Operationalising “gIve to gain” in the age of AI

As the COO of Squirro, an enterprise AI and data insights company, I spend my days analysing operational efficiencies, scaling technology, and looking at vast amounts of data. And right now, the data regarding the technology sector's talent pipeline points to a profound contradiction that we must urgently address.

We are facing a severe digital skills gap, with over 12,000 digital vacancies recently going unfilled, threatening to cost the UK economy more than £10 billion in missed growth by 2035. Yet, despite this talent shortage, we are actively haemorrhaging the exact people we need. An alarming 50% of women leave the tech industry by the age of 35, and a growing backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives is threatening to make this retention crisis even worse.

To fix this, we need to optimise our operations. The International Women's Day 2026 theme, "Give to Gain," perfectly encapsulates the strategy we need. In business, giving, whether it's giving time, mentorship, or opportunities is an investment, not just in ourselves, but in our people.

Here is how we, as tech leaders, can operationalise the "Give to Gain" philosophy to build stronger companies and better AI.

The Threat to Unbiased AI
In the AI space, diversity is a strict prerequisite for designing safe, fair, and high-trust technology. Currently, women make up only 25%-30% of the global AI workforce and a mere 22% of IT specialists in the UK.

UN Women correctly warns that this absence of women causes a "design gap". When the people designing, coding, and governing AI do not reflect society, bias becomes the default setting in the technology's very architecture. To build intelligent products at companies we absolutely must give women an equal seat at the engineering table to gain technology that actually serves the global market.

The Untapped ROI of "Returners"
Right now, highly experienced "mid-career" women who have taken time off for caregiving are frequently sidelined by rigid, automated hiring algorithms that unfairly penalise resume gaps. Simultaneously, women in tech and finance are at a disproportionately high risk of losing their jobs to AI automation, with an estimated 119,000 clerical roles expected to be displaced over the next decade.

A recent City of London Corporation report estimates that reskilling women at risk of AI-driven displacement, rather than making them redundant could save employers up to £757 million in redundancy payments alone. We gain a highly experienced, fiercely loyal workforce ready to fill those empty digital seats.

Structured returnship programmes provide one practical way to operationalise this insight. These paid, time-bound programmes create supported pathways back into redeployment. Instead of losing experienced professionals to automation, organisations retain institutional knowledge, reduce hiring costs, and strengthen loyalty among mid-career talent.

Defeating the DEI Backlash with Intentional Multiplication
Bringing women back is only step one; keeping them is step two. The current industry pushback against DEI initiatives is a strategic operational failure. When we strip away support systems, attrition skyrockets.

In an industry where replacing a mid-career specialist costs 1.5x to 2x their annual salary, we are essentially paying a "retention tax" for failing to protect the talent we've already invested in.

But when we lean into the "Give to Gain" mindset, we see massive retention gains. For instance, data shows that 77% of women in tech who have mentors are more likely to stay in the industry after three years, compared to women without mentors.

As a COO, I have seen clearly firsthand that investing in women is tech's greatest growth strategy. When we give mid-career women the tools to re-enter the workforce, and when we protect the inclusive cultures that allow them to thrive, we multiply our capacity for innovation. When women thrive, we all rise.