80% of senior-level women say they are taking an “active role” in shaping their workplace’s AI strategy.
That’s according to a new survey of more than 1,000 senior-level women conducted by Chief and Harris Poll, a membership network for women executives. A similar share of talented women say they are already working every day to establish guidelines for AI governance, create space for skills training, and have clear conversations about what good judgment looks like in the future AI-enabled workplace.
A new report focused on the participation of female executives in AI decision-making comes amid concerns about the widening gender gap in AI use. Previous research has shown that women are generally more skeptical and slower adopters of this technology, potentially turning a skills gap into a long-term opportunity gap.
Chief Report survey responses show that women at the top are helping make decisions about how AI is used in the workplace and are raising concerns about how AI will impact their workforce in the future.
For example, 87% of women leaders say they have seen negative outcomes when prioritizing AI without parallel investment in talent, including decreased strategic thinking, organizational knowledge, and entry-level opportunities.
Some 75% of women surveyed expect the critical thinking gap to worsen over the next three years, and most agree that letting go of developing young talent will leave a shortage of qualified managers to lead companies in the future.
The findings show that “it’s an incomplete picture to say that women in general are hesitant, skeptical, and afraid to adopt these tools,” CEO Alison Moore told CNBC Make It.
Rather, she says, women leaders recognize that pressure to work quickly can impact the workforce and are urging leaders to develop AI policies that minimize the impact on humans. “[Women]are not behind when it comes to AI, they’re thinking about thinking and asking the right kinds of questions to make AI last longer,” Moore said.
Women at senior levels overwhelmingly support the sustainable use of AI in the workplace, yet are excluded from many of the spaces where these decisions are made. Women continue to be underrepresented at every level of the leadership pipeline, with just 93 women for every 100 men advancing to management positions, according to Lean In and McKinsey & Company’s latest Women in the Workplace report. Only 29% of executive roles are held by women.
Meanwhile, research shows that women hold the majority of jobs most likely to be disrupted or taken over by AI. Roughly 6.1 million U.S. workers face both higher exposure to AI and lower ability to adapt if they leave their jobs, according to research from the Brookings Institution. 86% of them are women, many of whom are in administrative and managerial positions.
The chief’s report states that women leaders are “becoming champions of a more humane approach to AI adoption.”
In the past 12 months, 48% of women surveyed said they took proactive steps to help employees retain and learn new skills as entry-level jobs were replaced by AI, 44% said they worked to maintain morale and trust in their organization, and 42% said they worked to protect team dynamics and culture.
Ultimately, 85% of women surveyed said they believe companies that invest in both AI and employee development perform better than companies that focus solely on technological advances.
Moore said leaders must “recognize that the decisions we make today about AI will shape many things in the workforce, including how people relate to each other and how the next generation builds their lives and careers.”
The rapid adoption of AI is a “defining moment” for leaders, Moore said. “The point of this issue is that women leaders are asking different questions. It’s not hesitation or slowness,” she says. Instead, they ask challenging questions to “take an active role in choosing what to protect as we move quickly.”
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