Women in the Middle East show strong AI uptake. What will it take to close the gap?

According to the 2026 AI Index Report by the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Saudi Arabia ranks highest worldwide in empowering women in AI, with women accounting for 32.3% of AI inventors and authors. This is higher than Australia and Canada.

These might seem surprising, but they shouldn’t. In the Middle East, women have been making significant strides in the digital world long before AI became mainstream. According to Wamda, the share of women digital entrepreneurs in the region was 35% compared to only 10% worldwide a few years ago.

Despite these gains, women in the region remain underrepresented in technical and senior positions, and fewer are participating in upskilling.

Experts point out that adopting AI and fully integrating it are two separate challenges. This gap has serious consequences.

Katie Godfrey, a business strategist, author, and podcaster who uses AI to run her global mentoring business, says. “A woman using AI on her phone to draft a caption is not the same as a woman leading an AI development team, publishing research, or sitting in the boardroom when AI strategy is being set.”

While women may be increasingly using the technology, they are still largely absent from the roles that decide what is built, who it serves, and how people and economies can benefit from it, says Zeta Yarwood, a UAE-based career and life coach. She states that part of this power gap comes from how women are socialized from an early age. 

“AI currently rewards confidence, visibility, experimentation, and speed. Boys and men are often encouraged to engage in new activities and take risks before they fully understand them. At the same time, women are more likely to feel pressure to already be competent before putting themselves forward publicly. In rapidly evolving spaces like AI, that difference matters because early engagement compounds into expertise, networks, and leadership opportunities later.”

Godfrey sees firsthand the implications of this gap. When working with women across industries, she notes that they often wait until they feel completely ready before putting themselves forward. “That hesitation, whether it comes from conditioning, environment, or a lack of visible role models, has a real cost.”

The cost is that it reinforces the vicious cycle of gender disparity in AI. With fewer women adopting and leading in AI, senior roles will remain predominantly held by men. 

In the Middle East, where national strategies are being adopted to spearhead digital transformation, the underrepresentation of women becomes even more critical to address. 

BREAKING THIS CYCLE

One way to break this cycle is to challenge the idea that AI is only for technical professionals.

Yarwood notes that while AI may be viewed as a technical, engineering-led field, many of the most important AI questions involve interpersonal and emotional intelligence skills, such as leadership, communication, ethics, governance, and human behavior. “Those are areas where many women already have strong capabilities and experience, including on the technical side, even if that contribution is not always recognized.”

Jessica Scopacasa, co-founder of Olive Gaea, a sustainability startup leveraging AI to help organizations collect and analyze data, doesn’t come from a tech background, but has studied diverse disciplines such as sustainability, international affairs, and public relations, and she also agrees. She believes those working in AI don’t only need technical skills. Rather, they need to think critically about how to use AI and its impact on communities, societies, and the workplace. More importantly, they need to do so ethically, given the technology’s amplifying effect.

“It’s important today to understand AI and use it when needed in our daily jobs, but it’s also important to understand that we always need to ask, not only can we build this model, but also how to build this model? What are we using it for? Who will benefit? What is the impact that this is having on the world, in our communities?”

Scopacasa adds that she always keeps these questions in mind when using AI. “I hope that we all collectively continue always asking these questions while leveraging a very powerful tool that sometimes we don’t yet fully understand.”

GETTING MORE WOMEN ON BOARD

Having more women in AI is important. The more women use AI, the less likely it is to be biased, since the models are trained on existing data. And the more women are involved in decision-making and policy, the more say they will have in how AI is run. The key is to get them on board.

While governments in the region, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have made ambitious investments in AI and in women’s participation, policy alone is not enough. Organizations must also do their part. “I think there is a push from private organizations as they see the benefit of it,” says Scopacasa. “There are some good initiatives. There is definitely a lot more to do, but it’s inching toward the right direction.”

Until that happens, women don’t have to wait for businesses and organizations to catch up. 

“AI is one of the biggest leveling opportunities we have seen in a long time,” says Godfrey. “It removes certain barriers that have historically made scaling harder: limited time, limited resources, and limited access to large teams. A woman running a business on her own can now operate with a level of capability that would previously have required a full support structure around her.”

Adoption is important, but using it to strengthen their agency and contribute to their professional development is essential to closing the gender gap.

Godfrey adds, “If women opt out of that, intentionally or not, the gap in business growth, income, and leadership between men and women widens further. And in a region moving as fast as the Middle East, that gap can open up very quickly.”