Are your female employees dubious of AI?

(This column originally appeared in The Washington Times)

As artificial intelligence proliferates in our personal and professional lives, one thing is becoming clear: Women appear to be less inclined to use the technology than men.

A 2022 Pew Research study found that women in the United States are more skeptical than men about some uses of artificial intelligence. The study found that women in the U.S. are less likely than men to say that technology has had a mostly positive effect on society (42% versus 54%). In addition, women are less likely than men to say they feel more excited than concerned about the increased use of AI computer programs in daily life (13% versus 22%).

“Gender remains a factor in views about AI and technology’s impact when accounting for other variables, such as respondents’ political partisanship, education and race and ethnicity,” the study’s authors wrote. “Gender gaps also appear in the amount of concern Americans express about AI programs being able to perform repetitive workplace tasks, make important life decisions for people and know people’s thoughts and behaviors.”

Pew’s research dovetails with other analyses. Research firm Appfigures found that men make up 85% of ChatGPT’s mobile users. A study from Axios says that almost half of the females surveyed said “it’s not even possible” to regulate AI, compared with 23% of men. The study also found that 31% of men said they would or do let their children use AI products such as chatbots “for any purpose,” but just 4% of women agreed. In fact, 53% of women would not let their children use AI at all, compared with 26% of men.

Harvard Business School associate professor Rembrand Koning, who has authored a research paper on this phenomenon, says he has noticed that fewer women use the generative AI tools he and his colleagues at the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard have created for entrepreneurs worldwide. His research reveals that women are adopting AI tools at a 25% lower rate than men on average “despite the fact that it seems the benefits of AI would apply equally to men and women.”

Why are women dubious about AI?

I don’t see this anecdotally. The women in my life — my wife, daughter, work colleagues and clients — seem to use AI tools as frequently as the men do, but you can’t deny the research, and maybe something’s there.

I’m not a psychologist or a woman, and I’d be out of my depth trying to understand why this is so. I shouldn’t be giving reasons why women are dubious about certain things, but that has never stopped me before.

In my experience, women tend to be more practical and less skeptical than men, which means newer technologies such as AI may need more time to be proved before they buy into their value. Women, I feel, are generally more risk-averse than their male counterparts and, by being so, would rather not share or rely on information from AI chatbots. Women are more nurturing than men — it’s why so many more women are in professions such as health care, veterinary science and education — and many may be wary of chatbots because of their robotic and insensitive nature.

I do believe that many women can see the writing on the wall. Using OpenAI’s deep research tool, one X tech enthusiast asked it to list the 20 jobs that will be replaced by AI. Many of these jobs — proofreaders, bookkeepers, social media marketers, content providers and customer service representatives — are performed primarily by women. If my livelihood relied on any of these occupations, I would also be very wary of AI chatbots.

All these things are important for employers to know. Why? According to recent studies, almost half of our nation’s workforce is female. If our female employees tend to be more dubious or even suspicious of AI, this impacts our businesses. AI will be replacing many jobs in the not-too-distant future. We have already seen this in companies such as Klarna, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Over the next few years, AI will be a growing part of our business. Some reports say as many as 57% of small businesses are using GenAI. Big software companies such as Microsoft are introducing agents to do a lot of back office work that will replace the tasks performed by our staff. Robots are creeping their way onto the retail and factory floor, threatening the jobs of our workers.

Our workers, especially our female workers, are seeing this, too, and it may be having a deeper impact on their psyche than we realize. As business owners, our employees perceive us as eager to implement these technologies as a cost-saving tool. They are not wrong. They do have a right to be concerned. Their jobs are at stake.

Not as much as some think. Business owners and managers do want more automation. We want AI, but most don’t want to use this technology to replace our employees. We can’t find enough good people. We want more productivity out of our existing workforce, and if AI can help, then that’s an answer. Still, our employees — particularly our female employees — are skeptical and rightfully so. So what should we be doing? Communicating and training.

We should heavily leverage the AI features provided by our existing software vendors and invest more in training. We should also involve our employees, especially key female workers, in the rollout, training and adoption of these tools.

The more comfortable our people become with these tools, the less hesitant they will feel about using them. They will realize they can be better, more productive and happier employees. Many will overcome their fears that technology will replace them and accept it as a tonic to their stresses. Others will allow the technology to do their work and embrace the opportunity to learn more skills and contribute in other ways.

Good news could be on the horizon. Although women’s adoption of GenAI has historically been half that of their male counterparts, a 2023 Deloitte study predicts that by the end of this year, women’s experimentation with and use of generative AI will equal or exceed that of men in the United States.

Maybe that will happen. Maybe not. To the men who run businesses — and according to another report from Pew, approximately 76% of small businesses are owned by men — I say this: Pay attention. Our critical female employees are telling us something important. They have concerns about AI. It’s our job to respond to and allay these concerns.