The AI skills gap: Women’s interest in generative AI outpaces available training

If you’re a woman in tech or business looking to advance your career with artificial intelligence (AI) skills, this post is for you. You’ll discover the latest research on women in AI, understand common learning pathways, and find specific Amazon Web Services (AWS) training resources to help you move forward—whether you’re just interested in learning the basics or ready to become an AI expert.

Women in professional roles across industries show strong interest in learning generative AI skills, according to research commissioned by AWS. A nationwide survey of nearly 1,000 U.S. women conducted by Morning Consult found that 77% are interested in learning how to apply generative AI capabilities, such as automating tasks, enhancing data analysis, fostering creativity, and aiding content creation to their current roles. Furthermore, 80% state they would be interested in applying to jobs that involve generative AI, and more than half (55%) believe gaining generative AI skills will improve their career progression. However, while 75% of women surveyed are familiar with generative AI, only 6% consider themselves experts.

Additional takeaways include:

A mixed picture of generative AI training
As many organizations are experimenting with generative AI, women are eager for their employers to provide more skills development support. 43% say that their employer offers at least some support for generative AI skills development, and 42% state that their employer’s support isn’t adequate. Furthermore, 45% say there isn’t an organizational push to incorporate generative AI into their roles.

Key barriers and motivators to generative AI learning
The top barriers preventing women from developing generative AI capabilities include not knowing where to start or what skills to focus on (35%), uncertainty around how generative AI applies to their role (31%), lack of access to training resources (27%), and limited time due to busy schedules (26%). To overcome these hurdles, women have identified employer-sponsored training (53%), affordable online courses (50%), flexible learning options (47%), and free or low-cost training programs (42%) as top motivators to generative AI skills development.

Free and low-cost training resources for AI career growth
To help women—and all learners—upskill in AI, AWS offers more than 135 free and low-cost AI and machine learning (ML) courses and learning resources available through AWS digital learning centers, AWS Skill Builder and AWS Educate. For example, AWS recently launched Generative AI Essentials on AWS, a one-day class to help customers unlock the power of generative AI, and a course on Amazon’s new Nova models to help users understand Nova’s capabilities to generate text and creative content. AWS continues to innovate and launch new courses as AI technology rapidly evolves.

People who want to validate their AI skills and knowledge with an industry-recognized credential can get AWS Certified with the AWS Certified AI Practitioner certification, which is designed for learners to validate their understanding of core AI and ML concepts and use cases. AWS Educate offers a learning pathway to help individuals prepare for the certification exam. AWS Skill Builder also offers an exam prep course that includes additional learning content, labs, exam-style prep questions, and the AWS Certification Official Pretest, which can help learners assess their exam readiness, empowering them to approach exam day with confidence.

More experienced practitioners who have at least one year of experience building, deploying, and maintaining AI and ML solutions with AWS can pursue the AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate. It validates a person’s technical ability in implementing ML workloads in production and operationalizing them. AWS Skill Builder offers an exam prep plan that includes hands-on labs via AWS Builder Labs and game-based learning like AWS Cloud Quest to build real-world skills with interactive training.

With AI poised to transform how we work, Amazon is committed to helping people gain AI literacy so they can benefit from all AI has to offer and to address the AI skills shortage. In 2023, Amazon launched AI Ready, a commitment to provide free AI skills training to two million people globally by 2025. Amazon met this goal a year ahead of schedule, and continues to help learners from all walks of life gain AI skills.

Ready to build your AI skills? Start your journey today with AWS Skill Builder and AWS Educate.

About the research: Morning Consult conducted a survey in June 2024 among 999 women in professional roles in the U.S. The interviews were conducted online via a quantitative survey.