Against a backdrop of looming talent scarcity, AI inequities — particularly the gender gap between men and women in skills, training, job access and pay overall — stand to worsen labor shortages if left unchecked, according to global talent firm Randstad’s latest AI & Equity and Workmonitor reports.
The findings showed that although AI is the most sought-after skill, the vast majority of workers who say they’re skilled in AI are men (71%), while just 29% are women report the same — a 42% gender gap, Randstad noted.
Women are also less likely to have been offered opportunities to upskill on AI and are less confident the training they received has readied them to use the technology in their careers, the research found.
As for the pay gap, Randstad’s annual Workmonitor survey — based on more than 26,000 workers across 35 markets — indicated the problem may be that women aren’t as assertive as men or don’t feel as comfortable asking for pay raises: 53% of women, compared with 64% of men, reported requesting a pay increase, the firm said.
Additionally, 42% of women, compared with 48% of men, have campaigned for better workplace conditions or pay, according to the survey.
“Equitable access to skilling, resources and opportunities needs to be a fundamental part of addressing” the AI talent scarcity, Randstad CEO Sander van’t Noordende stated in the firm’s AI Equity report.
HR experts have consistently concurred with this view. For instance, the CEO of HiBob stressed in February — when the platform released its survey on the gender gap — that businesses thrive when all employees have equal opportunity to advance.
The HiBob survey found that just over one-third of women feel empowered to perform at their best at work, and only 28% feel their company’s culture actively supports them.
Pay is also an issue. Glassdoor reported in March 2024 that about two-thirds of the women professionals it surveyed said they don’t believe they’re being paid fairly, up from 60% in 2023.
The HiBob study backed their perspective. It found that 46% of the men it surveyed said they received a raise in 2024, compared to 32% of the women.
One contributing factor may be that men negotiate more aggressively than women and use different kinds of information to back their negotiations, according to research in 2023 out of the University of Delaware.
That’s where pay transparency may help, the researchers indicated. They found that job seekers who had salary information about an employee who was less or similarly qualified asked for more money than job seekers who didn’t receive any salary information.
Notably, the gender gap nearly disappeared for those who had that information, the study revealed.
The Randstad report on AI inequities surveyed 12,000 workers worldwide and collected data from more than 3 million job profiles. The results showed that 35% of women have been given the opportunity to incorporate AI into their roles, compared with 41% of men.
However, the findings indicated the AI skills gender gap may be closing among younger workers, Randstad noted. In particular, women who have been working for around 30 years account for only 21% of talent with AI skills, while among those with less than a year of work experience, this rises to 34%, Randstad pointed out.
To help continue to close the gap, the report recommended taking these steps:
- Rethink traditional L&D approaches to address the intimidation factor and provide rapid skilling opportunities to stay ahead of new developments;
- Think critically about how AI is applied and how to limit the bias inherent in the technology, such as by involving talent in its implementation and allowing them to provide human oversight of its use;
- Empower talent to support adopting AI and apply it in a way that works for them; and
- Collaborate with other organizations and educational institutions through mentorships and skilling pathways.