Practical ways how women can use AI to strengthen analysis, communicate with authority and make your contribution more visible.
Erica Farmer, AI and Future Skills Speaker, Trainer and Author
If there’s one misconception I come across regularly, it’s that AI is going to replace analytical thinking. It isn’t. What AI is doing is changing where we spend our time.
Instead of getting bogged down in repetitive tasks, we’re able to spend more time asking better questions, interpreting information and helping organisations make smarter decisions. That’s particularly exciting for women working with data because it creates an opportunity to focus less on producing reports and more on influencing what happens next.
The challenge is that many people are still using AI as a search engine rather than as a thinking partner, but the real value comes when you invite it into your workflow.
Start by Strengthening Your Thinking
Before sharing your findings, ask AI to challenge them. It’s surprisingly good at playing the ‘devil’s advocate’. This is probably the way I use AI the most as its great for helping you see things in different ways you may not have considered (as we’re all creatures of comfort, right?).
Ask it questions such as:
- What assumptions might I be making?
- What alternative explanations could there be for these results?
- If you disagreed with my conclusion, what would your argument be?
- What am I missing?
- How would the greatest person in our industry go about this?
Note – It’s not about letting AI decide whether you’re right; it’s about making sure you’ve considered different perspectives before presenting your recommendations.
Use a Language People Understand
One of the biggest frustrations I hear from data professionals is that they’ve produced excellent analysis, but stakeholders simply don’t engage with it. And often the problem isn’t the data, it’s the communication.
See, different audiences need different messages. For example, a finance director wants something very different from an operational manager or a frontline team leader. AI can help you adapt the same insight for multiple audiences while keeping the evidence consistent. So, rather than rewriting reports from scratch, you can focus on ensuring your recommendations land with the people who need to act on them.
Prepare for Those Difficult Questions
Most recommendations will be challenged, particularly if it involves change. Some people just do it for the sake of it! Rather than seeing this as something to worry about, use AI to rehearse. Ask it to roleplay your stakeholders. Prep it with;
- What questions would your manager ask?
- Which risks might the executive team focus on?
- Where might someone disagree with your conclusions?
- What could hit me out of the blue?
- Play the role of the operations director and list her challenges to my proposal.
By thinking through those conversations in advance, you’ll walk into the meeting feeling significantly more prepared.
Make Your Contribution More Visible
One conversation I’ve had countless times with women is around recognition.
Not because they’re looking for praise, but because they want their work to have the impact it deserves and AI can help here too.
Use it to summarise project outcomes, identify measurable achievements and draft concise updates that clearly explain the value your work has created. This is ensuring good work doesn’t go unnoticed.
And by the way, we also have to get to a place where we feel that considered self-promotion is a good thing!
Let AI handle the First Draft
My personal and intentional strategy when collaborating with AI is, ‘AI drafts, human crafts’. Whether it’s a presentation, a report or a recommendation paper, I guarantee that starting with a blank page is rarely the best use of your expertise.
By using a robust prompt framework (I often share my ‘Persona, Context, Outcome’ framework), have AI produce a first draft, then apply what only you can bring: your judgement, your context and your understanding of the organisation. Think of it as giving yourself a head start rather than outsourcing your thinking.
Protect Your Own Judgement
Perhaps the most important habit of all is knowing when not to rely on AI as there is a bunch of stuff it just won’t understand yet. It won’t understand your organisational culture. It won’t know the politics behind a decision. It won’t recognise that two departments have a difficult relationship or that a leader has already rejected a similar proposal six months earlier. Those insights come from people, not technology. AI should strengthen your thinking, not replace it.
The women who will thrive in data over the next few years won’t necessarily be those who have access to the newest tools. They’ll be the ones who combine technical expertise with curiosity, critical thinking and the confidence to communicate insight that changes decisions, because that’s where the true value is.
