AI Boom Could Widen the Gender Pay Gap as Women Miss Out on Its Fastest-Growing Jobs

The AI boom is creating a new generation of high-paying jobs, but women are struggling to gain a foothold at the top of the industry. LinkedIn research shows women hold just 13% of C-suite AI leadership roles across 27 countries, highlighting a stark gender gap as companies race to expand their AI operations.

The disparity could have major financial consequences, as AI roles often command much higher salaries than other jobs and are expected to play an increasingly important role in the future of work.

AI Jobs Carry a Major Pay Premium

AI job postings in the US have roughly doubled since 2023, according to LinkedIn. The company says AI jobs typically pay more than twice as much as non-AI roles. But women are not evenly represented across the sector. LinkedIn found that women are concentrated in some lower-paying AI occupations, including data annotation, while representation is lower in some highly paid technical roles.

Women's representation among LinkedIn members with the title Member of Technical Staff fell from 23% in 2021 to 19% in 2026, even as the number of people in those roles nearly tripled. That difference matters because access to highly paid technical and leadership positions can influence future earnings and career progression.

Women Also Face Greater AI Exposure

The challenge extends beyond hiring. LinkedIn research found that women account for 57% of workers in occupations considered most likely to be disrupted by generative AI, compared with 43% for men. That creates a potential imbalance.

Women could face greater exposure to disruption in some existing occupations while remaining underrepresented in the new AI roles being created. The research does not establish that AI will cause widespread job losses among women. It does, however, highlight a potential vulnerability as employers adopt the technology.

Keeping Pace Can Be Difficult

Women already working in AI say the speed of change can create additional pressure. Jayeeta Putatunda, an AI engineering lead at investment firm Turing, described returning from four months of maternity leave to find that the technology had changed substantially. She said support from colleagues and an equal division of childcare helped her catch up.

Putatunda has also described an industry where rapid advances can require workers to spend significant time learning new systems and keeping pace with developments. Her experience illustrates one challenge women can face in a fast-moving sector. It does not establish that maternity leave or caring responsibilities have the same effect on every worker.

Hiring Networks Could Reinforce the Gap

The AI industry is relatively young, but that does not automatically make it an equal playing field. Brenda Darden Wilkerson, president of AnitaB.org, said companies were hiring rapidly while continuing to rely on established professional networks and referrals. That could affect who gets access to emerging opportunities.

Women account for about one-third of technology jobs in the US, according to figures cited in the supplied research. Research has also found that women leave the technology sector at higher rates than men, with workplace culture and barriers to advancement among the factors identified.

Who Will Benefit From the AI Boom?

The concern is ultimately about who captures the economic benefits of AI. Urvashi Batra, co-founder and CEO of AI platform Prioriwise, said she had experienced differences in how she and her male co-founder were treated by investors.

Sarah Steinberg, head of global public policy partnerships at LinkedIn, said women were significantly underrepresented in the AI economy. The available evidence does not show that AI has already caused the gender pay gap to widen. It does show a significant disparity in access to AI employment, including the higher-paying opportunities emerging in the sector.

As AI expands, that disparity could become increasingly important. If women continue to enter the sector at much lower rates than men, they could miss out on some of the highest-paid opportunities created by the technology, potentially reinforcing existing inequalities in pay and career progression.