice President of Innovation, AI and Customer Advisory at Salesforce Australia and New Zealand, says ‘confidence’ comes up as a key issue for many women.
While the technology is still developing meaning no one really is quite an expert, she says there can be a misconception that you have to have very advanced technical skills to take advantage of AI.
There is also a gap in trust with women less likely than men to trust it.
Interestingly, women in executive roles appear to be adopting AI quicker than their male counterparts.
“50 per cent of the C-suite women we were interviewing said they were adopting generative AI compared to only 38 per cent of the C-suite men,” she said.
“But here comes the twist.
“The few C-suite men that were using generative AI were much more confident in their ability to utilise it well and their competence around it than the women.”
“That was an interesting kind of confidence versus competence gap that I wonder is actually just a little bit indicative of gender confidence and competence in general.”
Innovative ways to get started with AI
In episode one of AI Unlocked, Westphalen and other experts from the industry discuss the many ways they’re breaking through barriers to empower more women to play an active role in what many say is the third industrial revolution.
Fisher and Paykel General Manager of Digital Sarah Lukins says she realised very early on that her teams would be left behind if they didn’t start experimenting with AI.
But as they began implementing AI tools like Salesforce’s Einstein AI, she noticed women were not taking it up as quickly as their male peers.
“After discussing the issue with a colleague, they decided to run a hackathon to provide their staff with a fun and more accessible way to give AI a go,” she says.
“We challenged our teams to come up with a way to use AI and we made sure that all of the teams had a real different mix of types of skill sets and demographics in them and we wanted to make it so it was more of a fun exercise, more of a embracing, brainstorming, creative, try and make it enjoyable, provide lots of snacks, that kind of thing.
“And everyone really, really enjoyed it.
“So we took these two days out of our normal routine and the teams came up with the most amazing ideas. And I think at the end of it, everyone felt a lot more confident about AI.”
A sandbox is a creative and relatively safe way to encourage experimentation and play with AI at businesses of all sizes.
For more ideas on how to run one, tune into episode one of AI Unlocked.
Priestley is joined by Westphalen and guests from across the industry including Girl Geek Academy and UN Women Australia – as they discuss ways to address the gender gap in AI and shift things in the right direction.
The podcast is a powerful reminder that we are not just observers of the AI revolution.
For meaningful change, women must be active participants and this series explores how you can do that.