Get Ready, Ladies: You’re on the AI Front Line

Employers know artificial intelligence is here to stay, but many are grappling with concerns over responsible usage and ethical considerations, including job displacement—particularly in jobs traditionally held by women, including office, administrative support and sales, among others.    

The narrative that only STEM fields—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, which have historically been male dominated, are relevant in the age of AI is short-sighted. While fields involved in AI development may continue to be male-dominated for the near future, fields most-heavily impacted by AI usage tend to be held predominantly by women.

This generality has spurred alarming headlines that AI poses a disproportionate risk of job displacement for women. But, what’s the other side of that coin? Isn’t the saying, “You won’t be replaced by AI. But you could be replaced by a person who understands AI.”? We enthusiastically agree and see only opportunity for women to use and leverage AI.  

An Emerging Opportunity

AI tools, such as large language models, use natural language processing, which doesn’t require coding skills or technical expertise to harness its benefits. These tools interpret and respond to natural language inputs, making them intuitive to use. The interface can be as simple as typing a question or command, the way one might interact with a search engine or virtual assistant. And this makes sense: Were generative AI not as user-friendly and accessible as it is, it wouldn’t be exploding in this way. But we still have to communicate effectively for the best output.

For this reason, the rise of AI has begun to spur a surge in demand for more traditional liberal arts degrees like English majors. The CEO of Blackrock recently made headlines when he told Fortune—for its Future of Finance: Technology and Transformation event—that he is looking for more people with degrees in English. Similarly, the co-head of Goldman Sachs’ global institute recently referred to this as “revenge of the liberal arts.”   

Certainly, we need coding skills to design and develop AI, but what most organizations need now are employees who have honed their creative and critical-thinking skills. Those with strong language skills will fill an increasing demand for prompt engineers who can artfully frame questions and directions while interacting with AI-powered technology. The ability to communicate effectively and understand human behavior are skills that are invaluable in the development and implementation of AI technologies in a fair, unbiased, and effective manner.  

Ladies, this is our specialty (if we do say so ourselves). In this sense, AI might just be more of an equalizer than a discriminator. There is a tremendous opportunity to add value to your organization by becoming comfortable with and using AI in your role. 

Embracing AI Responsibly 

To take advantage of the opportunity before you, help your organization embrace change and understand how AI can be a powerful tool rather than a threat when implemented in a responsible and ethical manner:  

• Protection of trade secrets and confidential information. As a general rule of thumb, anything put into a generative AI program can be retained and used to train the technology. While companies can contract with AI companies to keep their information confidential, this is not the default position for free and publicly available generative AI programs like ChatGPT. Even some of the most technologically advanced companies have had employees putting their trade secrets in jeopardy, which demonstrates the need for appropriate policies and training to mitigate risk.

• Accountability for ‘hallucinations.’ Generative AI is notorious for so-called “hallucinations”—incorrect or entirely fabricated information generated by AI. Employers must require all employees to verify all AI-generated information before relying on it.  

• Accountability for bias and discrimination. Generative AI programs are only as valuable as the data on which they are trained. If data contains historical biases, generative AI will perpetuate those (garbage in, garbage out). Even unintentional biases that have a disproportionate impact on members of a protected class can violate federal and state employment laws. There are also increasing regulations at the state and local level governing algorithmic discrimination concerns that must be taken into consideration. 

• Content ownership. Employee use of publicly available generative AI programs is still subject to that program’s terms and conditions. These terms may vary widely from one program to another, and it is unlikely that employees read the terms at all, much less with a critical eye. This can create issues for the company if the terms do not grant ownership rights or do not permit commercial use.

Ladies, this is not about replacement; it’s about transformation. Position yourself for new and different opportunities by innovatively and responsibly using AI in your jobs. They won’t be able to do it without you!