UN Women demands inclusive design because just 30% of AI professionals are women and 16% work in research

Women Hold Only 30% of Global AI Jobs, 16% of Research Roles: UN Women Urges Inclusive AI Development

Women make up only 30 percent of artificial intelligence professionals worldwide and hold just 16 percent of AI research positions, UN Women said on Tuesday, calling for stronger female participation in designing and building AI systems to ensure the technology better reflects women’s needs.

The appeal was made during the launch of the AI Casebook on Gender and Agriculture at an AI summit in India, where regional leaders warned that gender imbalance in AI development is contributing to systemic bias across technology tools and platforms.

Speaking at the event, Christine Arab, Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific at UN Women, said the underrepresentation of women in AI creation is leading to a persistent global design gap.

“A persistent design gap remains globally,” Arab said, cautioning that when fewer women help build AI systems, fewer resulting products reflect women’s real-world needs across sectors such as health, finance, climate resilience and personal safety.

“When women are missing from design tables, the test labs, the term sheets — bias doesn't emerge by accident. It becomes the default,” she said.

Arab praised the Government of India for initiatives aimed at narrowing the gender gap in AI, saying India is among a small number of countries taking the issue seriously, while noting that no nation has fully solved the challenge yet.

“We are all — as a globe — still learning. And that is precisely what makes what the Government of India is doing so significant,” she said.

She also highlighted risks AI-driven transformation poses to women’s employment. Citing a joint study by UN Women and LinkedIn, Arab said roughly 80 percent of women across Asia-Pacific are employed in job categories identified as likely to be augmented or disrupted by AI.

However, she emphasized that outcomes will depend heavily on policy and skilling decisions. With appropriate training and worker protections, she said, technology-driven augmentation could become a springboard for better opportunities rather than a setback.

“With the right skilling and protections, augmentation can be a springboard, not a setback — and the opportunity is enormous,” she said.

Arab urged governments, investors, researchers and policymakers to actively support and scale the solutions documented in the new AI casebook. The publication features 26 deployed and scalable AI applications focused on crop planning, farm operations, market access and financial resilience for farmers.

“AI must be written by all of society — not just by the select few,” she said.