Post by Women Shaping AI

Women’s health is one of the largest untapped opportunities in global innovation, but a new World Economic Forum report (attached) shows that the system is still not built to match women’s health needs. Across 10 high-impact conditions, the report identifies three major gaps: ⚡ The allocation gap: only 20% of program research funding is women-focused ⚡ The evidence gap: outside women-specific conditions, only 16% of scientific publications and fewer than 3% of clinical trials are women-focused ⚡ The translation gap: innovation does not consistently move from research into scalable products and care solutions Many conditions that deeply affect women, including ischaemic heart disease, migraine, anxiety, depression, asthma, and osteoarthritis, remain underfunded and under-studied from a women-focused lens. The result is a self-reinforcing cycle: Funding follows historical priorities. Evidence grows where funding already exists. Products are developed where evidence is strongest. And high-burden conditions for women remain overlooked. This is not only a healthcare issue but a data issue, a research issue, an investment issue, an innovation issue, and increasingly, it is an AI issue. As AI becomes more embedded in healthcare discovery, diagnostics, clinical decision-making, and care delivery, the quality of the underlying evidence matters enormously. If women’s health data is incomplete, if clinical trials do not examine sex-specific differences, and if innovation pipelines remain concentrated in a narrow set of conditions, AI will not magically correct the gap. At Women Shaping AI, we believe women need to be part of the conversations about what problems AI is used to solve, whose data is included, whose symptoms are taken seriously, and whose health outcomes are prioritized. Women Shaping AI is a global community where women from all walks of life come together to learn about AI, build confidence and capability, and open doors for each other. If that resonates, we’d love to have you join us: www.womenshapingai.com #womenshapingai #womeninai #womenshealth #healthtech #responsibleai