Women are building AI, not just using it.
55.4% have built or prototyped an AI tool or agent, and 30.4% have shipped an AI feature or product.
Annual Global Study · Women AI Builders × WomenTech Network
The State of Women in AI 2026
Equal access, unequal recognition. How women in tech and AI build, lead and work with AI: adoption, careers, what organizations provide, recognition and opportunity, responsible AI and working with AI agents.
2,918 survey submissions
64 countries
The full report
Access has arrived. Advancement has not. Get the full picture.
A deeper report on how women use, build and lead AI, what their employers put behind it, and where recognition still lags. Released October 8 as a PDF, for one reader or your whole organization.
- ✓Where the gap really isUnderstand the workplace practices that shape who gets support, visibility and credit for AI work.
- ✓What the study data showsExplore AI use and tools, what women have built, organizational readiness, career impact, access and recognition, workplace bias, responsible AI, AI-agent preparedness, and the support women say they need.
- ✓The numbers by seniority, region and organization sizeSee where the differences open up, with the data behind every percentage published alongside the report.
- ✓Social-ready graphics belowSee the headline charts below, ready to open, download and share with attribution.
Pre-order the full report
Employer Edition, for the people who lead HR, inclusion, learning and AI at work. Released October 8, 2026 as a PDF.
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Executive summary
Women are ready. Organizations have not caught up.
Among women in tech and AI, 83.9% use AI tools daily as part of their work and 55.4% have built or prototyped an AI tool or agent. The gaps sit inside organizations: recognition, training and transparency.
Access is widespread, but recognition has not kept pace. 75.6% say women in their organization have equal access to AI tools and opportunities, while 45.0% say promotion recognizes AI skills and contributions fairly across gender. That 30.6-point difference, between what respondents report about access and about recognition, is why the study looks at the two separately.
83.9%use AI tools daily as part of their workAdoption
75.6%say women in their organization have equal access to AI tools and opportunities as menAccess
45.0%say promotion processes recognize AI skills and contributions fairly across genderRecognition
93.5%say working effectively with AI agents will be an essential skill within three yearsAI agents
A closer look at women and AI
Findings from our survey offer a more nuanced picture of women’s experiences with AI
Equal access does not mean equal recognition.
75.6% report equal access to AI tools and opportunities, while 45.0% say promotion recognizes AI skills and contributions fairly across gender.
Career optimism is strong.
81.0% expect AI to improve their career opportunities over the next two to three years: 50.6% very positively and 30.4% somewhat positively.
AI use and concerns about bias coexist.
83.9% use AI tools daily as part of their work, while 41.1% think workplace AI may create or reinforce bias against women or underrepresented groups.
Survey demographics
Respondent profile
Women from the WomenTech Network and Women AI Builders communities and their partners across 64 countries.
The survey was conducted online among members of the WomenTech Network and Women AI Builders communities and their partner organizations, and gathered 2,918 submissions. Respondents include founders and executives, managers and senior individual contributors across technology, professional services, financial services and education in 64 countries.
They include practitioners who build AI systems, leaders who govern AI adoption, professionals who use AI tools in their work, and women who are still learning, exploring or not currently using AI. Full respondent profiles are provided in the report.
Respondents
Women, mostly senior
Founders, executives, managers and senior individual contributors, across technology, professional services, financial services and education.
Countries represented
64 countries
The United States, India and the United Kingdom contribute the most responses, followed by Germany, Pakistan, Canada, Australia and Singapore. Regional comparisons in the report use three groups: North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East together.
Roles and relationship to AI
Builders, leaders, users
Founders and C-level leaders, executives, managers and senior individual contributors, across technology, professional services, financial services and education. Respondents describe themselves as building AI, leading or governing it, or using it in their work. The full breakdown is in the report.
What's inside
What the full report gives you
The full report goes beyond the headline results, with cuts by seniority, region and organization size, and respondents' own words. Pre-order now from USD 49 through October 8.
How women use and build with AI
Daily use, self-rated AI skill, the chat and coding assistants they use, and how many have built or shipped AI.
Access and organizational readiness
Employer-provided AI tools, training budgets, agent training and formal AI strategy.
AI in decisions about people
Whether AI has been used in decisions about them, concern about it, and perceived bias.
Recognition and careers
Access versus promotion recognition, career outlook, role models, networks and barriers.
Working with AI agents
How women work with agents and what for, how prepared they feel, and whether employers train them.
Key findings and what to do next
The key findings, what respondents say would help, and recommendations.
Respondents in their own words
What respondents described
The survey closed with one open question: a specific example of how AI has affected your work, confidence or opportunities. Here is some of what people wrote.
The biggest gift AI gave me wasn't productivity. It was possibility. It dramatically shortened the distance between an idea and something real.
Founder, North America
AI gave me access to knowledge and confidence I haven't had before. It allowed me to get into a completely new field of expertise and helps me navigate it.
Manager, Strategy, Europe
It seems we get to do the work to understand the rules but men get the shiny new toy and executive and board attention.
VP, Legal and Privacy, North America
Men in my organisation are held up as the AI experts and the women have no voice.
VP, IT, Europe
AI has helped me improve my learning and confidence by making it easier to understand difficult technical concepts and debug my code. While preparing for coding interviews, I use AI to understand problems, approaches, and mistakes in my solutions.
Early Career, Student, South Asia
Despite my strong interest and preparation in AI, I have not been included in AI initiatives within my organization.
Senior Manager, IT, Latin America
A message from the founder
Women are already shaping AI as builders, leaders and founders. The opportunity now is to turn access into influence: give women a voice in the decisions, recognition for the work, and the support to build at scale. The future of AI will be stronger because women are helping define and build it.
Anna Radulovski, Founder, WomenTech Network and Women AI Builders
Social-ready graphics
Share the findings
Ready-to-post graphics of the headline findings, sized for social. Yours to share with attribution to Women AI Builders and WomenTech Network, with our logos or a plain credit line.
All share-ready graphics. Click any graphic to open it at full size; use Download to save it.
The 2027 edition
Partner on the next State of Women in AI
The study runs every year. Sponsors and research partners help field the next edition to more communities, fund the analysis, and bring the findings to the employers and industry groups that can act on them.
Become a partner Get the 2026 Full Report- Independent, first-party researchRun by Women AI Builders and WomenTech Network, fielded to their own communities.
- Published dataThe full report brings together the study’s data, findings and analysis.
- Confidential by designReported only in aggregate. Quotes carry no names and no employers.
Community partners
Thank you to our community partners
The organizations that helped bring The State of Women in AI 2026 to their communities.
Questions
Frequently asked
Can I reuse the graphics and figures?
Yes, with attribution to Women AI Builders and WomenTech Network and a link to the report. Each graphic is available with our logos or with a plain credit line.
How does this relate to the Women in AI Statistics 2026 page?
The Women in AI Statistics 2026 page compiles external, third-party sourced statistics on women in AI. This report is first-party research from a survey run by Women AI Builders and WomenTech Network. Together they are the reference dataset and the primary research.