Women have been urged to take a more active role in shaping the development, governance and deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI), rather than simply adapting to decisions made by others.
The call was made at the Women in AI Executive Forum in Lagos, organised by TeKnowledge under the theme, “Why Women Voices Matter in the Age of AI.”
The forum brought together more than 30 senior women leaders and emerging professionals in a mentor-mentee format to examine the leadership skills and responsibilities required in an increasingly AI-driven world.
President and Chief Executive Officer of TeKnowledge, Aileen Allkins, urged women to go beyond simply using AI tools and develop a deeper understanding of how the technology works.
“We need to move away from just knowing how to use AI to understanding how it is built, the kind of data AI uses and how decisions are made,” she said.
Allkins said women leaders did not need to become engineers before they could participate meaningfully in conversations around AI.
According to her, curiosity and confidence to engage with issues including AI policy, risk, data and governance were more important.
“Women have a unique opportunity because very few people know everything about AI right now. We can research, learn and put ourselves in the room and have a voice,” she said.
Microsoft’s Chief Growth and AI Officer for the Middle East and Africa, Ola Williams, who joined Allkins in a session titled “Leading in the Age of AI: Why Diverse Leadership Creates Better Outcomes,” said women should move beyond experimenting with AI to helping organisations determine how the technology is integrated.
“The question is not whether we are all using AI today. It is more about leading the conversation within an organisation and making AI work in a way that ethically drives business outcomes,” Williams said.
She also urged current leaders to prepare the next generation of women for workplaces that would increasingly be shaped by AI.
During a roundtable discussion, participants identified curiosity, courage, sound judgement and discernment as essential qualities for leaders in the AI era.
They also emphasised the continuing importance of human judgement, noting that although AI could generate recommendations, leaders must question its outputs, understand their implications and assess them against organisational values.
The participants further highlighted mentorship as an important tool for helping younger professionals understand both the opportunities and risks associated with AI.
Allkins urged participants to take at least one practical step towards deepening their engagement with AI, including learning about AI policy, understanding how AI tools are being used within their organisations and asking questions about the data behind such systems.
TeKnowledge said the forum was the first in a planned series of engagements aimed at strengthening women’s participation in AI leadership.
Allkins noted that although AI would continue to evolve, human qualities such as creativity, empathy, judgement and intuition would remain important in determining how the technology serves organisations and society.
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