What to know about AI and the gender gap - insights from Summer Davos 2025

As artificial intelligence adoption continues apace, there's a triple whammy unfolding for women.

The AI sector is facing severe talent shortages, but although women graduates outnumber men in most countries, fewer women leaving university are going into AI roles - and if they do, it's less likely for them to reach the C-suite.

Women are also more likely to have jobs that are being disrupted by automation and GenAI, such as administrative assistants, and the jobs they have are less likely to be augmented by AI than those held by men.

The state of the AI gender gap is captured in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2025, which finds it will take another 123 years to reach gender parity - and it was the focus of a session at 'Summer Davos', the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China, on Women in AI.

Chaired by the Forum's Managing Director, Saadia Zahidi, the all-woman panel included Yang Jingjing, Chairman of the Board, Shanghai Generative Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem Development Co., Ltd; Angela Wang Nan, Chairman and President, Neusoft Europe, Chairman, Neusoft America, Senior Vice-President, Neusoft and Meirav Oren, Executive Chairwoman and Co-Founder, Versatile.

Oren added another gap to the discussion: around women's hesitancy to apply for AI jobs: "There is a tendency to check all boxes and that should change. It seems like women just want to check all the boxes before they even apply."

Wang Nan said women are underrepresented in leadership roles in the AI industry because of the social responsibility for having and raising children - a "heavy burden" which restrains their career development.

The education system also needs to play catch-up to fill talent shortages, said Oren: "We'll see a shortage regardless of gender. The education system isn't progressing fast enough for us to actually have the kind of talent that we need and in all our companies."

A more encouraging trend is women leaders running companies, noted Oren: "You don't need to be a STEM major in high school or graduate from the right programme in university, you could just create your own job."

This is particularly true in China, which has built a world-class AI sector on the back of its broad-reaching STEM education system, computing infrastructure, applied research base and investment.

The number of women studying STEM subjects at university is growing, said Wang Nan, whose software company runs three universities in China where the ratio of women to men is now 50:50 - even in IT-related fields.

"It represents not only the willingness of girls to join the IT industry in STEM-related roles, but it also represents society's perception that girls can succeed."

Women are playing a bigger role in government-led AI innovation and start-ups, said Yang, who runs an incubator for AI start-ups, supporting 600 companies.

In China, a lot of women are involved in the AI revolution. Less so at the level of algorithm or data engineers, but women are more involved in public policy making, AI research and AI education, she added.

Women start-up owners running lifestyle platforms are outperforming men, because they are "more persistent, more down-to-earth, more open-minded and resilient" than their male counterparts.

"Every technology or product based on AI should be fair, safe and beneficial," said Yang. "Gender inclusiveness should be applied. It is needed from technological and a commercial perspective, any company or any entrepreneur will never give up half of the population, such a big market."

Better supporting women in AI is key to closing the gap.

"We are looking to open some incubation channels to support women staff and their family," said Yang, including childcare and communities that "help to build up their confidence and to give them a stronger sense of belonging".

The panel agreed that AI itself can be a solution, for example, through personalized coaching, HR tools to reduce bias, or applications that help women protect their rights against discrimination.

"We're always thinking about how to utilize AI to support people, especially women in society," said Wang Nan.

We need to support women to apply for AI roles, said Oren.

"Part of it is [having] panels like this - being out there and encouraging super-capable, bright young and even older women to just apply for these positions, to not be so afraid of them."

STEM education needs to start young, said Yang, who is the mother of a five-year-old daughter: "Have I encouraged my daughter to learn about robotics computer sciences, IT, or did I encourage the young girls around me to study this?"

Watch the full session here: