5 Ways to Lead AI & Keep Your Values Intact

Guest Contributor,
Founder of Level Seven Suzame Tong

There are so many reasons AI adoption doesn’t get off the ground: not knowing where to start, fear of getting it wrong, worry about the downstream impact, waiting for the right time.

For women leaders operating in environments where we’re already working twice as hard to be heard, advocating for a value-based approach to AI adoption takes courage during these urgent, confusing times. 

We’ve handled this kind of pressure before. 

But the stakes around AI have dialed it way up.

You’re not alone. You’re not behind. And if you’re feeling conflicted right now between the comfort of working and leading the way you know how to and the discomfort of what the AI era demands, I’m glad. 

It means you’re paying attention.

A study published earlier this year shows that globally, women adopt generative AI at rates 25% lower than men.
In some industries, women are 16 percentage points less likely to use tools like ChatGPT, even in the same jobs. In the U.S., 

surveys show only about a third of women have tried generative AI in the past year, compared to half of men.

If that gap persists, AI will keep learning from a distorted reality. And we know how that ends: tools that reinforce old biases instead of eliminating them. 

'We need women leaders to chart a path forward for themselves and their organizations to help close that gap.'

The good news is you don’t need to become a prompt expert to lead AI adoption successfully. You just need to lead like the world has changed. Because it has.

Here are 5 places to start:

1. Be transparent

AI brings up trust issues for employees: trust in the models, trust in their own abilities, and trust that leadership has their best interests in mind. Employees will pay close attention to how you define AI’s role because their livelihood depends on it. 

Letting their anxieties pile up will create instability that undermines the most detailed plans.

So don’t launch your AI adoption initiative by simply listing tools people can or can’t use. I’m not saying governance doesn’t matter; it’s absolutely vital. But first you need employee buy-in, and in order to get there, you’ve got to start with the why:

Why AI here, now, for your company?

Why do you think this aligns with your company’s values?

Why should they believe you or your leadership team?

Research shows women are already more skeptical of AI providers, especially around data privacy. That skepticism can become a strength if you express it thoughtfully and strategically. By being upfront about what you know and what you don’t know, and how you plan to manage the grey areas, you model the kind of discernment that builds long-term trust.

Transparency doesn’t mean having all the answers on day one. Be clear, consistent, and definitive about the why.

2. Uplevel yourself

You can’t delegate AI adoption and not learn how to use it yourself. No one’s asking you to start vibe coding. But you do need to be strong in the fundamentals: how the tech is evolving, what the ethical and compliance stakes are, and how to use a few core tools well. Your team is counting on you to tell the difference between the hype and what actually matters. 

And the only way you can do that is by doing the work.

So level up. That might mean using AI to track and summarize related industry news in a daily email. Creating a customer persona with deep research. Trying voice mode to get feedback on an idea. Or getting help writing an Excel formula. 

The point isn’t mastery. 

It’s confidence.

When women employees see you investing in your own AI skills, it creates cultural permission for them to explore.
Since studies show women often feel they need training before we can benefit from AI, your visible learning becomes an empowering form of leadership.

3. Create psychological safety

If your culture punishes AI experimentation, adoption stalls. People will either hold back from trying new tools, or they’ll experiment in secret – what’s called “shadow AI” – and try to find efficiencies without getting dinged for it. 

Both outcomes are far riskier and less valuable than open, collaborative use.

Women are often judged more harshly if their experiments don’t succeed, or if someone suspects they “cheated” by leaning on AI. If you don’t make it safe to try (and fail), women may hang back while their male peers surge ahead.

Here’s your opportunity to model curiosity. 

Admit when you stumble. Share your awkward moments. 

Say: “I really messed up this prompt, but here’s what I learned.”

Psychological safety might sound like something your friend in HR might say. But it’s the foundation of real adoption. 

Create space for mistakes, for “I tried this tool and it was weird,” for “I don’t get it.” 

You’ll be surprised by what ideas your team comes up with when they aren’t afraid of the consequences.

4. Lead with emotional intelligence

Only you can notice awkward silence in a Zoom call, or see when your team is stretched thin. Not AI. 

Being able to read the room is 100% on you.

Employees bring all kinds of emotions to AI: fear, excitement, resistance, fatigue. Some quietly wonder if they’ll still have a job. Others feel ashamed about using AI to give them a shortcut.

You can’t automate your way through that. You have to show up. 

Emotional intelligence means asking, “How are you really feeling about all this?” and listening. 

This kind of emotional labor often falls disproportionately to women leaders. But right now, it’s also an advantage.

So let AI free up time for your team to focus on what they love to do, and rely on your empathy to keep others engaged.

5. Put ethics at the center

AI is popping up uninvited everywhere – in our inboxes, workflows, browsers. And it sure is tempting to just click and try the latest features being offered.

Leadership means pausing to ask: 

Is this fair? 

Inclusive? 

Aligned with our values?

Women leaders are already more likely to pause, listen, and weigh impact. Which means the future of fair, inclusive AI depends on us staying engaged. If we don’t, the gaps widen. Our voices stay underrepresented in the systems and companies shaping the future. And those companies miss out on the productivity and growth women could drive with these tools.

Be the leader in the loop and keep judgment where it belongs: with you. 

'Because AI doesn’t have a vision for the future: you do. AI can’t lead by example: you can.'

3 easy things to try this week:

Getting started doesn’t require a 12-point roadmap. Just take a few human-sized steps this week:

1. Try one new thing. Use AI for a task you haven’t tried yet: prepping for an interview, brainstorming product names, generating a slide outline.
2. Say one new thing. Share what you tried and how it went, especially if the results weren’t what you expected. That transparency builds collective learning.
3. Ask one new thing. Try: “What would we do if our team could get five hours back?”

Each small act builds confidence, closes trust gaps, and fosters collective learning.

What’s next...

This is your moment to lead with conviction. By walking alongside your people with eyes open and values intact.

And adoption doesn’t have to stay unequal. Deloitte predicts women in the U.S. may reach parity with men in AI use by the end of 2025 – only a few months from the time of this writing. That means the window to lead is wide open right now.

Join me in making sure this next wave of technology doesn’t just reward the loudest or the first but includes the rest of us, too.

References

• Koning, R., Otis, N. G., Delecourt, S., & Cranney, K. (2024–2025). Global Evidence on Gender Gaps and Generative AI. Harvard Business School Working Paper 25-023. 
• Humlum, A., & Vestergaard, E. (2025). The unequal adoption of ChatGPT exacerbates existing inequalities among workers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(1), e2414972121.
• Blanding, M. (2025, February 20). Women Are Avoiding AI. Will Their Careers Suffer? Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. 
• Deloitte Center for Technology, Media & Telecommunications. (2024, November 19). Women and Generative AI: The adoption gap is closing fast, but a trust gap persists. Deloitte Insights. 

About the author:

Suzame Tong is the Founder of Level Seven, a consultancy that helps organizations operationalize AI at the leadership and cultural level. With a background in global brand and corporate communications for B2B SaaS companies, she brings storytelling, systems thinking, and executive alignment to AI transformation. Suzame is known for her grounded, actionable guidance on governance, literacy, and building AI-ready cultures that align with an organization’s vision, values, and people.