How AI Is Shaping the Future of Women in the Workforce

We sat down with Rosaria Di Donna to explore a topic that is gaining urgency across every industry: How AI is shaping the future of women in the workforce, for this episode of Tomorrow’s Tech Workforce with Jodi Barrow. From shifting skills to emerging risks to the potential for genuine career reinvention, Rosaria shares an honest and highly practical view on what’s coming and what leaders need to do now to prepare.

The Don’t-Know Gap

One of the biggest challenges Rosaria sees is the widening gap between the speed of AI adoption and the pace of workforce understanding. Women, already underrepresented in technical roles, risk being pushed even further to the margins unless organisations actively bridge the knowledge divide.

“AI shouldn’t be something that happens to people,” Rosaria explains. “It should be something we invite them into.”

This starts with accessible learning pathways, real examples that demystify the tech, and leadership teams willing to communicate clearly, not in jargon.

The Opportunity to Redesign Work

AI is often framed as a threat to jobs, but Rosaria sees a different story emerging. For women who have historically faced structural barriers such as unpaid care work, inflexible schedules, unequal opportunities for progression, AI can be a lever for redesigning work around actual human needs.

Automation can remove low-value administrative load. AI assistants can support those returning from career breaks. Flexible, skills-based roles can create new pathways into high-impact work.

“The real opportunity,” Rosaria says, “is in using AI to build roles that women can grow into, rather than roles they have to squeeze themselves into.”

Skills That Rise in an AI-First World

While technical literacy will matter, Rosaria emphasises that the highest-value skills women bring to organisations are deeply human:

Empathy.

Systems thinking.

Cross-functional collaboration.

As AI handles more routine tasks, these strengths become even more essential. “AI doesn’t replace human intuition,” she notes. “It amplifies it, but only when people know how to use the tools well.”

Avoiding Bias at Scale

One of the most critical insights from Rosaria is the risk of encoding existing gender inequalities into AI systems. If the data is biased, the outcomes will be too, just faster and harder to detect. To counter this, she argues that organisations need more women involved in model testing, governance and product design. “You can’t create fair systems without diverse voices at the table,” she says. “Diversity isn’t an add-on. It’s a safeguard.”

Building a Future Where Women Lead the AI Shift

Rosaria leaves us with a clear message: the goal is not to help women survive the AI transition, it’s to ensure they shape it.

That means:

• Investing in accessible AI learning for all career stages

• Redesigning roles around flexibility, not rigidity

• Embedding women in decision-making around AI adoption

• Treating ethics and inclusion as core product requirements

  
  

AI will reshape the future of work. The question is whether it will reinforce old patterns or unlock a more equitable, human-centred workforce.

Listen to the Full Episode

To hear Rosaria’s full perspective on AI, gender equity, and the future of work, tune into the complete conversation, now available on YouTube and Spotify. It’s a powerful, practical discussion for leaders, talent teams, and anyone thinking about what the next decade of work could look like.