When it comes to the technology space, women in AI are woefully underrepresented. Still, many women, like Lily AI’s two female co-founders, are working to change this.
- Only 3% of AI companies are founded by women.
- Only 15% of all technology companies are founded by women.
- Of course, women make up just over 50% of the U.S. population.
- And yet, despite their lack of representation in the technology space, women drive up to 80% of consumer purchasing decisions.
Clearly, gender colors much of our world. And in the world of AI, gender is at the forefront. Despite women representing roughly 47% of the U.S. labor force and receiving the majority of graduate certificates and degrees, women make up only 26% of data and AI positions.
This underrepresentation brings concern around mitigating biases and creating ethically sound, responsible AI systems. Establishing women in AI-focused leadership positions is an effective way to bring much-needed diverse perspectives to the table. Women’s presence boosts business and morale too. In fact, 66% of AI professionals told Deloitte that they strongly agree that having more women in managerial, leadership, and role model positions directly benefits an organization’s employees.
On this International Women’s Day, we celebrate two particular women in AI who are pushing all of these conversations forward. Let’s meet our co-founders.
Lily AI Co-Founders Share Their Story
The concept of bringing humanity to shopping was ushered into existence by two immigrant women. Purva Gupta, Lily AI’s Co-Founder and CEO, came in touch with Sowmiya Chocka Narayanan, Lily AI’s Co-Founder and CTO, when the two budding founders were each looking for a like-minded co-founder.
Gupta had the initial idea on which problem to confront and solve. She set out to make retail more human-focused and personalized while helping consumers feel better about their shopping experiences. Chocka Narayanan brought in the technical expertise to tackle the issue through a combination of generative AI, computer vision, natural language processing, machine learning, and deep learning.
Together, they founded a retail vertical AI company that connects with consumers through a combination of algorithmic precision and empathy.
Building a Future for Women in AI
As outsiders to the retail industry, both Gupta and Chocka Narayanan brought fresh perspectives to solving some of its problems. Having decided to pursue her mission of bringing humanity to shopping, Gupta interviewed and studied thousands of retail experiences, to understand the pain points of individual shoppers and groups. As detailed in their video interview, Chocka Narayanan describes how they addressed retail’s lack of helpful personalization by investing in their own, unique training data that allows Lily AI to understand people’s retail preferences and behaviors.
Our two co-founders exemplify the idea that underrepresented people—in this case, women—must be at the forefront of the AI boom. Combining their unique ideas and expertise, they created an award-winning AI company that now connects some of the world’s largest retailers to new and repeat customers.
