Women are breaking all barriers across various industries and business verticals. What about women in AI? According to the World Economic Forum, women AI experts worldwide make up only 22% of the total number. There is a huge gender gap that exists in technology globally. The only way to bridge this gap is to encourage more women to participate in the field of artificial intelligence. Be it AI, science, engineering, or any tech field, it is crucial to address the issue of the gender gap. The active participation and involvement of women in AI can create more women leaders in the future.
The field of artificial intelligence is powerful and quite persuasive as well. It is important that female leaders encourage the participation of other women in AI by being role models for them.
Due to the deep-rooted stereotypes and gender bias, a lot of women give up on brilliant career options at a young age. The digital divide that exists in today’s world, especially in the tech industry, tends to demotivate women. Today, there are around 82 percent of men and 18 percent of women in the tech field. In order to grow and succeed as leaders in AI, they need to break the orthodox traditional and social barriers that still exist in society today. Women in AI need to be inspired by the change and set an example for other women to follow.
These are some remarkable women in AI who serve as an inspiration for other women to pursue a career in the field of artificial intelligence.
- Kim Hazelwood
- She is an engineering leader who specializes in the intersection of scalable computer systems and applied machine learning.
- She is the West Coast Head of Engineering at Facebook AI Research.
- Prior to joining Meta AI (Facebook), she worked as a director of research at Yahoo Labs, a software engineer at Google (datacenter division), and a research scientist at Intel.
- Kim has also been an associate professor of computer science at the University of Virginia.
- She has received many awards and accolades. Some of them are the MIT “Top 35 Innovators under 35” award; the Anita Borg Early Career Award; and the ACM SIGPLAN 10-Year test award.
- She has also received the NSF career award.
- Maria Luciana Axente.
- She is the lead for responsible AI and AI for Good at PwC in the UK.
- At PwC, she helps the organization leverage the power of AI at three different levels—individual, organization, and team.
- After completing her MBA program, she joined Cognizant as a tech consultant. Here, she got the exposure and opportunity to work as a business analyst, scrum master, programme lead, and digital transformation specialist.
- From Cognizant, she moved to PwC, where her main role is to ensure that AI is implemented while keeping in mind the ethics, transparency, fairness, and security considerations.
- Yael Garten
- She is presently the Siri director of Data Science and Engineering at Apple Inc.
- She is also on the board of Levi Strauss & Co.
- She is an inspirational female leader of the Siri data organization, where her main role is to improve the performance of Siri through data as a voice for customers.
- She has also worked as a director of data science at LinkedIn.
- Allie Miller
- She is the youngest woman to build an AI product at IBM.
- She has a solid background in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, technology, analytics, and human-computer interaction.
- She is also an active speaker and talks about AI and field diversity, foreign overseas plans, foreign languages, and even drafts.
- She is the author of eight guidebooks that have helped businesses complete their AI projects effectively.
In addition to these women in AI leaders, there are other shining stars as well in the field of artificial intelligence.
- Katie King
- Caitlin Smallwood
- Anastassia Lauterbach
- Jane Frankland
- Cassie KozyrkovJana
. . . and many more.
C-level participation of women in AI and ML
- The C-level participation of women in AI is limited.
- When it comes to CEO positions in the AI industry, women occupy only 12.8% of them.
- Be it COO, CFO, CMO, CTO, CSO, CCO, and others, women in AI show limited participation.
Inspirational female leaders are making a tremendous impact and paving the way for future female leaders. Compared to the previous years, there has been gender equality progress in various fields like healthcare, teaching, learning, social fields, medical, the film industry, and many others. The world of artificial intelligence and technology without women is unimaginable. Every year on March 8th, 2022, is celebrated as International Women’s Day. This year, the theme given by the United Nations for International Women’s Day was “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.” The inspiration of female leaders drives change and paves the way forward for other women as well.
For women in the AI field to succeed and reach the top, incorporating artificial intelligence courses as a part of the curriculum is indispensable. It is also vital to increase the participation of women in STEM from a young age.
Efforts are ongoing to reduce the gender gap in the AI field. Once this is achieved, there will be a lot of female leaders and future entrepreneurs in the AI industry.
