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LinkedIn data and interviews with women who work in the sector show that women hold only about a quarter of new AI hires while taking 50% of new hires in non-AI roles, and just 13% of executive positions in AI. AI-related job postings have doubled since 2023 and carry a pay premium that is on average more than twice the salary of non-AI roles, yet men have a $45,000 higher median pay across AI occupations. Those imbalances concentrate women in lower-paid or automation‑exposed positions such as customer service, raising the risk that the technology will widen economic and power gaps.
AI is creating some of the fastest growing, highest paying and most consequential jobs in the global economy,
Sarah Steinberg, head of global public policy partnerships at LinkedIn
Key takeaways
- Share of new AI hires: Women made up about a quarter of new AI hires in the last year, versus 50% of new hires in non-AI roles, per LinkedIn.
- Executive representation: Women occupy just 13% of executive roles in AI, according to LinkedIn’s research.
- Pay gap: LinkedIn finds that, across AI occupations, men have a median pay that is $45,000 higher than women's, a disparity partly explained by differences in the types of jobs each gender tends to hold.
- Job posting growth: AI job postings have doubled since 2023 and typically pay more than twice as much as non-AI roles, creating a high-value labour pool.
- Exposure to disruption: Women are overrepresented in roles with high exposure to AI disruption, such as customer service, increasing risk of job loss.
Table of contents
Who the data names: sharp imbalances in hiring and pay
LinkedIn’s recent analysis supplies the clearest numerical snapshot: women made up about a quarter of new AI hires in the last year while they accounted for 50% of hires in non-AI roles. The gap widens at senior levels, with women occupying just 13% of executive jobs in AI. The platform also reports that AI job postings have doubled since 2023 and that AI roles carry a salary premium, paying on average more than twice what comparable non-AI roles offer.
Those headline figures translate into distributional effects within AI work. Women who do land AI roles are disproportionately concentrated in lower-paid functions such as data annotation or operations support, while higher-paying engineering and leadership posts remain male-dominated. LinkedIn quantifies one consequence of that sorting: across AI occupations men have a $45,000 higher median pay than women, a gap driven in part by the kinds of roles each gender is likelier to hold.
The numerical pattern matters because it ties immediate pay to long‑term influence. Jobs that set product priorities, model architectures and data governance determine how AI systems behave; where women are scarce, they have less power to shape those decisions even when the sector is creating some of the fastest‑growing and highest‑paying positions in the global economy, LinkedIn's researchers say.
Workplace reality: hours, networks and the rollback of DEI
Women who work in AI describe a set of workplace dynamics that amplify the statistical gap. Engineers report being the only woman on a team and needing to work longer hours to match peers and stay current with fast‑moving tools and frameworks. One AI engineering lead described returning from a four-month maternity leave to find an entirely different stack and model levels in use, a reset that made reintegration difficult without strong support at home and at work.
Recruiting practices in a boom market favour existing networks and referrals, which can perpetuate male dominance when hiring scales quickly. Where companies once scaled diversity, equity and inclusion programmes to widen candidate pipelines, many have rolled those efforts back. LinkedIn's analysis says enforcement actions by the Department of Justice and large settlements have made companies more cautious about women‑focused initiatives; Accenture, Deloitte, IBM and PayPal are cited as firms that have agreed to multimillion‑dollar settlements in that enforcement environment.
Mentorship shortages and fewer formal pathways to promotion compound the problem. Women who lack senior sponsors or peer cohorts in AI are less likely to be nominated for high-visibility projects that lead to promotion. Taken together, long hours, network-centred hiring and reduced institutional DEI support make the field harder to enter and stay in for women, even when the technical barriers themselves are new.
Consequences and early responses: closing a potential power gap
Advocates warn that the current pattern could create the largest gender pay gap in generations and shift economic mobility as AI grows. The concern is not only about wages: participation in core AI roles determines who sets standards, writes code and decides which problems receive automated solutions. If women remain concentrated in roles with high exposure to automation or in lower-paid positions, their ability to influence product design and governance will be limited.
Some organisations and networks are trying to counter that trend. Non‑profits focused on women in technology and industry groups are offering targeted mentorship, training and placement programmes. LinkedIn quotes leaders at AnitaB.org and AI Powered Women describing efforts to boost representation and leadership, while also reporting that political and legal pressure on corporate DEI programmes has reduced corporate participation in some places.
Closing the gap will require coordinated hiring practices that expand candidate pools, firm commitments to retain and promote women after career breaks, and monitoring the distribution of AI pay premia within companies. Without those mechanical changes, the sector’s fastest-growing roles risk becoming a new, male-dominated route to economic power rather than a broad-based source of mobility.
| Metric | AI roles | Non‑AI roles |
|---|---|---|
| Share of new hires (recent year) | Women: about a quarter | Women: 50% |
| Executive representation | Women: 13% | Not specified |
| Pay premium | AI roles pay on average more than twice non-AI roles | Baseline (no premium) |
| Job posting growth since 2023 | Postings doubled since 2023 | Not reported |
The case for and against a shift
The case for
- Targeted mentorship and training programmes run by groups such as AnitaB.org and AI Powered Women can raise pipelines into higher-paid AI roles if companies participate.
- If firms adopt structured hiring that widens candidate sources beyond existing referral networks, representation could improve because the technology itself is new and no one has ten years’ advantage on recent models.
The case against
- Political and legal pressure on corporate DEI programmes has already prompted rollbacks, reducing the institutional levers that previously widened access.
- Market incentives—rapid hiring, large pay premia and network-driven recruiting—favor speed over deliberate inclusion, which can entrench current imbalances as hiring scales.
What to be careful about
- A widening gender pay gap in AI driven by concentration of men in higher-paying technical and executive roles.
- Disproportionate exposure of women to roles at high risk of automation, such as customer service, increasing job-displacement risk.
- Reduced corporate DEI programmes following enforcement actions could curtail pipeline and retention efforts for women.
- Loss of women’s influence over AI development and governance if representation at senior levels does not increase.
The bottom line
The combination of fast growth, large pay premia and network-driven hiring has made AI one of the most consequential labour markets of the moment. LinkedIn’s figures show that women are underrepresented among new AI hires and especially among executives, while also being overrepresented in roles vulnerable to automation. That pattern risks producing both a wider gender pay gap and a loss of women’s influence over how AI is designed and governed. Reversing it will require firms to pair recruitment with retention and promotion measures, and for external programmes to restore scalable pathways into technical and leadership roles.
What to watch
- Watch for LinkedIn’s next global update on AI hiring and pay; no date has been set.
- Watch for public company announcements reversing or expanding DEI and return-to-work supports for technical roles; no date has been set.
Frequently asked questions
How many women are being hired into AI roles?
LinkedIn’s research finds that women made up about a quarter of new AI hires in the last year, compared with 50% of new hires in non-AI roles.
How large is the pay gap in AI occupations?
LinkedIn reports that, across AI occupations, the median pay for men exceeds that for women by $45,000, with job‑type differences accounting for part of the gap.
Which jobs held by women are most at risk from AI?
Women are overrepresented in roles with high exposure to AI disruption, such as customer service, where automation tools create greater risk of displacement.
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