De code herschrijven: hoe vrouwen in tech-leiderschap AI-succes stimuleren

AI hervormt werkplekken en stimuleert innovatie. Maar kan het ook een katalysator zijn voor gendergelijkheid in tech-leiderschap?

Current gender gaps in technology are stark. Less than one-quarter of senior executives are women – and this matters for businesses. A study by McKinsey shows that companies with greater female representation in executive teams financially outperform their competitors. But while leaders and managers may give more airtime to diversity, implementing meaningful change remains a complex challenge.

However, tech roles are hitting a tipping point. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the workplace, bringing different skillsets to the fore. This shift has sparked fresh interest in technology as a career path – especially among women. In fact, our research reveals that women are even more optimistic about AI’s potential than their male colleagues.

In our most recent study, How the STEM world works: Navigating the new era of AI and trust, 63% of women said that if leadership fails to embrace AI their organisation risks falling behind, compared with 56% of men. Most also said they’d prefer to work for a company that provides access to the latest AI tools.

Companies – and women themselves – have an excellent opportunity to capitalise on this wave of tech-driven enthusiasm. But how should they go about it?

Women’s role in AI foundations

To address current inequalities, it’s important to understand how they came about. Ivana Bartoletti, Vice President, Global Chief Privacy and AI Governance Officer at Wipro, and Founder of the Women Leading in AI network, notes that when it comes to AI, women have history.

“AI and technology in general are male-dominated, but it hasn’t always been this way. Many years ago, AI was mainly coding, which was seen as a secretarial job. And because it was secretarial, it was female-dominated.”

However, when AI started to gain traction and became more intricately linked to company success, things changed. “It shifted in the 1970s and 1980s, when AI became [associated with] capital accumulation and business growth. Then, the space became much more male-dominated,” Bartoletti continues.

As AI becomes a strategic imperative for all businesses, this trend of moving towards inequality could return. Organisations must guard against this.

New roles = new opportunities

AI’s expansion means new skillsets are increasingly important, and many of these include disciplines where women are traditionally well-represented. This, in turn, offers them a spotlit staircase to ascend to tech leadership positions.

“I was able to achieve what I have because AI is about more than just tech,” says Bartoletti. “It’s about transformation, society, legal, privacy and is [bringing] different fields together.”

The ethics and governance of AI is a growing area of concern for companies, but Bartoletti thinks this offers women particularly strong opportunities. For example, it is important to code legal protection into the design of AI tools, requiring leaders to be comfortable in the realm of technology law.

This intersection is at the core of Bartoletti’s role at Wipro, and she uses this as an example of the opportunities on offer. “It’s a fantastic role. We’re trying to create a global network of chief AI governance officers and push women into the field, because these are the positions that are going to shape the way AI is deployed in the future.”

Fairness by design: women shaping ethical AI

Getting more women into AI leadership roles doesn’t just accelerate individual career progression. It can also have a fundamental impact on the way women experience AI in their daily lives.

For example, there are widespread concerns about AI’s potential for bias. But Bartoletti emphasises that this is not inherent in the technology. Rather, she says, it’s a reflection of skewed AI design and training. For example, human inputs feed machine learning (ML). If not enough women contribute to the design of these inputs, then it’s inevitable that AI models will have weaknesses.

This paints a bleak picture, but one that is motivating women to make a change. “This is where their enthusiasm comes from,” says Bartoletti. “Women are thinking, actually, I can own this problem. I can manipulate the data to have the outcomes I want and achieve algorithmic fairness.”

The more diverse the foundations of AI, the less biased its outputs will be. This will have a profound impact on everyone, from employees using the tools to end-users of a company’s product or service.

Employer encouragement is key

Incorporating diverse perspectives into AI strategies is essential to an equitable digital workplace. Women should be shaping the debate, but they need to be in leadership positions to influence change. But employee enthusiasm, while essential, won’t be enough on its own. Employers must play their part in promoting the new dynamic. A key element of this will be upskilling.

“As an example, every company has an HR department, and these have traditionally been female-dominated,” explains Bartoletti. “Organisations could appoint an AI lead to spearhead HR digital transformation, providing training to make sure they understand the basics.”

Providing these training opportunities can revive flagging professional ambitions, sometimes even opening up a whole new career path in AI. The benefits to organisations in terms of building up in-house expertise in AI skills are obvious.

Women can drive the AI journey

As companies implement AI, it’s critical they understand the scale of the undertaking. “AI transformation is a corporate journey, where no part of the business can be left untouched. So, you need people from [diverse] backgrounds feeding into it,” says Bartoletti.

The leaders of the future won’t necessarily have traditional technology backgrounds. The multi-faceted nature of digital transformation provides women with the opportunity to overcome the tech leadership status quo and rise through the ranks, equipping themselves with digital skills along the way.

Right now, businesses are writing the future of AI. Women must be at the table and eager to take up the pen. Bartoletti urges them – and employers – to take advantage of this “watershed moment”.

“It’s everyone’s responsibility to step forward, lead and ensure AI’s transformative potential benefits all.”

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Source: SThree