In honor of International Women’s Day 2025, we’re spotlighting 10 incredible women who are driving some of the most groundbreaking advancements in artificial intelligence(AI).
These visionary leaders aren’t just part of the AI conversation, they’re actively shaping its future. From AI safety and cybersecurity to machine learning breakthroughs in healthcare, climate tech, and finance, they’re solving real-world problems and proving that AI isn’t just for the usual names we hear in tech.
Instead of just discussing AI’s challenges, these women are building practical, impactful solutions that benefit businesses, communities, and individuals alike.
Join us as we explore the journeys of these AI pioneers, diving into their innovations and the lasting impact they’re making in the world of technology.
1. Daniela Amodei – AI Safety and Governance
Daniela Amodei is on a mission to make AI safer for humanity. As the co-founder and President of Anthropic, she's leading the charge in AI safety research. Before launching Anthropic, she was the VP of Safety and Policy at OpenAI, where she played a crucial role in shaping policies around AI ethics and responsible development.
Her company, Anthropic, is developing Claude, a next-gen AI assistant designed to be more transparent and aligned with human intentions. With tech giants racing towards AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), Amodei’s work is shaping the governance and risk mitigation strategies that will define AI’s future.
2. Mira Murati – Pioneering AI Assistants
Mira Murati’s influence on AI is undeniable. As the former CTO of OpenAI, she played a pivotal role in developing ChatGPT and DALL·E, the AI models that revolutionized content creation, chatbots, and human-computer interaction.
In late 2024, Murati stepped away from OpenAI to launch her own AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, focusing on building next-generation AI assistants that offer more personalized, ethical, and secure AI experiences. With the growing concerns around AI safety and misinformation, her company is setting new standards in responsible AI innovation.
3. Anne-Marie Imafidon – Artificial Intelligence In Education & Diversity
Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon is a trailblazer in tech education and diversity. She co-founded Stemettes, an award-winning initiative that has inspired over 50,000 young women to pursue careers in STEM.
Her latest AI-driven project, AI for Good, focuses on using artificial intelligence to bridge the digital skills gap, providing underrepresented groups with AI literacy and career pathways. Imafidon’s impact on AI isn’t just about tech; it’s about ensuring that AI serves everyone, not just the privileged few.
4. Jamila Gordon – AI-Powered Supply Chains
Jamila Gordon isn’t just disrupting the food industry, she’s rebuilding trust in global supply chains. As founder and CEO of Lumachain, she’s using artificial intelligence and blockchain to create a fully transparent farm-to-table system, ensuring food safety, ethical sourcing, and reduced waste.
Growing up in Somalia before immigrating to Australia, Gordon saw firsthand the devastating effects of supply chain inefficiencies, especially in food security. After holding top leadership roles at Qantas and IBM, she recognized a glaring problem: Food supply chains were fragmented, inefficient, and vulnerable to contamination. She knew AI could be the solution.
At Lumachain, she built an AI-powered platform that allows food producers, retailers, and consumers to track every step of a product’s journey from the farm where it was grown, through processing plants and distribution centers, all the way to supermarket shelves.
5. Dr. Charlene Hunter – AI & Coding for Black Women
Dr. Charlene Hunter is breaking barriers in tech by ensuring Black women have a seat at the AI table. As the founder of Coding Black Females, she’s leading an AI-driven revolution in coding education, providing a clear pathway for underrepresented talent to thrive in tech. Her organization offers personalized learning experiences powered by AI, equipping Black women with the skills, mentorship, and job opportunities they need to excel in software engineering, data science, and artificial intelligence.
She understands that access to education alone isn’t enough, so she’s using AI to tailor learning experiences to each individual. Her platform analyzes skill levels, learning habits, and career goals, offering customized training modules and real-time feedback.
Beyond education, Hunter is shaping the future of AI itself. By empowering more Black women to enter the field, she’s ensuring that AI systems reflect a broader range of experiences and perspectives.
6. Dr. Anne Makena – Artificial Intelligence for Social Good
Dr. Anne Makena is revolutionizing public health with AI, ensuring that technology serves the people who need it most. Through the Africa Oxford Initiative, she’s using machine learning models to predict and track disease outbreaks, helping governments and healthcare systems respond faster and more effectively. Her work is bridging the gap between AI research and real-world impact, providing data-driven insights that improve epidemic preparedness and resource allocation across Africa and Europe.
Her approach goes beyond technology; it’s about using AI to create equitable healthcare solutions. By analyzing patterns in climate, population movement, and infection rates, her AI models help health officials anticipate outbreaks before they spiral out of control.
7. Dr. Suhayya (Sue) Abu-Hakima - AI in Cybersecurity
Dr. Suhayya Abu-Hakima is one of the most formidable minds in AI-driven cybersecurity, with over 48 patents in AI, machine learning, and content security. She has spent her career tackling some of the most complex digital security challenges, ensuring that businesses, governments, and individuals stay ahead of evolving cyber threats.
As the founder of AI Sentinel, she’s built an advanced AI-powered cybersecurity platform that detects and neutralises cyber threats in real time, offering an extra layer of defense in an increasingly digital world. Her work couldn’t be more timely; cybercrime is surging, with hackers using AI to launch more sophisticated and automated attacks than ever before. But Dr. Abu-Hakima is proving that AI can fight back just as hard.
8. Tommie Edwards – Artificial Intelligence in Hiring
Tommie Edwards is a leading voice in AI-driven talent acquisition, revolutionising how businesses hire, retain, and manage talent. As the founder and CEO of Tech1M, she is at the forefront of leveraging AI-powered hiring solutions that eliminate bias, accelerate recruitment, and match top talent to the right roles with precision.
With hiring challenges evolving, Tommie champions AI’s role in creating fair, efficient, and scalable recruitment processes, helping businesses move beyond outdated hiring models and build future-ready workforces. Her expertise extends across AI-driven candidate assessments, workflow automation, and data-backed hiring strategies, ensuring companies don’t just find talent but the right talent.
9. Angela Saini – Shaping AI Ethics & Policy
Angela Saini is a force to be reckoned with in AI ethics, proving that you don’t need to write code to shape the future of technology. As a journalist, researcher and thinker, she has spent years exposing the biases within AI systems and how they perpetuate inequalities in society.
Her work shows how AI, if left unchecked, can amplify discrimination in hiring, healthcare and finance areas where fairness is non-negotiable. Through her sharp analysis and deep research, she’s making the tech industry rethink how AI is designed and deployed.
10. Dr. Carol Reiley – AI-Powered Robotics for Surgery
Dr. Carol Reiley ( Mother of Robots) is a pioneer in AI-powered robotics, pushing the boundaries of how artificial intelligence enhances human capabilities. With a background in robotics and AI, she has dedicated her career to developing intelligent systems that improve precision and efficiency in critical fields like healthcare and autonomous technology.
Her work in surgical robotics helped refine robotic-assisted procedures, making surgeries safer, less invasive, and more accurate. As the co-founder of Drive.ai, she also played a pivotal role in advancing self-driving technology, applying AI to real-world problems beyond healthcare. Through her innovations, Reiley is not just improving healthcare; she’s shaping a future where AI and robotics work seamlessly alongside humans to save lives.
These ten women are shaping the future of AI, from pioneering AI assistants and cybersecurity solutions to ensuring AI ethics and education reach underserved communities. Their work proves that AI isn’t just about technology; it’s about creating a better, more inclusive future for all.
