Women are adopting generative AI technology at a significantly lower rate than men, creating an AI gender gap. Figures from the Survey of Consumer Expectations found that 50% of men use generative AI tools, compared to 37% of women, with privacy concerns and perceived opportunities and risks accounting for a quarter of the gender gap.
Meanwhile, female-led AI startups are being left behind when it comes to investment capital despite an influx of finance, creating a gender gap where female-founded companies receive far less venture capital funding than male-founded ones. A study into venture capital (VC) investment in AI by sector, revealed only 0.7% (£72.9 million) of the total capital invested since 2010 (£10.5 billion) going towards female-led startups.
Barriers to AI adoption
Looking beyond the statistics, the reasons behind AI gender gap is quite nuanced. Women entrepreneurs are seen as more likely to pause and consider the impact of AI on authenticity, client relationships, and long-term brand integrity before making their move. Many will often delay AI adoption while they get to grips with it, while sticking with their old, more familiar practices.
Livia Bernardini, CEO of Future Platforms believes it is less about access or ability, but rather about trust, confidence, and design. “Many AI tools speak with overconfident certainty, often based on biased or incomplete data,” she says. “For women, that tone can echo a long-standing frustration: systems that overlook them, voices that dominate without rigor.”
She describes it as something akin to the dynamic highlighted in the Harvard Business Review, where ‘incompetent, overconfident candidates, most of them men, get ahead’ not because of ability, but because confidence is mistaken for competence.
“Many large language model outputs feel like dealing with an overconfident male colleague; you need to fact-check everything,” says Bernadini. “That is improving, but the baked-in bias remains. This gap matters. In startups, it means fewer female founders are using AI to scale smarter, faster, and more efficiently. That slows innovation and sidelines inclusive thinking from day one.”
Some female leaders are changing the game. Lyssa McGowan at Pets at Home uses AI as infrastructure, not trend. Claudia Nichols at SimplyHealth is using it to improve patient care across the U.K. “Maybe that is the real unlock,” says Bernadini. “When the goal is meaningful impact, women may feel more empowered to experiment and take smart risks. Could purpose be the push we have been waiting for?”
Fear factor
Some women simply feel more comfortable using AI for specific tasks, such as writing, iteration, and editing, rather than as a strategic business partner for decision-making or even more complex strategic business integration.
Samantha Addy, CEO of the Female Advisory Board (FAB), the U.K.’s first all-female peer advisory organization, says: “While I’ve successfully integrated certain AI tools like ChatGPT into my workflow for enhanced productivity, I’m deeply concerned about AI’s broader implications, particularly technologies such as avatar creation that raise serious questions about digital manipulation and consent.
“I recently facilitated an AI workshop with industry experts for our board members. Rather than building confidence, the session left participants feeling overwhelmed and increasingly apprehensive about AI’s rapid advancement.”
Yet, female-led start-ups are very innovative. The female founders that Alisa Sydow, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at ESCP Business School, works with are very curious about generative AI and its potential, but tend to be more reflective about why and how to use it.
A measured approach
She says: “Typically, they ask questions such as ‘Will this enhance trust with my customers? Will it compromise data privacy?’ Ethical blind spots, societal risks and a possible impact on their reputation are sometimes more front-of-mind than with their male counterparts. This can make the adoption and use of AI more human-centered. Female founders are good at considering various factors and weighing them against each other rather than focusing on being the fastest to market.”
Rather than being a disadvantage, Sydow also questions whether this gender ‘gap’ among founders is simply a different timeline, one that leads to more sustainable, responsible innovation. “Over time, as more female-led success stories emerge in AI, this gap may not only close, but it may also reshape what ‘good’ AI adoption looks like,” she says.
Focus is key
In order to give more women real influence in AI, more women have to want to start an AI company. That’s the view of fintech venture builder Sidri Poli, CMO at 0TO9 – Bank of Entrepreneurship. For that, she says, the whole ecosystem needs to work together: women need access to venture capital, better representation in STEM, and access to the private networks that are so often closed off.
She says: “There are more resources than ever for founders, from open-source tools to no-code AI platforms, but the challenge now is focus. With so many tools available, founders need to home in on the human element: solving real people’s problems.”
Closing the AI gender gap
In terms of driving more women to embrace AI as part of their startup strategy the education system is crucial, as are universities that serve as incubators where career paths take shape and confidence is built. The ability to actively attract more women into STEM fields and support them in their first ventures can help transform the leaders of tomorrow. Mentors and role models also have an important role to play.
Poli recalls how intimidating it felt to step into the startup world back in 2013, unsure if she belonged. “It made all the difference to have someone believe in me early on, in this case, my ex-mentor from school,” she says. “We also need to normalize and emphasize a give-back culture, not just for those lucky enough to get these kinds of opportunities, but for a generation of women in tech who can shift the balance to a more equal future.”
Success also breeds success. As more women succeed, the benefit increases exponentially, especially when that success is visible, and the AI gender gap will close. “Don’t underestimate the power of inspiration and role models,” adds Poli. “Lucy Guo is, as of 2025, the youngest female billionaire, due to her stake in Scale AI. That is a huge inspiration for many. The ‘if she can, I can’ attitude can take us farther than we think.”
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