Women needed to give AI emotional intelligence

As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the way people work, learn, and communicate, the need for diverse perspectives has never been greater. Women working in AI say that greater representation isn’t just about equality, it’s about building technology that better reflects and serves society as a whole. 

Women remain underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and that lack of representation has significant implications for AI, says Nadine Smith, director of educational technology and digital transformation at King David Schools. 

“AI is influencing policies, the way people work, and even hiring decisions. If the data and systems shaping AI are developed primarily by men, they will inevitably reflect their perspectives and influence how society functions. That’s why we need more women in AI. Their experiences, cultures, and knowledge must be represented in the decisions these technologies make.” 

Smith is the only African recipient of the EDGE in Tech Athena Award for Early Career Leadership presented by the Centre for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute at the University of California, Berkeley in 2025. She says that when she was starting her career in the technological space, she felt that, as a woman, she had to prove herself more. 

“It’s not an attack against men. I don’t think it’s a conscious thing. We’ve made huge strides in the industry and in life in general, but I believe there is still that unconscious bias. If you think of someone technical, a leader, an engineer, you do tend to think of a man,” she says. “And so I feel that women subconsciously need to prove themselves more when they are in this field. And women also tend to take a step back, and they tend not to enter mentorships and conferences when they don’t feel 100% ready, while men are more willing to take that leap.” 

Similarly, Leora Hessen, founder of the programme Hello Aida, which helps pupils use AI as a learning tool rather than simply to generate answers, says it is important for women to be involved in the development of AI because sometimes the human factor gets ignored. 

“As women, moms, and daughters, we know what it takes to build the future generations. We also know what our kids need. If you don’t have a woman’s voice while you’re developing, it’s a very male-centric development. So if you develop without any emotion, without any feeling, often it’s just black and white. [It needs to] consider the human, which is something that females do quite naturally,” she says. 

Shelli Weltsman, a creative entrepreneur who works at the intersection of art, design, and AI, says women definitely bring in the human and creative element. “Being women and mothers, we are creators by nature. We are creators of human life. We are creators of our destiny. We are creators of our future. And so we must create our destiny.” 

Hessen says she’s not seeing enough girls becoming coders and developers. 

“We need more female voices. We need more females to be sitting around the table making decisions around AI, around ethics, around the emotional side of things. And I think that oftentimes the females have a very different perspective from the males, and we need both voices at the table,” she says. 

Studies on the AI gender gap say that while representation has improved, it doesn’t necessarily translate to influence in the space. “Just because there are more women doesn’t mean that the actual impact and influence they have has increased,” says Smith. 

She says that after giving a talk about AI to schoolgirls, two came up to her and said they wanted to pursue a career in STEM but were discouraged by the fact that many of these faculties at universities are dominated by men. 

“If this is your passion, it is about following it despite any challenges, despite what anyone else tells you, despite the bias towards it, or the pressures. [You must believe] in your own passion and going through with it, believing you’ll make a difference,” she says. “And making a difference doesn’t mean becoming chief executive of a big company or inventing a new product. You can make a difference in small ways, even if it’s just bringing a new perspective to a design or something that is being developed. That is enough. And it is about making these girls believe that they can be that.”