Cadence Design Systems, Inc. announced that industry leaders Equinix Foundation, NetApp, NVIDIA and Workday are founding members of the Cadence Giving Foundation’s Fem.AI Alliance, a group of companies and institutions that have committed to driving change towards a more representative tech and AI workforce. The Fem.AI Alliance is dedicated to evolving the future workforce by increasing women’s representation and leadership in the tech industry.
“Women’s talent and perspectives are crucial to shaping the future of AI. Ensuring that women are well represented and valued in the workforce is a business imperative,” said Anirudh Devgan, president and CEO of Cadence . “With our newly formed Fem.AI Alliance, we will work with like-minded companies to increase the number of women in STEM, which will fuel the creation of innovative, inclusive and responsible AI solutions.”
The inaugural Fem.AI Summit, hosted by the Cadence Giving Foundation on October 1, a day also recently recognized as International Women in AI Day, brought together leaders from the tech industry, as well as universities, venture capital and social impact. The summit highlighted the challenges women face in AI and inspired leaders to play a role in effecting change. Experts discussed the many reasons to expand the talent pipeline and the need for diverse perspectives in the creation and testing of AI solutions.
“Ensuring that women play a role in this technology revolution is not just a nice-to-have; it is essential. We must have enough talent to capitalize on what AI promises to deliver, and we need a true cross-section of society working on AI so that we create technology that serves everyone,” said Tina Jones, senior vice president, Global Human Resources at Cadence .
“AI has the power to transform society positively, but we must actively work together to improve representation,” said Alexis Bjorlin, vice president of DGX Cloud at NVIDIA . “The Fem.AI Alliance presents an opportunity to help shape an inclusive AI future by empowering women to pioneer in this nascent field.”
“AI’s true potential relies on its ability to represent the range of human experiences, making Fem.AI’s mission so critical,” said Kathy Pham, vice president of AI at Workday . “In line with our commitment to elevating humans and supercharging work through the power of AI, Workday is proud to join this alliance to help support and cultivate women AI leaders driving innovation.”
The Cadence Giving Foundation is committing $20 million and working with nonprofit partners and universities to address the three critical leakage points where women decide not to pursue STEM careers . Through its partnerships with nonprofits, including Break Through Tech, Fast Forward, Generation, Global Semiconductor Alliance’s Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI), Last Mile Education Fund, Reboot Representation and VC Include, and in collaboration with MIT Thriving Stars and Cadence’s university and scholarship programs, Cadence’s investment has already impacted thousands of women to move past those three leakage points.
