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EU Report Highlights

The WISE-AI project is an intervention aimed at increasing young women’s employment opportunities in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and aligning with the SDGs. The project aims to increase young women’s participation in AI by providing technical and entrepreneurial training and promoting sustainability. It also discusses the main findings and issues to foster a more diverse and inclusive AI workforce.

Concept of AI and its popularity among Young Women: Artificial Intelligence is a revolutionary technology that revolutionizes industries, economies, and daily life. However, women are still not adequately represented in the AI field; the AI workforce comprises only 22% of women from around the world. Although women make up 52% of the European population, only 18% of Europe’s ICT professionals are women. Furthermore, 37.6% of survey participants explained their level of familiarity with AI as being intermediate, and those who reported higher levels of expertise were significantly lower. This absence of diversity constrains the capacity of the sector for innovation and reinforces systemic biases. The main focus should be made on early attraction and knowledge acquisition to promote interest, eliminate gender bias in the AI field, and attract more girls to the sphere.

Skill Gaps and Interests in AI:
The project identified several barriers to women’s participation in AI, including:

Stereotypes: Girls are socially and culturally suppressed from going for STEM-related courses.
Educational Disparities: The early introduction of AI concepts to the students makes women less confident and prepared to join the profession. Only 13% of female university graduates in Europe specialize in STEM fields compared to 29% of men.
Workplace Bias: demotions, and disparities in the provision of resources at the workplace and access to opportunities limit women in the AI sector. These gaps explain why gender-specific approaches for women-in-AI programs need to be developed immediately. The programs should help women succeed and discharge their duties in AI fields.
Building Future Confidence and Skills: Empowering women in AI involves a multi-faceted approach:
Early Education: Introducing the AI concepts as well as the coding skills in school curricula to establish the basic knowledge.
Mentorship Programs: Mentoring young women and linking them with successful women to inspire them.
Bias-Free Learning Environments: Creating gender-sensitive teaching and learning resources and lesson plans.
Extracurricular Initiatives: Encouraging involvement in hackathons and coding boot camps and building an extraordinary interest in AI via workshops. 24,7 of the surveyed women stated that they have tried out AI learning tools but require more formal practice.
Accessible Resources: The establishment of free and simple AI resources and lessons for learners at different learning levels. These strategies shall, therefore, seek to break the barriers to embrace women’s engagement with useful roles in AI technologies. Notably, only 17.1% of survey participants expressed no interest in learning about AI in education, emphasizing a strong baseline for engagement .

AI and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) The WISE-AI project emphasizes the role of AI in addressing global challenges and achieving SDGs, such as: ·

Gender Equality (SDG 5): Using AI techniques to address the issues of bias in data and ensure fairness.
Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6): AI systems improving the delivery and management of water resources.
Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7): Smart technologies like smart grids for managing the consumption of renewable energy.
Climate Action (SDG 13): AI application in climate change modeling and disaster preparedness.
Global Partnerships (SDG 17): Applying AI to improve teamwork and knowledge exchange on sustainability projects.

Some of the Key Findings: The project’s surveys and focus groups with young women across Europe revealed critical insights:

Perceived Barriers: Sexism, lack of visibility, and limitation of access to AI tools and technologies are the main problems that women face. Some of the comments made by participants include: ‘Society does not encourage us to be STEM professionals’, ‘and There are no people like us who inspire us to be STEM professionals’
Lack of awareness about AI opportunities: The majority of the participants said they were not sure how AI relates to their desired profession or even to society. 31.2% of participants had only recently started to use AI tools for work or study, while 14.7% stated that they had never used AI for work or study. “I never realized AI could be used to address things like climate change or education gaps. It’s eye-opening.
Cultural and Societal Pressures: There is subtle pressure put on girls from society and culture to not take up careers in AI. Several participants pointed out that they received negative comments regarding the choice of tech-related disciplines, for instance, one participant mentioned: “People often tell me that tech is not for women, which makes it harder to stay motivated.
The role of Peer networks: Motivational aspects that were mentioned were a collaborative learning environment and peer support. "Having friends who are also interested in AI makes me feel less alone," "Group activities help me learn better and feel more confident.
Opportunities for Engagement: The participants said that they would like to engage in gamified learning and have access to mentors and collaborative tools to make the learning of AI interesting. Such efforts can help acquire practical experience solutions as well as foster social relations
AI’s Positive Potential: Young women focused on the benefits of AI in their everyday life and society, from education and career to addressing societal challenges. The majority of the participants, over 60%, view AI as an enabler of employability and as a means for creating real change for sustainable development.tation and success of women in this emerging and important sector.

Practical Implications: To address the gaps and barriers identified, the WISE-AI project proposes the following actions:

Gamified Learning Experiences: To establish games with AI that are connected to the SDGs to help the promotion of technical skills in a fun way.
Mentorship Programs: Creating ways through which young women can easily find mentorship with female leaders in the field of artificial intelligence.
Collaborative Learning Tools: Promoting the idea of group work, using shared resources, and tackling problems in the teaching of AI.
Policy Recommendations: Promoting gender-sensitive policies in educational facilities and organizations using, to support gender equality in artificial intelligence.
Awareness Campaigns: Promoting the engagement of Women in AI through outreach and more success stories so that more women can be encouraged to be engaged.

The WISE-AI project indicates the importance of having more women in the AI fields to drive innovation and fight against global challenges. The aim of the WISE-AI project initiative is thus to empower young women to take up skills, confidence, and opportunities for reforming and diversifying the AI workforce. About the SDGs, the project shows that women’s participation in AI can play a role in achieving a sustainable future. This report outlines several practical recommendations on how to increase the participation of women in the field of AI, which will serve as a guide for governments, educational institutions, and organizations to increase the representation and success of women in this emerging and important sector.