Women leaders are stepping into active strategic roles in their workplaces amid AI adoption, according to new research, which stressed that this group of leaders are keeping up with the technological revolution at work.
The new research from Chief, a network for senior women leaders, revealed that women are “defining leadership in the AI era.”
“Women are not behind AI. They’re building it to last,” the report read.
“While the broader leadership has fixated on AI adoption speed, women leaders have been quietly building something more durable: a philosophy that treats AI as an amplifier for human capability, not a replacement for it.”
‘Active strategic roles’
According to the findings, 80% of women are taking on “active strategic roles” amid their organisation’s AI efforts.
More than a quarter said they are acting as regulators who focus on AI governance, ethics, and responsible implementation (31%), as well as orchestrators who design and implement how humans and AI will work together (25%).
In fact, 78% of women said they already have personal criteria for deciding what stays human and what goes into AI in their own team management.
“This is not passive positioning,” the report read. “It means three-quarters of women have already operationalised the AI-human boundary question that most organisations are still debating at the board level.”
The findings come as experts urge leaders across the world to be cautious about taking short-sighted measures, such as retrenchments, while they implement AI in their organisation.
More than two in three women (69%) said their organisation has already reduced entry-level or early-career hiring due to AI capabilities.
But the majority (89%) also agreed that being “cautious” about AI adoption is a sign of good leadership, with another 81% saying that organisations won’t have capable managers in the future if they don’t develop humans.
The majority of women leaders also agreed that leaders who invest in both AI and human development will outperform those who are relying only on AI (85%).
They also agreed that AI should amplify human capabilities and potential, not substitute for them (86%).
“The research is telling us something important: the companies that will win aren’t just the ones moving fastest. They’re the ones being most intentional about what they’re building alongside the technology. Judgment. Institutional knowledge. The leadership pipeline. Those things don’t scale automatically, they must be invested in,” said Alison Moore, CEO of Chief, in a statement.
“Women leaders understand that as they’re building the workplace of the future. They’re not slowing down on AI. They’re making sure the humans keeping pace with it don’t get left behind in the process.”
– Human Resource Director