Why closing the AI gender gap matters in the age of agentic systems

By Romila Mattu, Senior Practice Director, Cloudera APAC Professional Services

This year’s International Women’s Day theme, ‘Give to Gain,’ is a reminder that investing in women’s advancement at work delivers returns for everyone. Diverse teams broaden talent pipelines, improve decision-making, and build workplaces where people are more engaged and more likely to stay. Inclusion is not a parallel diversity initiative. It is a business growth strategy. Organisations that intentionally widen access to opportunity build stronger innovation pipelines, deeper talent benches, and more resilient operating models.

Yet women face a double exposure risk in the AI economy: underrepresentation in high-growth AI roles, and overrepresentation in functions most vulnerable to automation. According to an EY report, 42.6% of India’s STEM graduates are women, outpacing several developed nations, their participation in STEM jobs remains disproportionately low. Despite initial workforce entry, women often face stagnation at ...