Nationwide: AI Adoption Can Reshape Women's Finance Careers

Women account for 42% of the financial services workforce but remain underrepresented in leadership positions. Research published by Nationwide, Cambridge Judge Business School and Bain & Company examines how responsible AI adoption could affect progression pathways for women in the sector.

According to the paper, AI deployment could help close representation gaps rather than reinforce existing inequalities. The research suggests AI could reshape recruitment processes, leadership pathways and career progression across financial services.

The study notes that women hold 36% of leadership roles but occupy just 8% of CEO positions at FTSE 350 companies. Dame Debbie Crosbie DBE, Chief Executive Officer of Nationwide Building Society and the UK's Women in Finance Champion, is among those examining how AI might address this imbalance.

Debbie says: "AI is not just a technology choice for financial services, it is a leadership choice. Used well, it can help make recruitment and progression fairer, widen access to opportunity, and shine a light on talent that might otherwise be overlooked."

Automation threatens female roles

The research examines automation risk by gender across different employment categories. In high-earning countries, approximately 3.5% of male employment faces high automation risk.

Female employment shows more than double that exposure, with 9.6% at high risk of automation according to the paper. The data suggests women could face disproportionate job displacement as automation technologies advance.

Co-author Nishma Gosrani OBE, Partner at Bain & Company, notes that agentic AI is moving beyond back office functions into customer-facing roles. The technology is reshaping positions including advisers, underwriters and relationship managers.

Nishma says: "The pace of change in financial services is unlike anything we have seen. Agentic AI is no longer confined to back office automation; it is moving into the front office, becoming the first touchpoint with customers and reshaping the roles of advisers, underwriters and relationship managers."

Employee engagement shows gender divide

The paper identifies a gender gap in AI adoption rates among financial services employees. Men show higher rates of informal engagement with gen AI tools compared to women.

According to the research, cultural, organisational and behavioural factors influence which employees engage with AI technologies. Women demonstrate more hesitancy in adopting the technology than their male counterparts.

This engagement gap could affect career progression as AI becomes embedded in workplace operations. The research suggests organisations need to address adoption barriers to ensure equal access to AI-enabled productivity gains.

Some employees are choosing to embrace technological change rather than resist it, according to the paper.

Governance determines workforce outcomes

Feryal Erhun, Professor of Operations and Technology Management and Academic Director of the Wo+Men's Leadership Centre at Cambridge Judge Business School, argues that strategic choices in AI implementation could reset structural inequalities.

Feryal explains: "As AI and automation accelerate, there is a real risk that women will be disproportionately disadvantaged, but there is also a genuine strategic opportunity to reset long-standing structural inequalities. That is precisely why this research matters. The question is how to ensure that women are the architects and governors of AI in finance services. Our aim is that this work provides institutions with a practical blueprint for ensuring AI becomes a force that closes, rather than widens, the gender gap in financial services and provides actionable insights."

The paper highlights how few firms have embedded AI into core operations or demonstrated measurable value from deployment. Nishma notes that closing this implementation gap requires governance and rigour.

Nishma says: "Only a small fraction of firms have truly embedded it into how they operate, and fewer still can evidence the value. Closing that gap demands rigour and governance, not just ambition. Get it right and AI becomes a source of trust. Get it wrong and it becomes a liability."

Workforce planning faces new questions

Nishma says: "Yet only a small fraction of firms have truly embedded it into how they operate, and fewer still can evidence the value. Closing that gap demands rigour and governance, not just ambition. Get it right and AI becomes a source of trust. Get it wrong and it becomes a liability."

The research points to the UK's combination of the Women in Finance Charter and AI regulatory framework as creating conditions for responsible deployment. The paper describes the UK's approach to AI regulation as principles-based and emerging.

According to the authors, organisations in the US and EU could follow the UK's approach of combining high female board representation with AI governance frameworks. The paper suggests this combination creates conditions for equitable technology deployment.

The research indicates that Boards and Executive Committees will need to address several workforce planning questions. These include how to utilise AI effectively, how to protect jobs from automation risk and how to ensure female representation in technology governance decisions.