By Federike Jung
for the 2025 Risky Women Writing Competition, presented in partnership with Ocorian
This article does not claim AI as the cure-all for GRC. In fact, the future of the field won’t be defined by AI alone, but by those women who choose to engage with it.
When Ana, a compliance officer at a European payment company, tried an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool for regulatory horizon scanning, she first thought it was nothing but a glorified compliance newsletter. Instead, what used to take her hours of identifying, reading, and summarizing was done in minutes. She used the saved time, not just to improve her barista skills, but to discuss emerging risks and regulatory requirements – forward-thinking that got her noticed for a leadership project.
Despite the reported productivity and efficiency boosts (see McKinsey, 2025) [1] and the EU AI Act setting governance and oversight expectations [2], Ana’s story is not universal: Studies show that women are 10–20% less likely to use generative AI, compared to their male peers [3][4]. In Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), this adoption gap matters. Women often represent the majority of the compliance workforce [5], yet hold far fewer senior and leadership roles [6][7]. While the underlying reasons are complex, the decision to use AI could be the dividing line between continuous manual tasks and strategic opportunities. Here are 3 reasons why – and how – more women in GRC should engage with AI:
Reason 1: Keep the Edge – Competitiveness and Efficiency
It is no secret that the current regulatory landscape is more demanding than ever. For example, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published over 1400 entries on their website in the last year alone, over 260% more than in 2023 [8]. With every new consultation, enforcement action and discussion paper, the workload for compliance professionals increases while their tight deadlines remain.
According to the PWC Global Compliance Survey (2025), AI-powered tools significantly accelerate regulatory monitoring, cutting compliance delays by up to 50%, and improving accuracy [9]. For professionals that embrace such tools this means meeting the increased compliance workload and freeing up their resources for strategic contributions. As the EU AI Act claims AI governance as a mandatory GRC skillset [2], women who understand risk classifications, bias mitigation, and transparency obligations will become invaluable workforces.
Reason 2: Fill the Skill Gap – Career Advancement
Fewer women adopt AI tools than men, resulting in an “adoption gap” [4][10]. As AI skills often translate into productivity gains and strategic tasks, those comfortable with AI tools are more likely to meet demanding workloads and be considered for high-profile projects. Currently, fewer women take up senior GRC positions [7]. To bridge both gaps, women can build AI fluency through these possible starting points and initiatives. They teach diverse practical skills from writing prompts to aligning internal processes and audit standards:
- EU AI Act Awareness and Impact for Women Innovators [11]:
Provides insights on how women can lead AI ethical initiatives, policy compliance, and accountability efforts in tech roles affected by the EU AI Act. - WiAIG (Women in AI Governance) [12]:
Global community empowering women in AI governance and innovation. It fosters diversity, provides educational resources, mentorship, and networking - Risky Women – Women in Governance, Risk & Compliance [13]:
Community and event series that connects women working in governance, risk, and compliance globally. Provides a platform for sharing insights - Connecting with AI providers:
Particularly small startups are often open towards co-developments, workshops, test-loops for hands-on experiences and exchanging ideas.
Reason 3: Be Part of the Change – Influence AI Outcomes
Many women are hesitant about AI due to privacy concerns and fear of algorithmic biases [10]. Ironically, this shows exactly why women must be at the center of AI conversations and not on the sidelines:
Most AI systems learn from user interaction and improve based on feedback, i.e. ChatGPT has a thumbs up and down icon and also learns from previous inquiries. As AI over time trains and adapts to this input, the question arises: What happens, if most input stems from male GRC professionals?
To illustrate, here is an example of Amazon’s failed recruiting tool (2018) [14]. Trained on ten years of male-dominated hiring data, the AI penalized resumes containing the word “women” – for example, “women’s chess club” – and elevated candidates with male-coded language. The program was abandoned after internal auditing revealed this systematic bias.
This shows that training AI and making its output reflect diverse voices, usage is key. The EU AI Act explicitly recognizes risks of discrimination and the need for human oversight and ethical review [2].
Women’s participation in GRC AI initiatives, in testing software for their companies and sharing their insights benefits threefold: First, it meets the regulatory expectations of the EU AI Act. Second, AI fluency becomes an asset for both women and businesses. Third, and potentially most importantly, female participation helps to make AI tools and their professional application more inclusive, reflecting a wider variety of needs and experiences.
Conclusion
AI is becoming a core tool to handle increasing GRC complexity. Women who actively test, leverage and criticize AI technologies, will sharpen their competitiveness, narrow the skill and adoption gap, and also meet regulatory oversight expectations as posed by the EU AI Act. This article does not claim AI as the cure-all for GRC. In fact, the future of the field won’t be defined by AI alone, but by those women who choose to engage with it.
References
[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/superagency-in-the-workplace-empowering-people-to-unlock-ais-full-potential-at-work
[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng
[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165176524002982
[4] https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/technology-media-and-telecom-predictions/2025/women-and-generative-ai.html
[5] https://www.eqs.com/compliance-blog/women-in-compliance-interview/
[6] https://qz.com/191569/60-of-compliance-officers-are-women-and-thats-a-bad-thing
[7] https://knowledge.insead.edu/career/biggest-barriers-women-face-path-senior-leadership
[8] Kodex AI: 533 publications in 2023 and 1414 in 2024 from the FCA website.
[9] https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/risk-regulation/pwc-global-compliance-study-2025.pdf
[10] https://www.forbes.com/sites/corinnepost/2025/04/23/fewer-women-adopt-ai-tools-heres-why-that-matters-for-business/
[11] https://www.womenintech.co.uk/eu-ai-act-guide-key-areas-for-women-innovating-in-tech
[12] https://www.wiaig.com
[13] https://www.riskywomen.org
[14] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45809919