Strategies: What's at risk if women don't embrace AI

Women, we face unprecedented opportunities to shape our future by embracing curiosity, overcoming fear, and fully exploring artificial intelligence (AI). Now is the time to break the cycle of women lagging behind in their use of technology, especially when it is available to anyone with internet access.

History has shown time and again that women have been systematically left behind — whether in voting rights, full-time employment, or even driving a car. In each case, men were granted access by default, while women were deemed unworthy of participation. However, in today’s digital world, AI presents an equal opportunity for all who engage with it through smartphones, tablets, and laptops. The challenge now is not exclusion but hesitation.

We have been interacting with AI for years without even realizing it. Every click, search, and automated suggestion is shaped by AI, which makes our lives more convenient while presenting risks and ethical challenges. Understanding AI is not optional; it is necessary.

Bridging the AI gender gap

AI literacy is the foundation of this empowerment. By understanding AI basics, women can harness free AI tools to start businesses, revolutionize education, learn new languages, create art, practice job interviews, consult virtual therapists, plan family events, and more. Yet, research indicates that women are significantly more reluctant to adopt new technologies than men. Studies show that women adopt AI tools at a 25% lower rate than men, despite AI’s equal applicability to both genders. Women are also more cautious about data privacy and less likely to trust AI for personal or professional decision-making.

Even among women using AI, disparities persist:

• Only 34% of female AI users report daily usage compared to 43% of male AI users.
• Women express less trust in AI providers to keep their data secure, making them hesitant to integrate AI into their workflows.

These gaps matter because AI is not just a passive tool but is shaping the future of work, education, and healthcare.

Real-world consequences of exclusion

Consider healthcare. AI is revolutionizing diagnoses for cardiac disease, diabetes and breast cancer. These advancements rely on vast amounts of data to train AI effectively. But whose data is being used? If women do not engage with AI tools, our data will not be reflected, leading to biased algorithms that fail to serve us.

The exclusion of women’s health data perpetuates the gaps that already exist in medical research. As a breast cancer survivor, I have faced the frustrating reality of “We don’t know yet” responses by health professionals due to a lack of data on women. I now choose to participate in AI-driven medical research to ensure the future generations of women in my family do not face the same uncertainty.

What’s at risk?

Despite increasing curiosity among women, the adoption gap remains. For every 100 men using GenAI tools, only 78 women do — even after accounting for usage differences due to jobs, age and education— according to a Harvard analysis of 140,000+ individuals worldwide. For instance, men are nearly twice as likely as women to report using tools like ChatGPT more than once a week, while women are far more likely to report not using such tools at all, according to the latest survey of Consumer Expectations by Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The risks of inaction are too significant to ignore:

• Career progression: Women who do not understand AI basics and integrate AI into their work risk the job searching process and being outperformed by AI-empowered colleagues.
• Economic disparities: Women's lack of participation in the AI digital world will ultimately impact local economies. The gender gap in AI usage could negatively impact opportunities for women and their contribution to regional economic growth. The continued gap of men out-earning women will persist and potentially grow.
• Reinforced biases: AI systems lacking diverse data sources will continue to disadvantage women in small businesses, jobs, education, healthcare, and beyond.

Easy ways to use AI in everyday life

Most people think AI can only help write letters and create cool graphics, which it can, but there are so many things it can do to help you in everyday life. Think of the times you have been overwhelmed with everything on your daily plate: your job or job search, organizing school schedules, field trips, summer camp schedules, letters to teachers, and managing the entire household. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an assistant to manage daily life? Well, you can — a virtual one at your fingertips.

Generative AI programs like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Meta Llama can help manage daily tasks. Need a spreadsheet to organize the kids’ summer camp schedule, a tutorial for solving your child’s math homework, ideas for whipping up a dinner menu with what’s left in the fridge, help you plan your summer vacation, or interview for your next job? With some creativity and the right prompt, these programs can help in seconds. But just like us, they sometimes make mistakes, so cross-referencing detailed information is recommended.

My parting words of advice: always be curious, don’t be afraid to learn something new, explore the possibilities, understand the risks and remember that technology is just a tool to help make life easier.

Click here to explore this article's original source for more.