Female C-suite executives use AI ‘all the time’, but don’t feel as skilled as men: Report

Male C-suite executives in Australia rate themselves as “more adept” at using reproductive AI in the workplace than their female counterparts, although female C-suites prioritize AI.

A report from YouGov, commissioned by Salesforce, surveyed more than 280 C-suite executives in Australia in July this year on the importance of artificial intelligence, how it is used in business situations, how confident leaders are using technology, etc.

Almost all (99 percent) of those surveyed believed that the integration of AI is critical to their business success over the next three years, with 81 percent citing it as a top three priority.

Research from YouGov and Salesforce found that female C-suites are more likely to place AI startups at the forefront and are critical to their business success over the next three years. While 48 percent of female C-suites responded this way, only 36 percent of men responded.

Half (50 percent) of female C-suites said they use AI “always”, compared to 38 percent of male C-suites.

Rowena Westphalen, Senior Vice President of innovation, AI and customer consulting at Salesforce, said these results show a change from Salesforce’s last report six months ago, on women’s adoption of AI in business.

“When I started seeing statistics specifically about gender, I was excited,” Westphalen said.

“Women were lagging far behind in using reproductive AI compared to men…so I was happy that there was a change.”

As the AI ​​leader at Salesforce who has worked in AI and tech for years, Westphalen uses artificial intelligence every day – at work, and at home.

“We envision these things in the future,” Westphalen told Women’s Agenda, “but they already exist.”

However, when it comes to efficiency, female C-suites are less likely than male C-suites to test their skills in using high-yield AI.

More than half (54 percent) of male C-suites rated themselves “very good” at using generative AI to complete tasks. This compares to 37 percent of female C-suites. The majority of C-suite women who responded to the survey rated themselves as “slightly talented”.

While skilled and comfortable using AI herself, Westphalen notes a gender gap in “confidence” when it comes to C-suite executives introducing reproductive AI to business. Westphalen said it was mainly a matter of “culture”.

“You don’t want to paint with too broad a brush, but sometimes women don’t show their creativity and confidence as much as men,” Westphalen said.

“I think women are raised to be ‘good girls’ … not to give too much, to be modest.”

Although female C-suites were not able to rate their ability to develop AI as high, more than half (54 percent) of respondents reported their teams’ ability to use reproductive AI as “very competent”, similar to male C. – suites (53 percent).

The role of Generative AI in promoting both action and communication appeared to be the most common use among C-suite executives, recognized by 35 percent of respondents, and is expected to remain important now and in the next three years (37 percent).

However, the biggest obstacle to adoption, including the issue of generating false positives, is the lack of availability and integration of artificial intelligence tools (31 percent).