Women Leaders in Tech Are Paving the Way in GenAI

Awareness of GenAI’s Criticality. Awareness is a key driver of adoption. Compared with men, senior women are similarly or even more aware of the potential impact of GenAI on job success, while junior women are less aware. In fact, senior women in technical functions are 10pp ahead of their men peers in those functions. Their attitude may correlate with the perceived pressure to overperform in an industry largely occupied by men. As a woman CIO of a semiconductor company notes, “[Senior women in tech] have broken barriers to get where they are, but they still feel they need to prove themselves and take more initiative than men to be abreast with what’s important for their careers [such as GenAI].”

Senior women in nontechnical functions similarly seem to be looking ahead, as they are almost on a par with their men counterparts. “Even in nontech functions,” a woman board member of an IT services company explains, “as you get more senior, you’re in the right rooms and know what will be important in the future.”

In contrast, junior women are behind their men peers in both function types (15pp behind in technical functions and 17pp behind in nontechnical functions). And they trail senior women as well, by 24pp and 31pp in technical and nontechnical functions, respectively. By comparison, junior men in technical functions are on a par with senior men in those functions and only 13pp behind senior men in nontechnical functions. The finding that all men are at a similar level of awareness about GenAI’s criticality for future job success and that this is not the case among women is concerning. Two reasons we have observed are that junior women do not have the same access to the networks and discussions where GenAI strategy is formed as do junior men and that they are not equally represented in GenAI pilots and initiatives.

Confidence in GenAI Skills. Senior women in technical functions are ahead of their men colleagues by 4pp in their GenAI confidence levels, while senior women in nontechnical functions lag their men peers by 8pp, and junior women in all functions are behind—by 7pp in technical functions and 11pp in nontechnical functions.

This lack of confidence is the only attribute in our research that explains why senior women in nontechnical functions, who are aware enough and senior enough to understand that GenAI will be critical to their future success, lag their men colleagues in GenAI’s adoption. We posit that these senior women, starting at a lower technology-skills confidence level, may not have had the time needed to experiment with GenAI and build that confidence. According to a woman CEO of a multinational SaaS company, “I have observed that working women with kids don’t generally have time to experiment out of pure intellectual interest; there needs to be a clear practical application for them to engage.” This is one explanation of many that could be a contributing factor to the greater demands on their time.

While there may be several reasons for junior women’s lack of confidence in their GenAI skills, research has shown that perception and exposure challenges exist for women in arenas largely occupied by men. For example, a 2018 Pew Research Center poll found that women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs were over seven times more likely than men to be treated as if they were not competent. And a December 2023 Gallup study observed that women of all ages have been significantly less exposed to STEM topics in school, especially computer science.

Tolerance for Risk. Senior women report a risk tolerance equal to or greater than their men peers in both technical and nontechnical functions, while junior women lag relative to their men peers (by 9pp in technical functions and 16pp in nontechnical functions).

By virtue of having broken barriers to get where they are today, senior women have learned how to take risks in order to succeed in their work. In contrast, junior women in technical functions may feel less at liberty to experiment, particularly when dealing with nascent technologies. As a woman director of a large AI company explains, “Junior women in tech may be more concerned than men about the limits and risks of GenAI tools.”

For junior women in nontechnical functions, a woman vice president of a large enterprise-technology company observes, “[Junior women in nontech roles] may be less likely to take risks without clear policies [in place], and limited tech know-how is an additional barrier.”

A Path Forward

GenAI offers the opportunity to reduce the gender gap in the tech industry if managed correctly. But it requires action by both companies and the women who work for them. Companies that are ready to pilot and scale GenAI can reduce the gender gap in the tech industry by tackling the three key root causes of gender differences—awareness of GenAI’s criticality, skills-related confidence, and tolerance for risk. In addition, women can capture the opportunity by proactively engaging and experimenting with GenAI.