Why the PM’s Office of AI plan needs to put women at the table

The Federal Government’s decision to establish an Office of AI is a significant step forward. 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used his address at the University of Sydney to outline a world-first national framework for AI, covering energy, copyright, productivity, education and labour rights. However, this plan cannot succeed without a clear strategy for the workers most exposed to AI-driven change, women. 

But women have been absent from the conversation so far. 

Women are disproportionately represented in many of the roles most exposed to AI, from administration and marketing to communications and professional support. At the same time, research shows women are less likely than men to be using generative AI tools.

That’s not just a skills gap. It’s an opportunity gap.

The people building AI capability today will be the people leading tomorrow. They’ll be the employees driving productivity, the leaders shaping business strategy and the founders building the next generation of Australian technology companies. 

Making it about people

AI is going to change almost every job in this country, and women are standing right in the middle of that change. We can either design this transition with women at the table, or we can watch the gender gap in tech, in pay and in leadership get wider. The Prime Minister has built the room. Now we need to make sure women are in it.

We know that diverse teams build better products. Yet if women aren’t part of shaping AI from the beginning, we risk embedding today’s inequalities into tomorrow’s technology.

That’s why the Office of AI can’t simply be about policy. It has to be about people.

Here are five priorities to ensure women don’t get left behind in the AI economy

1. Give women a seat at the table. Women, and organisations that represent them must be included when the Office of AI sets its priorities, standards and advisory structures, not consulted after decisions are made.

2. Make women visible in Australia’s AI future. The national conversation about AI should reflect the diversity of the people shaping it. We need more women founders, leaders, technologists and researchers represented in the public conversation on AI, alongside government and industry.

3. Invest in women’s AI capability. A national strategy, with real investment, to help women in AI-exposed roles build the skills and confidence to move into AI-enabled careers, not just AI-adjacent ones.

4. Measure what matters. We can’t close the gap if we can’t measure it. Public reporting on how AI adoption, job impacts and productivity gains are tracked by gender, so progress can be measured and acted on.

5. Make industry part of the solution. Employers have a critical role to play. They should be encouraged to close the AI adoption gap for women, including providing access to training, tools and time to build capability at work.

If Australia gets this right, the Office of AI could become the biggest catalyst for women in tech in a generation. If we get it wrong, the gender gap widens in real time.

• Holly Hunt is the founder and CEO Women in Digital