The Future of Work Can Be Made More Equitable with AI

This article originally appeared on Economist Impact.

Artificial intelligence stormed the workplace with the promise of transformation: productivity will soar, innovation will know no boundaries, and the playing field will, at last, be leveled. Intoxicated by the possibilities, businesses are funneling money into the technology, moving from experimentation into execution.

AI tools will only truly unlock opportunity for everyone, however, if they’re designed specifically to do so. “We’re on the cusp of one of the most profound shifts to the workplace that we’ve ever seen,” says Renee Wittemyer, vice president of program strategy at Pivotal, a group of organizations founded by Melinda French Gates to accelerate the pace of social progress. Pivotal is partnering with the Aspen Institute to discover novel approaches to using AI that help all people, especially women, thrive in the workplace. “Without intention, AI could perpetuate the kinds of inequities we’ve long seen at work,” Dr Wittemyer says. “But it’s exciting to think about all the ways that it can be built and deployed to knock down barriers.”

One key step will be addressing the valid concerns many women have about AI. Uneasy about ethics, privacy risks, and the perception that using AI is “cheating,” many women are hesitant to adopt AI tools. Based on multiple studies, researchers estimate that women are 22% less likely than men to use generative AI.^{1Harvard Business School Working Paper, “Global Evidence on Gender Gaps and Generative AI,” 2025.}

What everyone should know

Early evidence indicates that AI—both generative (content-producing) and agentic (autonomous decision-making)—has the potential to work for women by reducing prejudice and boosting careers. This is especially true in four critical areas.

Fair and ethical career pathways

AI could greatly reduce bias in hiring and promotion by making job descriptions more inclusive, candidate scoring less prejudiced,^{2Forbes, “How AI Can Remove Bias From The Hiring Process And Promote Diversity And Inclusion,” 7 January 2021.} salary benchmarking more just, and promotions more equitable.^{3From Day One, “A New Use Case for AI: Succession Planning in an Era of ‘Squiggly Careers’,” 19 March 2025.} AI won’t create equitable outcomes on its own, however. And too often, today’s AI tools are replicating unfair practices, not curbing them.

With an estimated 88% of companies using AI in initial candidate screenings,^{4World Economic Forum, “Hiring with AI doesn’t have to be so inhumane,” 28 March 2025.} it is critical that businesses train AI responsibly, says Ashley Bittner, managing director at Kalos Ventures, a venture capital fund leading investments in workforce, education, and care. Ms Bittner emphasizes responsible AI use in the investments she makes.

Without intervention, she says, and without people from a wide range of backgrounds building and integrating the tools, AI will likely mirror what society looks like today. “It's an important moment to be intentional about what we want to see.”

Increased productivity and access to information

AI already can dramatically boost productivity: One study by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from top business schools found that in the hands of a highly skilled worker, generative AI can increase productivity by almost 40%.^{5MIT Management Sloan School, “How generative AI can boost highly skilled workers’ productivity,” 19 October 2023.} An important way it does this is by automating mundane tasks.

It can also be useful for deep research and surfacing consequential information—which can both help people do better work and balance their responsibilities. For instance, Ms. Bittner is on the board of Mirza, a company that uses AI to help US workers in hourly jobs unlock public benefits they're entitled to.^{6Catalyst, "Four drivers of frontline employee satisfaction and business results: United States spotlight," 3 June 2025.} This is especially meaningful for women, who continue to take on the bulk of caregiving duties, not just in the US, but globally. “Only 20% of eligible families receive the funding they're eligible for,” Ms Bittner explains. The most significant barriers are the complex web of benefits and the dozens of forms required to access care. With the help of AI, those barriers start to fall down.

Foster entrepreneurship

AI has been dubbed the new “co-founder,” helping shape the direction of new ventures.^{7MIT Management Sloan School, “How generative AI is changing entrepreneurship,” 17 January 2024.} Not only can it create the time and space for experimentation, there are many ways it can help with business tasks, such as navigating compliance, automating customer support, conducting market research, and analysing pricing decisions. As more women leave the corporate workforce to start their own businesses, they will have more help in that endeavour than ever before.^{8Gusto Insights Group, 2025 New Business Formation Report, 3 April 2025.}

With this in mind, Kalos led an investment in Manifest, an AI-native platform providing small business entrepreneurs personalized support to launch and grow their businesses.

There is a lot of AI “noise,” and myriad tools one could use to make their working hours more productive, but Ms Bittner says that what's more important is that people use AI to free up time for the skilled tasks only they can do.

In the same vein, AI-powered platforms that offer personalized, on-demand training can broaden access to professional development, making it easier for everyone to upskill, fortify expertise, and even change careers.

Fight harassment and abuse

Abuse of women remains a serious concern in the workplace. While in some cases AI has been weaponised to intensify and scale up harassment, it can also help make workplaces safer. AI tools and algorithms can be used to analyse incident reports to detect patterns or signs of harassment and other ethics breaches and help HR teams conduct investigations more quickly, identifying bad actors and preventing further offenses.

Every day, new AI tools are being brought to the forefront of the conversation—but only some will scale and be used by the masses. To make full use of AI's potential, the innovations must be designed for, and be accessible to, all workers.