On the back of the artificial intelligence industry becoming increasingly male-dominated, Australia’s first non-profit organisation for women in AI was born.
Women in AI Australia was founded by female leaders and advocates, CREDuED CEO Nikki Meller, small business and communities expert Amanda Rose and AI expert Dr. Juliana Peloche, who all believe in equal opportunity in the AI industry.
“We want to help equip and empower women, but not only women, young women and girls across Australia, to not only learn about artificial intelligence, but to lead with it and to create with it, because it's super important that we kind of leverage our lived experiences,” Meller tells Azzet.
Women in tech
Meller says that while women make up 50% of the Australian workforce, the AI industry is disproportionately male, with women only making up around 20% of highly technical roles, including AI.
Similar statistics can be seen in the U.S., where women only make up 32% of the tech industry and only 22% of the AI industry.
She pointed to a Deloitte report that found that estimated women reskilling into technology could earn them A$31,100 more per year on average.
The report also found that the collective benefit of this additional talent for Australian medium and large businesses is A$6.5 billion.
However, the lack of women in these industries starts at a young age, as half of the women surveyed by the Tech Council Australia said they chose their career based on what was expected of them.
The same survey found that 66% of girls between 12 and 13 report ‘not feeling smart enough’ for STEM.
“Girls in primary school, they think they're smart enough, then they transition into high school, where it's not promoted enough that they can actually go into these areas and be highly successful,” Meller says.
Deloitte also found that an additional 1.3 million technology workers are needed in Australia by 2030, and Meller says encouraging women can help bridge this gap.
Meller says increasing the number of women in the tech industry will encourage more to consider doing the same.
“There are about 660,000 women who could be upskilled,” she says.
“It's the ability to have access to learning, access to education, access to a conversation, access to awareness.”
She even says there is light at the end of the tunnel, as over the last five years, there has been a 2% increase in going into highly technical science fields.
“It's not just an individual kind of barrier, it's more structural,” she says.
At the same time, almost all respondents in a McKinsey survey said their organisations are using AI, and many have begun using AI agents.
Dispute this, Meller says many women still are afraid of the new technology due to a lack of knowledge and upskilling.
“They distrust artificial intelligence, and they might not be as aware of what it can do to benefit them,” she says.
“That's because organisations don't actually guide them, don't actually support them.
“There are no policies and guardrails there to say, ‘hey, this is not going to take your job’.”
Women in AI’s mission
This is where Women in AI comes in to educate girls on the tech and AI industry.
Meller’s co-founder, Amanda Rose, said they aim to “bridge the gap” between men and women in the tech industry, before it becomes more entrenched”.
“If we don’t act now, we risk building an AI-powered future that doesn’t reflect half the population’s perspective,” Rose said in a media release.
Meller says Women in AI will also push for safe, transparent, and responsible AI usage across education, corporations, and government through advocacy and policy submissions.
“We’re going to make sure we can access women in any way that is available to them,” she says.
“We're going to be able to show up and actually champion the missions and have the knowledge and skills to actually contribute to the industry that is artificial intelligence.”
In particular, the organisation is committed to amplifying voices from regional and remote communities where women and girls typically lack access to the same opportunities as their urban peers.
“We don't actually have the division and the research that actually looks into women in rural areas or girls who are in private or public school, we are all just lumped into that research as one,” Meller says.
“That’s why we’ve got three pillars, education, business and community.
within each of those, we're going to target specific research that looks at artificial intelligence through different lenses so we can be represented quite clearly and specifically, no matter where we live.”
