How often do you use Chat GPT? For my husband, the answer is daily - he asks the AI tool for advice on everything from writing business cases to making the perfect pastry. For me, and most of the women I know, it tends not to be our first port of call. Indeed, according to a 2023 survey, while 54% of men use AI in their professional and personal lives, just 35% of women do the same. While a recent analysis of 1.6m AI professionals by public policy organisation Interface, found that women comprise just 22% of AI talent globally.

Put simply: an AI-shaped gender gap is opening up, just as the modern workplace stands on the brink of being revolutionised. We need more women using and building AI tools to stop us from being left behind. The good news? If we can get ahead of the game, it has the potential to not only prevent this gap from growing wider, but to level the existing playing field, too.

Right now, says Birgit Neu, a DEI expert who advises organisations on inclusion, AI and the future of work, women are being put off from exploring AI tools due to the familiar lack of time, support and confidence that so regularly block our professional progress. It means we’re missing out on higher salaries, better prospects and boosted productivity.

“It’s a skill set that pays a premium and will be future proofed,” says Neu. “This is an exciting opportunity to pivot, but the time is now to disrupt ourselves and go, ‘I can either have it done to me - end up on the back foot and maybe lose my job - or figure out how these tools can make doing what I want to do even more dynamic, fulfilling and better paying.”

We need to shelve “the old gender stereotypes that see technology as associated with men,” says Neu.

“I’ve noticed a hesitation in women discussing AI that’s similar to the one we have around money,” she adds. “Men are having conversations around using AI regardless of what they do for their day job, but women don’t have the same kind of informed networks yet. Just starting to talk about it with other women is probably the single most important thing right now to make this the norm, really quickly.”

And we’ve already seen what can happen when women aren’t involved. AI tools have perpetuated gender stereotypes - associating women with more domestic roles. Job recruitment algorithms have favoured male candidates, while image generators can over-sexualise women (one decided I’d wear a tight white shirt, heavily unbuttoned, to the office - naturally). And, of course, many women are rightly nervous about deepfake technology. It’s why our participation is essential.

As is our willingness to experiment - something we can struggle with, feeling that we’re held to stricter standards in the workplace and so reluctant to take shortcuts. “I’ve had so many women ask me for the ‘best AI course’ out there, but there isn’t just one,” says Neu. “We have to continually dabble, test and learn how this stuff thinks. There's so much opportunity in getting ahead of this and it’s exciting - once you get over the idea that it’s terrifying.”

What’s more, getting to grips with AI could open up a new frontier in terms of workplace equality. Imagine having a digital mentor in your pocket - one that can prevent you underselling your skills and using apologetic language? Or being able to outsource the time-consuming admin tasks that tend to make up more of women’s roles and “free-up your brain power to focus on doing what you really want,” adds Neu. “The tools already exist to make life easier.”

Nor do you need a tech background or degree to get to grips with it - many tools are free and available in seconds, on your smartphone, via Google and LinkedIn. And we already have evidence that when women overcome their hesitation and use AI more, they actually outperform their male counterparts, using it to better amplify their work and voices.

“The bottom line is that there are more women in the types of roles that will be displaced by AI, so this is the moment to go, ‘I’m not going to wait for that to happen’,” says Neu. ‘The important thing is to start.”