Latest news with #womenInTech
Bloomberg
19 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Addressing AI's Impact on the Gender Gap
Artificial intelligence data sets need to better represent women, says Shubhi Rao, Founder and CEO of Uplevyl, a platform designed to accelerate women in the workplace. Rao speaks with Caroline Hyde on 'Bloomberg Tech.' (Source: Bloomberg)
Forbes
12-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Amazon Web Services Says 77% Of Women Want To Build With AI
AWS research reveals a growing demand for generative AI fluency, especially among women ready to ... More lead in the next era of work. Artificial Intelligence has gone from being a big, scary monster taking over the world to a powerful tool that assists people in building companies. Leaders are now understanding how AI streamlines workflows. As with any emerging sector, how do women create a space where they thrive over the 'bro code?' According to new research commissioned by Amazon Web Services, 77% of U.S. women in professional roles are interested in learning generative AI skills. Additionally, 80% would apply to jobs that involve generative AI. Yet only 6% consider themselves AI experts, and 42% say their companies fail to offer meaningful AI skill development. 'These challenges could have long-term consequences,' says Jenni Troutman, director of products and services at AWS training and certification. 'The interest is clearly there, but interest without access leads to missed opportunities. And in an industry where women only make up about 22% of the AI workforce, we can't afford that kind of gap.' Although AI is becoming easier to learn, 33% of women don't know where to begin. The AWS study found that women's top challenges when building AI fluency include being unsure how AI applies to their current role and having limited access to training. 'I was shocked that so many women felt like they didn't have access to resources,' Troutman says. 'There's so much out there, but it made me realize we must do a better job of helping people find and trust the right tools.' Fear isn't holding women back. It's the sheer speed of change. 'Generative AI isn't new in theory, but what's new is the pace and scale of what's possible,' she continues. 'And that's overwhelming for anyone, not just women.' Over the past few years, females have become more confident in the office. However, there are still areas of improvement that need to be addressed. For instance, the Harvard Business Review reported that during a study, a main self-evaluation question revealed that 80% of women believe they have a 'poor performance.' In comparison, only 56% of men do. Regarding AI, the World Economic Forum reported key findings from Randstad's Workmonitor 2025 study, which found AI is the top-three skilling priority for 40% of global talent. While 44% of men were more likely to say so than 36% of women, the gap was less pronounced when it came to their belief in their qualifications in the technology and AI skills they already had (73% of men vs. 69% of women). Now, with new AI skill sets required by companies, women often underestimate their qualifications. 'Women tend to look at a job's requirement and think, 'If I don't meet every single one, I'm not ready,'' states Troutman. 'Meanwhile, others might meet just a portion and still go for it.' Women across industries are eager to build AI skills, but access to training and employer support ... More still lags behind. Closing the gender gap in AI is about shifting the mindset from perfection to progress. That's where foundational learning matters. AWS Skill Builder and AWS Educate offer more than 135 free, low-cost AI and machine learning courses, from Generative AI Essentials to Amazon's Nova models training. One key entry point? Prompt engineering. 'It sounds technical, but it's just about asking the right questions,' she explains. 'If you're in HR or marketing and using a tool to generate content or analyze data, your prompts determine how useful the results are. That's a skill anyone can build.' Troutman began her career in consulting at Accenture, working in business intelligence and strategy. Though she didn't set out to work in training, her consulting mindset proved invaluable when she joined VMware to build out a global sales enablement practice. 'I didn't know anything about training from the delivery side,' she says. 'But I treated it like a project. I figured out the infrastructure and the programs and how to make them effective.' That same problem-solving approach led her to AWS, where she's helped scale training and certification from thousands of learners to millions. For women ready to validate their knowledge, AWS offers two key certifications: 'Certifications aren't just about career changes,' Troutman notes. 'They help people feel more confident using AI in their current role, and that's just as important.' Organizations can better support women's conviction in pursuing AI by: 'If you don't understand how AI tools can help you innovate, now's the time to learn,' Troutman concludes. 'Because soon, AI fluency won't be a bonus. It'll be a baseline.' The future of work is already taking shape, and women are poised to play a defining role in its direction. To participate fully, they must have access to opportunity and the confidence to chart the path in an AI-driven world.
New York Times
10-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Can Whitney Wolfe Herd Make Us Love Dating Apps Again?
It feels like a lifetime ago, but when Whitney Wolfe Herd co-founded her first company, the dating app Tinder, the overwhelming feeling about apps and screens and tech in general was optimism. This was 2012, Wolfe Herd was just out of college, and she, too, was optimistic — about being a woman in tech, about dating apps, about technology's ability to solve big problems. In the decade-plus since, Wolfe Herd and the culture have learned some lessons. Famously, Tinder gamified the search for love, introducing that addictive swipe feature to its target audience: millennials. It was a huge hit, but Wolfe Herd's time at the company was brief. In 2014, she left Tinder and sued, claiming that she experienced sexual harassment and discrimination from one of her co-founders, with whom she also had a relationship. The company denied responsibility, and the case was settled. Soon after that, at 25, she started the dating app Bumble, which billed itself as a safe space for women to find love. (The big innovation on Bumble: Women made the first move.) Wolfe Herd became a darling of the so-called 'girl-boss era' — making the Time 100, Forbes's 30 Under 30, all those women in tech lists — and got very rich in the process, becoming the youngest woman to take a company public and, briefly, a billionaire. But post-pandemic, with Gen-Z souring on dating apps and wanting IRL connection, Bumble's shares fell sharply, and last year Wolfe Herd decided to step down as chief executive. It felt like the end of an era and probably was one, except that the departure didn't last. After a little more than a year away, she is back at the company she founded with a plan to turn its fortunes around: It involves Silicon Valley's latest transformative technology, A.I., and some perspective on what technology can and can't do for us. It also involves a broader vision for the app beyond dating: Wolfe Herd told me that she would like Bumble to eventually help users find love by learning to love themselves via self-reflective quizzes the company is developing and also to point members to local social gatherings so they can get off the app and into the world. You can decide if all this leaves you feeling optimistic about Bumble, about female leaders in tech, about human connection, or not. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio App You've been in tech since your early 20s. What was it like to have time away? It was the first time I was faced with 'Who am I without one of these huge consumer brands attached to me?' and that's a very strange place to be. I was 22 when we were starting Tinder, and I became the Tinder girl. Then I became the Tinder lawsuit girl and then I became the Bumble girl. This became an extension of my identity. I am the type of founder-C.E.O. who is in every detail. I'm emailing members who are having bad experiences personally. And so to relinquish that level of involvement took maturity I didn't know I possessed and a release of control that I didn't know I was capable of. So it was very destabilizing at first when I stepped away because I was like, Who am I without all of this? And when I left Bumble, it was tough, because it didn't play out the way I'd hoped in terms of the narrative. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
