The AI opportunity gap

Organizations are investing heavily in AI, but they may be overlooking a critical barrier to realizing its full value: too many employees lack meaningful opportunities to build the skills and confidence to use it. While research from Harvard Business School and elsewhere has examined differences between women and men’s experiences with AI, our findings point to an important divide within women’s experiences: women employees have fewer opportunities than women leaders to learn AI and are less likely to see it as a pathway for future growth and advancement. Although women employees are adopting AI, they are less likely than women leaders to report having the same opportunities to learn AI and less likely to see AI as a pathway for future growth and advancement. When organizations fail to close this opportunity gap, they risk turnover and a workforce that is not fully equipped to maximize AI investments.

The payoff is clear: women employees with sufficient opportunities to learn AI are more likely to use it regularly, feel confident using it, and remain with their organizations. Ultimately, AI’s business impact depends not only on access to the technology, but also on whether employees have the opportunity to develop and apply the skills to use it effectively.