We are excited to bring Transform 2022 back in-person July 19 and virtually July 20 – 28. SAN FRANCISCO – VentureBeat is proud to announces the winners of the 4th Women in AI Awards and its 4th AI Innovation Awards. The Women in AI Awards honors women leaders, mentors, researchers and entrepreneurs who are transforming the AI industry. This year, over 200 women were nominated over five categories, and we're delighted to introduce our winners. VentureBeat's 4th AI Innovation Awards recognizes and awards noteworthy, compelling, innovative and successful AI initiatives in five categories: Conversational AI, Applied AI, AI on the Edge, AI for Good and AI Innovators (startups less than two years old and with no more than $30 million in funding).

The thriving industry of Data Science is continuously evolving with the technological advancements in Machine Learning and Artificial intelligence. This has opened up whole new avenues for Data Scientists worldwide. Professionals who can handle Big Data and have the necessary knowledge required for understanding, analysing and processing data are in high demand in the job market. However, there is one important thing that also needs to be addressed is the raging problem caused by the gender gap in this sector. As per the statistical report from the Boston Consulting Group, only 15 to 22 per cent of the Data Science-related professional roles are occupied by women.

Sharvari Gujja is the current director of bioinformatics at the advanced artificial intelligence laboratory in Genuity Science. Having been a bioinformatician before, she has worked her way to the top by making significant contributions to numerous high-grade scientific publications, in the research of Cell Stem Cell, Nature Metabolism and many more. She and her team at Genuity Science focus on the application of domain-specific and proprietary AI algorithms for revealing causal dependencies and novel patterns for understanding disease at an advanced biological level.

Understanding how important representation, role models, and mentoring had been to my own career journey, I started a network to support other Amazon employees looking to pursue a career in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). Open to anyone working at Amazon, the global Women in ML/AI group hosts regular networking events and organizes panel discussions with industry experts on career development. To discuss learnings from our professional journey, I sat down with fellow board members, including senior documentation manager Michelle Luna, senior software development manager Anna Khabibullina and general manager and product lead Shubha Pant. Here are some of the advice we found invaluable when launching and building a career in the field. Luna, Khabibullina, Pant and I are all proof that there are many paths into ML and AI -- from the traditional and linear, to the more unconventional.

The discussions around the role of women leaders in AI have always piqued the interest of the technology industry. With growing interest in coding for women, companies have become more sensitive in how they embrace inclusivity to close gender gaps in technology leadership roles, especially in AI and machine learning domains. Organizations hire women leaders in AI to bring a balance to overall business outcomes, encouraging young women professionals to take up more coding jobs in an industry that suffers heavily due to a severe lack of skilled workforce and leaders. Today's predictions series chat features one of the top women leaders in AI who has been encouraging young female professionals to take up challenging AI projects and showcase new-gen career pathways. We spoke to Leah about fascinating developments in the field of AI, machine learning and data science, and the future of embedded AI in business intelligence tools.

VentureBeat is proud to bring back the Women in AI Breakfast and Awards online for Transform 2021. In the male-dominated tech industry, women are constantly faced with the gender equity gap. There is so much work in the tech industry to become more inclusive of bridging the gender gap while at the same time creating a diverse community. VentureBeat is committed year after year to emphasize the importance of women leaders by giving them the platform to share their stories and obstacles they face in their male-dominated industries. As part of Transform 2021, we are excited to host our annual Women in AI Breakfast, presented by Capital One, and recognize women leaders' accomplishments with our Women in AI Awards.

As part of its annual Women Leaders in AI program, today IBM (NYSE: IBM) recognized 40 innovative female business leaders from 18 countries who are using IBM Watson to help drive transformation, growth and innovation across a wide variety of industries. This year honorees include women leaders from The Clorox Company, City of Austin, The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, EY, Ford Motor Company, ServiceNow and many more. Celebrating diverse talent in the field of AI and creating a culture of inclusion are important as the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women in the workplace becomes more apparent. A recent IBM Institute for Business Value study revealed that despite heightened awareness of the challenges facing women in the workplace driven by the pandemic, gender equality is still not a top priority for 70 percent of global businesses, according to business professionals surveyed. Moreover, fewer women surveyed hold senior vice president, vice president, director and manager roles in 2021 than they did in 2019.

As claimed by an international study, with regards to women's progress in the workforce, India is at odds due to various reasons. This study also unveiled that, while the employment of Indian women in the workforce is only 26 per cent, Indian Women contribute to about 22% in Artificial Inetelligence expertise. Gauri Padmanabhan, Partner, Heidrick & Struggles says – "Thanks to the growing involvement of leaders committed to creating a more inclusive work environment, we are seeing a growing trend of more women becoming equipped with the latest technology skill sets. This indicates an increasing number of women in India are entering a space which was commonly seen as a male-dominated domain." Geetha Manjunath and Nidhi Mathur began Niramai, a health-tech that utilizes AI to detect breast cancer.

The excitement of using Artificial Intelligence has not dwindled from the time it has been unfolded. In KPMG study on “living in the AI world 2020: achievements and challenges of AI across 5 industries (retail, financial service, healthcare, transportation, and technology), revealed that 92% of respondents agreed that leveraging the spectrum of AI technologies will make their companies run more efficiently. Amidst the admiration towards AI, IBM created the Women Leaders in AI program in 2019. This was a way to acknowledge the women leading in AI and encourage females to lend a hand in the field of AI. Through this IBM, planned to make the efforts of the honourees more visible to the world. 2020 IBM women leaders were honoured for outstanding leadership in the AI space. Here is the list of women leaders in AI 2020 honorees:- Aarthi Fernandez Who is a Global head of Trade Operations and SEA Trade COO at Standard Chartered Bank? She is a C-suite executive with deep insight on how digitalization can positively disrupt US$17 trillion global trade. She is into deploying AI/Machine learning to make trade financing simple, faster, and better for corporate clients and mitigate compliance risk. Piera Valeria Cordaro She is a commercial Operations Innovation Manager, Wing Tre S.p.A., Italy. She is a speaker, advocating the use of AI in customer operations. Along with her team and with support by IBM Watson, implemented two chatbots, to improve customer experience. Both bots have made it possible to handle a million queries efficiently. Amala Duggirala Who is the enterprise Chief operation and Technology officer, Regions Bank, United States. To handle customers’ inquiries she deployed IBM Watson’s assistant- virtual banker persona, ”Reggie”. From the time of its implementation 4.3 million customer calls have been answered, with 22% of them being handled by AI. Mara Reiff Vice President, Strategy and Business Intelligence, Beli Canada, Canada. She used AI to improve operations, loyalty, and brand. She worked with IBM to install Watson studio Local using Red Hat open shift. This resulted in smarter, fast decision-making with improved customer experience leading to increased sales. Mara suggests everybody to “Make sure to stop and smell the roses. Take each opportunity to learn something new and embrace change”. Amy Shreve- McDonald She is lead Product Marketing Manager for Business Digital experience, AI&T, USA. EVA (Enterprise Virtual Agent) was launched in February 2019, to improve customer chat experience, it uses Watson assistant. This system has been able to handle 45% chats on its own, resulting in reduced costs and expanding 24/7 support. She also received AT&T’s 2019 Visionary Award for her work advocating EVA. Ryoko Miyashita Manager, customer service department, customer service section JACCS CO., LTD Japan. She launched a Watson-enabled operator onboarding tool, that resulted in reduced new operator training period by 30%. The tool has increase customer satisfaction. Her advice to the younger self is “It is important to believe in yourself, but it is equally or more important to believe in people around you. I would encourage myself to have many experiences and garner knowledge to objectively evaluate things, not blindly accept or exclude others’ opinions”. Carol Chen She is Vice President for Global Marketing, Global Commercial, Royal Dutch Shell, United Kingdom. Along with her team, Carol is partnering is planning for digital transformation with the creation of “Oren”- a Smart Minning Platform, by partnering with IBM. This platform will offer an innovative and creative experience for users in the sector to deliver connectivity and integration across the ecosystem. To use AI, she advice commencing with analyzing the business outcome that one wants and customer pain points that one can cater to. The next step would be to determine how to leverage AI and data to solve the problem. Rosa Martinez Cognitive Project Manager, CiaxaBank, Spain. For those who consider using AI, her advice to them is ‘first to understand the business case as it may take time more than expected. This phase can result in a non-AI project example a ‘software as usual’. But moving further with the project there can be more AI application for sure to work on’. Lee- Lim Sok Know Deputy Principal, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore. Under the leadership of Sok Keow, The higher education institution in Singapore ‘Temasek Polytechnic’ launched the “Ask TP” chatbot in January 2018. The chatbot helped current as well as prospective students to get answers to the questions asked about Temasek and also gave personalized course advice. In the 1st two weeks of 2020, ‘Ask’ TP’ responded to more than4,351 questions. She suggests everybody “deeply appreciate ‘people’ as they are the most critical asset in an organization, and a leader must develop a team”. Itumeleng Monale Executive Head of Enterprise Information Management Personal and Business Banking, Standard Bank of South Africa, South Africa. By deploying many analytical tools in her organization, she can uplift the revenue of the company. Through models of analytics relationships, bankers are experiencing a 40% revenue uplift when comparing to their peers. She sees AI as a tool through which business delivery can be accelerated, value could be added to human capital and relationships can build further. With this AI era, Research has postulated that corporate giants still have less percentage of women in the technical department. Facebook’s diversity report suggests that there are 22 % of women in the technical department and 15 per cent of women work in the AI research group. Similarly, Google’s diversity report suggests that only 10% women are working on  “machine intelligence”. There is a need to encourage women participation as there are many more women around the world, stepping out of the pre-existed sheathe and going beyond the walls to shape the future. Opening up the AI platform for all will fetch us more talented beings which can help us celebrate the use of AI in different fields and different ways. Reference:- https://www.ibm.com/watson/women-leaders-in-ai/2020-list https://advisory.kpmg.us/content/dam/advisory/en/pdfs/2020/technology-living-in-an-ai-world.pdf   About the author:- Kirti Kumar is a budding HR professional currently pursuing PGDM in HR and Marketing at New Delhi Institue of Management. She looks forward to opportunities that can hone her skills. She is agile in her attitude with versatility in her action

Women are underrepresented at the top. What can your organization do to change this? Melinda Gates once said that “a woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.” While considerable progress has been made in recent years on gender inclusivity and diversity in the business world and most countries have in place rules and guidelines for increasing the representation of women in the boardroom, a stark divide still exists at the top of the corporate pyramid. The sixth edition of “Women in the Boardroom,” a study conducted by Deloitte in 2018, revealed that women hold only 16.9% of board seats worldwide. Of the 2,765 MSCI ACWI Index companies, only one in five directors were women in 2019, up a marginal 2.1% from the year before. There is no dearth of inspirational women who have been a role model for millions of aspiring women entrepreneurs in the world. Women in leadership positions are hardly viewed as an anomaly, and yet the male-dominated boardroom still lacks the diversity that is advocated and expected. Diversity is so much more than just an organizational goal. Studies have long shown that there are tangible benefits of diversity in an organization. If the organization chooses to look beyond discriminating factors like gender, they will be able to recruit from a larger talent pool. By embracing diversity, they can attract and retain the best talent. And when a diverse, talented group of people work together, there is a better exchange of ideas, viewpoints, market insights, and problem-solving skills. This results in a high level of employee engagement and improved financial performance. A diverse organization not only signals an attractive working environment for talent but also a promising opportunity for investors. Diversity Affects Performance Vinita Shrivastava, Chief Human Resources Officer at Syngene International Ltd., says that boards will a greater gender balance “bring a lot of finesse, sophistication, and human touch to the boardroom,” which creates an “objective and unbiased environment.” It also allows for a variety of perspectives, which can boost both strategy and execution. Because of Boards’ pivotal role in company growth and decision-making on behalf of shareholders, both of which involve considerations of economic, social, and political realities, diversity on the Board is a crucial element in its ability to successfully perform. And the number of qualified women out there means that there is little reason for any Board to not be enhancing diversity – and performing successfully. According to Arun Balakrishnan, Honorary Chairman Bengaluru at the Institute of Directors, the different perspective that women can offer is an indispensable tool in a male-dominated world. “The key to success is always intelligence and hard work, with an eye on results,” he said. “A woman also often finds herself faced with the need to keep abreast of new paradigms in management and technology to boost her value among peers.” Empowering Women To Make The Leap Women tend to have an edge over men when it comes to emotional intelligence, which can be leveraged in managing shareholders and employees more efficiently. Shrivastava maintains that if women have confidence in themselves, are well-versed in their subject, and have a good balance of IQ, the emotional quotient, the adaptability quotient, and the sociability quotient, then “there is nothing that can stop us.” “It is very important to be aware of the world around us and also try and network to the best of our ability,” she added. “In order to be a part of the boardroom, one needs to have a holistic view of things around us and be able to articulate that well.” Shrivastava advises aspiring women leaders to have a 360-degree view of topics around them in addition to their specialization, network strategically, and make their presence felt. “Move ahead with grit and passion,” she said. “Don’t feel challenged at any time because you are a woman but feel empowered that you bring a different set of skills and perspective to the table. Articulate your views clearly and don’t feel intimidated.” First and foremost, women must believe in themselves and be willing to negotiate for themselves without compromise and build on their successes. Facing the steep uphill climb to the top of the corporate ladder means using all the tools in one’s arsenal and not being afraid to tout one’s accomplishments. Beating The Status Quo According to a Credit Suisse Research Institute report published in 2019, female representation on boards increased just 4.3 percentage points to 15.2% in 2019 since 2014 in India, which is significantly lower than the global average of 20.6% for the same period. India saw a slight improvement in the representation of women in senior management, rising from 6.9% in 2016 to 8.5% in 2019. A recent study of “Women on Boards 2020” ranked India 12th globally in female representation on company boards. Among the 628 listed companies who took part in the survey, 55% have women as directors of their Boards, which is 14% higher than last year. The increase in the number of female directors over the past year is an encouraging sign that organizations are starting to prioritize gender diversity in the boardroom. This positive upward trend is in part due to regulations that have been put in place to encourage gender diversity of Boards. In response to the struggles women face in making their mark in the boardroom, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in compliance with the Companies Act 2013, made it compulsory to have at least one woman on the board from October 2014. In addition, SEBI mandated that vacant board seats previously held by women are required to be filled by other women. This regulatory nudge has paved the way toward better gender diversity in the boardroom to 17% year-on-year in March 2020 from just 6% in March 2014. Balakrishnan says the appreciable increase in gender diversity on Indian Boards reflects the fact that more qualified and competent women are coming up the corporate ladder and their presence goes beyond just a statutory requirement. But a lack of enforcement and Board accountability mean that in practice, the regulations can sometimes be bent or ignored. Smaller and family-run organizations, for example, tend to appoint their female relatives to the Board — women who are often neither qualified nor have participatory powers on the Board and whose presence simply marks compliance with the SEBI rules. Larger organizations, on the other hand, might favor the same handful of known names already serving on Boards elsewhere to fill the slot. This approach overburdens women who are already serving on various boards and discourages a new set of aspiring leaders at the same time. The reasons that organizations cite for their lack of active diversity are a Catch-22. The most common is reportedly fewer women at the senior management and C-suite level who are “board ready” – which begs the question of why these organizations are not taking steps to help prepare women for Board positions. Another reason seems to be the patriarchal mindset of organizations that are reluctant to adapt to change and want to stick to their old methods. But organizations have the power to rectify these perceived obstacles by adopting the right mindset and taking the right measures. Women’s presence on Boards needs to reach a certain critical mass for it to have a real impact. The end goal for organizations should not be just getting more female representation on their Boards but ensuring it as a step toward gender parity. To achieve this, the industry as a whole needs to take concrete action. Legislation does play a part, but it is only a part of the equation. Here are a few ways that organizations can move in the right direction for better representation of women on Boards. Reducing Bias And Casting A Wider Net Bias poses a huge constraint on diversity, and organizations must aim to reduce bias during the recruitment process and cast a wider net while looking for talent within and outside the company. “In India, organizations have limited their search to the more experienced women leaders,” said Pranab Barua, Chairman of Loyal Hospitality. “One way of overcoming this is to take some risks and broaden the net covering bright young leaders from the next rung. This will not only bring youth to some of the Boards but will also create a huge future pipeline of women leaders for Board positions.” Making A Commitment Gender diversity and representation in the organization must not be just a goal but must become part of the organizational culture. The decision to hire more women at the C-suite level and appoint a certain number of female directors needs to come after taking into view the many benefits rather than looking at it narrowly through the lens of compliance. Once there is a commitment from the top, finding the right candidates becomes much easier. Organizations should develop standard procedures and processes that will enable them to stick to the commitment. Mandatory disclosures about diversity, well-defined diversity criteria, measurable targets, periodic refreshment of the board, investor engagement, and voting are some of the ways through which organizations can convert their gender diversity commitment into a measurable achievement. Sponsoring And Mentoring Offering sponsorship and mentorship programs to support, groom, empower, and prepare women for board positions is an important step toward ensuring that there is a pool of qualified candidates for the present as well as the future. The companies can introduce campaigns for their women employees to create awareness on how they can climb the corporate ladders. Regular guidance and mentorship programs dedicated to encouraging women at workplace to take up the senior positions will generate a good pipeline of boardroom ready women leaders. Creating Role Models Creating strong female role models within the organization encourages other women to aspire for leadership positions and establishes a precedent. These women can also become facilitators to guide and support other aspiring women. When a woman holds a position at the C-suite or board level, it often makes it easier to increase the representation over time. The Mid-Level Management Hitch A woman’s career usually stalls at middle management because of a lack of opportunities and support. To encourage retention and growth of women in the workplace, organizations should provide more flexibility for working parents and facilitate easy transitions for those returning from a career gap. In addition, the organization should provide professional development opportunities, challenging roles, and elevated responsibilities for women at the mid-management level so that they feel empowered and stand out for that next step. Are You Board Ready? Organizations have a responsibility to come up with initiatives promoting gender equality at the board level. But women leaders also need to be introspective and analyze situations themselves. They should volunteer and seek guidance from their mentors and ask themselves whether their existing skill set is enough to become a board member. Women leaders should consider undergoing new training to upgrade their talents, which will distinguish them from others in the organization. Corporations thrive on networks, and women leaders should endeavor to develop their contacts among industry leaders to climb up the corporate ladder. Fortune favors the brave, and women should be bold about asking more questions to establish their position in senior leadership instead of waiting for organizations to create a conducive ecosystem. For women to enter the boardroom, they must first ask themselves whether they are boardroom ready. The benefits of a diverse board cannot be realized without an unbiased and liberal organizational culture. Diversity spurs more diversity. Any approach for diversity in the boardroom must be synchronous with broader diversity in the organization. One without the other is simply ineffective. Organizations should reflect the diverse world we live in, and organizational heads should be responsible for executing this vision. They should set the tone at the top and make a case for diversity and gender parity in the organization as a priority. Unless this becomes the norm, women will continue to be underrepresented in the C-suite and boardroom. Now is the time for change. At Stanton Chase, we advocate for diversity and inclusion at the workplace. Stanton Chase is a proud member of the 30% Club and has established itself as a leader in promoting gender-diversity on boards. To find out how Stanton Chase can help your organization diversify its boardroom, please contact Veena Pandey. About Authors: Ashwini Prakash is a Managing Partner for Stanton Chase’s India offices. She has over 18 years’ experience in executive search consulting and specializes in the consumer products, retail, life sciences, and healthcare sectors. She is a Certified Assessment Consultant (Psychometric Assessments) and a Certified Organisation Culture Expert. Veena Pandey heads the editorial and content function for the Stanton Chase India offices. She has an extensive background in both qualitative and quantitative research.