Dr Jassim Haji, President of International Group of Artificial Intelligence, speaks about the underrepresentation of women in AI professions and the steps that can be taken to remedy this in this exclusive opinion piece.
Women make up only about 22% of artificial intelligence professionals globally and hold fewer than 14% of senior leadership roles, highlighting a persistent gender gap in the tech sector.
The representation and usage
Underrepresentation: Women represent roughly a third of AI engineering talent, but their presence drops sharply in advanced machine learning and C-suite positions.
Adoption Disparity: Global studies show women are about 20% to 25% less likely to use generative AI tools in the workplace compared to men
The Competence Penalty: Research highlights that women face harsher judgment when using AI; female workers using AI tools are often perceived as less competent or trustworthy, whereas men are seen as pragmatic
Bias in AI systems
Data Skew: AI models trained predominantly by men and on male-centric datasets frequently produce biased or inaccurate outputs, particularly in healthcare diagnostics and automated hiring.
Perpetuating Stereotypes: Large language models often associate women with domestic roles and men with leadership, reinforcing systemic inequalities.
Moving forward
Inclusive Development: Bridging the gap requires diverse engineering teams and inclusive training datasets.
Cultural Shifts: Organisations must dismantle attribution bias and support equitable AI adoption across all workforce levels.
International cooperation on digital technology has focused on technical and infrastructural issues and the digital economy, often at the expense of how technological developments were affecting society and generating disruption across all its layers – especially for the most vulnerable and historically excluded. There is a global governance deficit in addressing the challenges and risks of AI and harnessing its potential to leave no one behind.
GCC women in AI
International cooperation on digital technology has focused on technical and infrastructural issues and the digital economy, often at the expense of how technological developments were affecting society and generating disruption across all its layers – especially for the most vulnerable and historically excluded. There is a global governance deficit in addressing the challenges and risks of AI and harnessing its potential to leave no one behind.
Countries such as Bahrain, U.A.E, Saudi Arabia and other members providing unlimited support to women in AI through universities, STEMS and job opportunities to empower women in AI and technology with many women taking CiO, CSO and CAIO roles at highest efficiency.
Image Credit: Dr Jassim Haji
