Women Are Using AI at Work Less Than Men. That’s a Problem

The AI gender gap affects workplaces now, and could mean new tools get developed with explicitly male biases.

Inc Magazine

Published July 29, 2025

A sizable body of scientific research shows that on average women are more risk averse than men: a 2023 study of over 13,000 people concluded women had “heightened sensitivity to potential losses.” Now a study published by Harvard Business School found the same trend is mirrored in AI use in the workplace. The researchers found that woment are simply just not using AI at work as much as their male colleagues. In fact, women were using AI at a 25 percent lower rate than men were. This may have long-term consequences.

Why is this happening? Technology educator Avery Swartz told Canadian news outlet CTV News that she thinks women take less risks in the workplace because “statistically, they are more likely to be penalized or punished for taking a risk,” and that when a man uses emerging tech he’s called “innovative,” while for a woman “using emerging technology is cheating.”  Swartz also suggested that in the medium to long term, the gender AI use gap may worsen, meaning women may be less likely to advance their careers and this could widen already existing pay inequalities.

The authors of the business school’s working paper highlight that the gender gap in AI use is problematic in several respects. It’s not merely because of the way that men and women may benefit more, or less, from the advantages of using AI — or how their managers perceive individual employees’ capacitiy for innovation. The AI gender gap also “risks creating a self-reinforcing cycle,” that will have serious impacts on future AI tech development, which largely depends on using existing source material to train new tools. Underrepresentation of women users in generative AI usage can “lead to systems trained on data that inadequately sample women’s preferences and needs, ultimately widening existing gender disparities in technology adoption and economic opportunity.”

Gender pay disparities around AI are in the spotlight at the moment, thanks to recent data that show AI hiring systems are advising women and minorities to negotiate for lower pay deals, on average, than it tells white males to aim for. 

The connection between AI use and pay differences is also referenced in a separate report. Fortune reports that AI is actually delivering on many critics’ worries and is driving many technology sector companies to lay off workers in favor of using cheaper, faster AI tech. Microsoft, the publication said, just laid off 15,000 workers while simultaneously committing $80 billion to new AI sector investments — suggesting the layoffs aren’t merely about trimming costs, but a restructuring around radical new tech. 

Meanwhile, a report from Idaho-based software provider and consulting firm Lightcast analyzed over 1.3 billion job postings, and showed that non-tech roles that require AI use are soaring. These posts offer 28 percent higher salaries than average, a boost of nearly $18,000 more per year simply for being AI-savvy. Essentially, Lightcast’s research says AI skills are dispersing beyond the tech labor market and into the broader economy, since more than half of all jobs requesting AI skills in 2024 were outside the tech sector, Fortune reports. 

This news paints a positive picture of AI use in the workplace, adding another incentive for workers to embrace AI systems alongside the time and effort savings the tech can currently offer when it takes on some of the more mundane office duties for you, or even provides insights and incentives that boost the average workers’ creativity. But if, as the Harvard paper suggests, women really aren’t using AI as much as men, then this also represents a risk to the average pay of women in the workplace — if they’re not embracing the very tech that could see their salary rise if they became AI expert users, the gender pay gap between women and men could worsen much more than thought. 

And let’s not forget that recent UN research showed that women, who are overrepresented in entry-level roles in typical offices, are at three times the risk of being replaced in their job by an AI system.

Why should you care about this?

Quite apart from striving toward gender equality in terms of pay, you may also want to survey your workforce about their attitudes to AI, as well as reassuring them about your intentions in deploying AI tools inside your company. Paying particular attention to the concerns of your female workers is a good idea—if they prove more risk-wary than male staff, it’s worth investing some time and effort into reassuring them, carefully and using a non-discriminatory approach. Encouraging all of your workers to embrace AI tech may directly impact your profits, as will keeping all your workers happy and positively engaged with thier work, so it’s in your best interests to try to dispel worries or concerns.