Why AI's Greatest Breakthroughs Depend on Women—and What Happens If We Are Left Behind

✍️ Opinions

Varun Bhardwaj

19 Mar 2025 — 5 min read

Chaitra Vedullapalli, Women In Cloud, The Role of Women in AI

This article has been contributed by Chaitra Vedullapalli, Co-Founder & President, Women In Cloud.

I want to take you into the future. A world where artificial intelligence governs every part of our lives. Medicine. Finance. Education. Security. Even governance itself. AI has become the architect of the modern world. It is making decisions, shaping economies, and redefining what it means to work, to learn, and to create.

And yet, there is something missing in this future.

A critical voice. A perspective that should be there, but isn’t.

Women.

As AI advances, women are being left out of the conversation. The data speaks for itself. Today, only 22 per cent of AI professionals worldwide are women. Less than two per cent of venture capital funding for AI startups goes to female-led teams. 2% of women leaders are part of the decision-making of AI’s future. The datasets used to train AI systems are overwhelmingly built on male-dominated perspectives.

If we are not careful, we are building a future where AI will reflect only part of humanity—a world that is optimized for the privileged, for the well-represented, and for those who already hold power.

Because here’s the truth: AI is only as good as the perspectives that shape it.

And if women are not at the table designing AI systems, then those systems will be built on inequality, bias, and missed potential.

The Moment I Understood the Power of Access

Early in my career at Oracle, I had a moment that changed my trajectory. I was working as a consultant, doing good work but unsure how to break into leadership. Then one day, my manager, Ron introduced me to Jacqueline Woods. She was leading global pricing and licensing at Oracle, reporting directly to the CEO of Oracle.

That introduction changed everything. Moving from a consultant role into the senior manager in the global office under Jacqueline’s leadership was more than just a promotion—it was a profound shift in how I saw the world. I learned how software is sold, packaged, and priced. I saw how technology could create access, and how systems were built to determine who wins and who gets left behind.

Most importantly, I realized that access isn’t just about talent. It’s about having someone willing to unlock the door for you. Jacqueline didn’t just mentor me—she sponsored me. She gave me access to the rooms where decisions were made. And that access became the foundation of my journey in technology, leadership, and economic empowerment.

Now imagine if that door had never been opened. Imagine if no one had given me access to that level of understanding, that seat at the table.

That is exactly what is happening to women in AI today.

The Consequences of Being Left Behind

We are entering an era where AI will determine who gets hired, who gets approved for loans, and who gets access to healthcare. These are not just technical questions—they are deeply human ones.

And yet, the teams building these systems are not reflective of the people they serve.

When women are not involved in AI leadership, the consequences are real. We see it in healthcare algorithms that misdiagnose women’s symptoms because the training data was based on men. We see it in hiring systems that favour male applicants because they were trained on decades of male-dominated resumes. We see it in financial algorithms that reinforce economic inequality because they were designed without a nuanced understanding of women’s financial realities.

These are not abstract problems. These are life-altering barriers.

And here’s what happens if we don’t fix this:

AI will accelerate inequality, widening the gap between those who have access to opportunity and those who do not. It will embed biases so deeply into our systems that they become nearly impossible to undo. It will shape economies, policies, and industries in ways that reinforce the status quo, rather than challenge it.

And the worst part? Many people won’t even realize it’s happening.

Because once AI is embedded into the fabric of society, its decisions will feel invisible. It will feel like the natural order of things. And that is the real danger—not just exclusion, but normalization.

The Path Forward: A Roadmap for Change

The good news is that this future is not inevitable. We can change it.

But it requires action. Deliberate, strategic action to ensure that women are not just participants in the AI revolution—but leaders of it.

First, we must ensure that women are in decision-making roles in AI. That means hiring more women in technical fields, but it also means putting women in executive leadership, policy-making, in investment positions. AI is not just about coding. It is about influence. And we need women in the rooms where AI strategies are being decided.

Second, we need to make AI education accessible to women at all levels. AI is moving too fast for us to rely on traditional academic pipelines. We need industry-led programs, boot camps, fellowships, and executive training that allow women to enter AI from all disciplines—whether they are engineers, economists, policymakers, or entrepreneurs.

Third, we must confront the bias within AI itself. That means requiring companies to audit their AI systems for gender and racial bias. It means making algorithmic transparency a priority. It means demanding that AI reflects the complexity and diversity of the world it is meant to serve. And finally, we must fund women-led AI innovation. Less than two per cent of AI venture capital funding goes to women-led startups. That is not a pipeline problem. That is a decision problem. Investors must make a conscious effort to fund AI solutions built by and for diverse populations.

The Responsibility of Leadership

If you are in this room today, you are in a position of influence. Whether you are leading a company, investing in AI, or shaping policy, you have the power to change the trajectory of this future.

This is not just about ethics. This is about innovation and access. Because the most powerful AI breakthroughs will come from diverse teams solving problems in ways that a homogenous group never could.

So, I ask you: What role will you play in shaping this future?

Will you be the leader who ensures women are at the forefront of AI? Will you be the investor who funds the next generation of women-led AI companies? Will you be the policymaker who ensures AI systems are built with fairness and accountability?

Or will you look back in ten years and realize that we let the most powerful technological revolution of our time be shaped by only half of humanity?

The future of AI is not just about technology. It is about who holds the power to shape it.

And if women are not part of that equation, then AI’s greatest breakthroughs will never reach their full potential.

The question is not whether women belong in AI. The question is whether AI can truly succeed in its truest potential and economic impact without them.

And the answer is clear.