Written by Tuan Pham, Head of Social Impact, APAC at LinkedIn, and Trisha Suresh, Head of Public Policy & Economic Graph, Southeast Asia at LinkedIn

The rise of generative AI (GAI) is reshaping the world of work at a pace few anticipated. While the technology promises efficiency and innovation, it also risks reinforcing old inequalities—particularly for women. Since 2022, we have been in close partnership with UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific to ensure that women have the skills, tools and networks to succeed in an AI economy.

To build on our partnership, we are proud to launch our joint report with UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific titled “Women and Future Jobs”, exploring the impact of GAI on women and the world of work. We believe that with the right data insights, we can drive important action to build a gender equal world of work. The study concludes that with the right interventions—such as skills-based hiring, targeted upskilling, and inclusive AI design—GAI can become a powerful tool for advancing gender equality, not undermining it.

As governments and companies race to harness the power of generative AI, the question remains: will this transformation narrow or widen the gender gap? Our research finds that the answer depends not on the technology itself, but on the choices we make now.

GAI is changing the nature of work, and women could be disproportionately impacted

Between 2016 and 2023, the skills needed for any given job changed by almost 40%. GAI is likely to continue to accelerate this change, especially across the Asia-Pacific region. By 2030, with GAI, skills for jobs would have changed by 71% (compared to 2016) across the region. However, not all jobs will be affected equally.

The potential impact of GAI on the labour market needs a more nuanced analysis. We leverage a conceptual framework to explain how skills – and consequently jobs – can be impacted by GAI technologies. We grouped jobs into three categories: insulated, augmented and disrupted. This is based on the percentage of core skills that are potentially replicable by GAI and the share of core skills that could be complementary to GAI.

We found that women are more likely to work in roles that are vulnerable to GAI disruption—such as administrative support and customer service. In emerging economies such as India and Pakistan, we estimate as much as 80% of job roles held by women could be impacted by GAI.

When job-switching, women are less likely to reduce exposure to job displacement

Globally, 68% of women and 72% of men who leave a job in a GAI-augmented occupation transition into another job that is still in an augmented occupation. Women in the GAI-augmented group are more likely than men to transition into a GAI-disrupted job role, which further exposes them to potential risks of displacement.

We also found that women take longer to enter a new job than men, regardless of whether they were previously working in an augmented, disrupted or insulated job role. There are various reasons that may explain this phenomenon, such as less flexibility in work circumstances, like commuting or hours for women with caregiving responsibilities. Additionally, given that women are more likely to be in disrupted jobs than men, and disrupted jobs have the longest average time to find a new role, these dynamics may interact to increase the overall gender gap.

Skills gaps—and confidence gaps—could be holding women back

The report finds that women are underrepresented in AI-related roles and skills. Globally, 2% of male LinkedIn members list AI engineering skills on their profile, double the proportion that listed the skill two years ago, compared to 1% of women. This may be affected by self-reporting, with women feeling less confident in listing their AI skills.

Men are also more likely than women to list AI literacy as a skill, suggesting their higher confidence in using GAI tools. AI literacy is expected to become crucial in a growing number of occupations as GAI tools are increasingly integrated into more workflows, and the emerging gender gap could impact women’s economic opportunities.

Women are more likely to report soft skills, which will become more in-demand

In a GAI world of work, human skills such as communication, relationship-building, creativity and teamwork are becoming increasingly important. On average, 13.6% of the skills listed by women on LinkedIn are soft skills This gap has widened over the last nine years. In 2015, 9.1% of skills listed by women were soft, compared to 7.8% of skills listed by men. This suggests an opportunity for women, as these skills become increasingly in-demand in an AI economy.

Skills-based hiring can expand opportunities for women, especially in a GAI world of work

Understanding these nuanced reasons for gender differences in skills is crucial. The gaps increasingly reveal the need for more skills-based hiring approaches. A skills-based hiring approach—where candidates are evaluated on what they can do, not just where they’ve been—could significantly expand opportunities for women. Globally, such an approach could lead to a 13% increase in female representation in industries where women are currently most underrepresented.

Our work in India and Indonesia support women with skills to succeed in a GAI world of work