How organizations can help close the gender gap in AI for Good initiatives

One of the most powerful ways we can support women in AI is through early, accessible education. That means lowering barriers to entry and meeting learners where they are. Traditional training models often don’t work for young women in remote areas, balancing work, study or caring responsibilities. What’s missing is not interest or capability, but access. Digital-first, low-friction programs directly address that gap.

Through EY Ripples’ and EY Women in Tech’s collaboration with Arist, AI and entrepreneurship content was designed specifically for young women aged 18+ and delivered entirely via mobile messaging. No laptops. No classrooms. No long-form study.

Live in seven countries, the program demonstrates how scale and inclusion can coexist:

• 75,000+ registrations and 38,000+ completions 
• 75 million+ ad impressions, expanding reach to new and diverse learner communities
• 8.25 out of 10 average learner satisfaction score
• 10% lift in confidence following course completion

The lesson is clear: When learning is designed for reach, the AI talent pipeline widens dramatically.

Get your people involved in upskilling women

Women make up just 22% of the global data and AI workforce, not for lack of talent, but due to young women in marginalized and underserved communities having limited access to digital resources, AI training and opportunities. These opportunity gaps risk reinforcing inequality and excluding girls from the jobs and leadership roles of the future.

To address this challenge, EY Ripples and the International Telecommunication Union, the UN agency for digital technologies, have created the AI Skills Accelerator for Girls – a global collaboration that will upskill 1,000 young women across 10+ countries by August 2026.

Unlike purely digital learning models, the program equips young women ages 18-25 through in-person workshops with hands-on guidance from professionals working at the frontier of technology and business. The differentiator is proximity – to role models, real-world application and professional networks. Participants report increased confidence, practical AI skills and stronger readiness for AI careers and ventures. An engineering and Business Information Technology Undergraduate, Lorena Jiménez reflects on the program: “The workshop was truly gratifying and extremely helpful. It will foster significant projects for women, as well as understanding and support that could make a real impact in Paraguay.”

Programs like this show how upskilling, when combined with belief and exposure to experts, accelerates capability, helping ensure women don’t just learn about AI, but stay, lead and build within it.

Companies can play a decisive role in turning AI capability into real economic opportunity for women-led businesses. Hands on support – from mentoring to validation and visibility – can be the difference between a young woman with a good idea and one with the confidence to start a business.

Since 2024, EY has been an active member of The AI Forward Alliance (TAIFA) – a global collaboration led by Technovation. TAIFA brings together industry partners, NGOs, Ministries of Education and governments to tackle the gender gap through coordinated public-private action. Its focus is on enabling girls and young women to progress from learning technology to applying it as innovators, problem-solvers and entrepreneurs.

TAIFA is empowering a generation of female leaders and innovators to use technology to drive innovation to solve complex global problems. It recognizes that the future of AI will be shaped not just by who learns it, but by who builds with it. TAIFA offers girls everywhere access to the education, skills and technology essential for success and influence in a future where AI plays a pivotal role.

EY teams support for women entrepreneurs starts very early in the innovation journey. The professionals mentor girls in the Technovation Girls program as they learn to design AI-enabled apps that solve real-world problems in their own communities. As Technovation CEO Tara Chklovski puts it, “Our goal is to bring the most powerful, cutting-edge tools to the most vulnerable groups so that they can solve their own problems.”

Participation is truly global. In 2025 alone, Technovation, a program supported by EY through EY Ripples and EY Women in Tech, reached 33,000+ girls and young women across 100+ countries.

At a ServiceNow-hosted event in Hyderabad, India, EY, ServiceNow and NVIDIA came together for a joint judging session where girls as young as eight presented AI-powered solutions to pressing community needs – from apps that help visually impaired pedestrians cross streets safely, to tools that reduce language barriers in healthcare. These were not classroom exercises, but early-stage ventures rooted in lived experience:

• 97% of participants report improved skills, including coding, leadership, teamwork, problem-solving and confidence.
• 87% of alumnae pursue or plan to pursue STEM degrees.
• 81% say the program influenced their career choice.

These outcomes show how early exposure to AI-driven problem-solving can uplift not just skills, but aspirations – laying the groundwork for the next generation of women-led, AI-enabled enterprises.

Foster strategic collaborations to remove systemic barriers for women in AI

A powerful way to move the needle on the AI skills gender gap is to join forces with organizations that can help address barriers that prevent women from participating fully in the digital economy. This idea was the genesis of Microsoft’s public-private Women in Digital Business initiative led in collaboration with the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITCILO) and International Labour Organization (ILO). Women in Digital Business is a global program equipping women entrepreneurs with the digital and business skills required to thrive in an evolving AI-driven economy. The model recognizes that digital skills only translate into opportunity when women also have the tools, connectivity and income pathways to apply them. The program has already trained 50,000 women entrepreneurs, addressing both capability gaps and practical barriers.

In 2025, EY joined the Women in Digital Business initiative to strengthen the program through mentoring, helping ensure new skills are applied, retained and scaled. EY teams will also train 100 Women in Digital Business facilitators in India, Uganda and Kenya on how to have meaningful and effective mentorship relationships. In parallel, EY is providing 25 coaches to support 25 impact entrepreneurs in the Women in Digital Business network as they grow their ventures.

This is what’s possible when businesses combine their reach, expertise and technology to work toward a shared goal. Strategic collaboration removes friction, enabling more women to participate and succeed in the digital economy.

Through the program, Humble Bee's Co-founder and CEO Monika Shukla was paired with an EY partner in India as a strategic coach. Humble Bee is working to strengthen climate-resilient livelihoods for smallholder farmers through scientific beekeeping and pollination services, and is on a mission to empower one million women smallholder farmers through AI-enabled scientific beekeeping. Through her coach, Monika was connected to the EY partner in India’s procurement team to explore commercial opportunities, introduced to EY Partners with experience across agriculture, AI, marketing and analytics, and invited to in-person networking forums.

Her ecosystem support went beyond skills, advice or mentoring. Collectively, these engagements helped Humble Bee sharpen its technology roadmap, validate enterprise use cases and strengthen its growth strategy – accelerating its ability to scale both impact and the organization.

Cross-sector ecosystems like these are vital to help scale AI-driven solutions that deliver meaningful, long-term impact. When women entrepreneurs gain access to networks that span technology, policy and markets, AI for good can move faster – and reach further.

Create opportunities to convene and grow together

Women entrepreneurs scale faster when they are visible and connected. Big business can play a powerful role by convening, hosting and inviting impact leaders to forums where ideas are showcased and partnerships are formed. This includes creating spaces where women entrepreneurs can connect directly with investors, policymakers and industry leaders.

EY Ripples helps to ensure that, when global development conversations happen, women entrepreneurs and AI-for-impact voices are in the room. That’s why women entrepreneurs from the EY AI SDG Accelerator were invited to attend the 2025 Women’s World Banking Financial Inclusion Forum. Women's World Banking hosted an Investor Readiness Roundtable for our founders, during which experts provided candid, practical insights into building investor confidence, institutional readiness and long-term growth strategies.

EY Global Corporate Responsibility leader, Gillian Hinde, was there. “It's hard to describe how inspiring these founders are,” she says. “When we invest in women entrepreneurs, we unlock one of the most transformative levers for change.”

These AI for Good initiatives form an integral part of EY’s wider commitment to advancing women and girls globally. By pairing leading technology with a mission for gender equity, the initiatives aim to empower women as essential drivers of innovation, economic resilience and social progress.

Summary

Empowering women in AI is essential to unlocking the technology’s full potential for positive impact. By supporting early education, mentorship and inclusive networks, organizations can help close the gender gap and drive innovation that benefits all. A collaborative, purposeful approach helps ensure AI solutions are shaped by diverse perspectives and create value for society as a whole.