WIA-Europe Symposium 2026
WIA-Europe AI-W Workshop
AI for Women: Empowering technical agency through agentic workflows.
"The question is no longer whether AI will transform your career. The question is: will you direct that transformation, or be directed by it?"
WIA-Europe Strasbourg Regional Network
May 6, 2026 | 13:00 CET
Our Journey Today
Today's Agenda
We will travel through five chapters: from the economic forces reshaping careers, to the gender dynamics shaping who leads, and finally into the hands-on tools that put you in the driver's seat.
- 📈 Chapter 1: The $4.4 Trillion AI Economy
- ⚖️ Chapter 2: Gender Bias in AI Adoption
- 🤖 Chapter 3: The Agentic Paradigm
- 💻 Chapter 4: Hands-on Lab with Gemini CLI
- ❓ Chapter 5: Q&A and Closing
Chapter 1: The AI Economy
$4.4T
Annual Value Added by Generative AI
That is not a projection. That is the economic consensus for the value generative AI is adding to the global economy, right now.
Source: McKinsey & Company / WEF 2025
- ⚡ Reskilling Urgency: Massive upskilling needed by 2030 (WEF).
- 🛰️ A&D Impact: $65.4B segment by 2034.
- 🏗️ Innovation Gate: AI literacy is the new inequality multiplier.
Chapter 1: What This Means For You
Career Velocity
The economy is one thing. Your career is another. Here is the personal impact: AI skills are now worth more than most degrees.
23%
AI Skill Wage Premium
Jobs requiring AI skills earn a 23% wage premium, surpassing all degree premiums except PhD (33%). Source: HR Dive / LinkedIn 2025
💼 Senior AI Engineer Compensation
Principal/Staff AI roles: $280k-$800k total comp. Defense primes like Lockheed Martin post $180k-$312k for senior AI/ML. Source: AI Speed Staffing 2025
Chapter 2: The Adoption Gap
So the money is there. The careers are there. But who is actually using these tools? Let us look at the adoption data, and a remarkable turning point.
37%
→52%
The Parity Pivot (July 2025)
Source: OpenAI / NBER Study 2025
While early adoption skewed male, classification by feminine names reached 52% by July 2025. Parity is possible, but leadership and "Power User" gaps remain.
Who Builds the Frontier?
Click "Next" to see who leads these companies →
Chapter 2: Where Are We Now?
Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation
Every technology follows a predictable adoption curve. AI is crossing the chasm right now, and the gender gap in adoption is closing faster than anyone predicted.
Adoption mapped with male and female rates superimposed. Source: Deloitte 2025
Chapter 2: Participation Paradox
Frontier Lab Leadership Tree
Adoption matters, but leadership matters more. Here is who sits at the top of the five companies building the most powerful AI systems on Earth.
Male Female
The Leadership Reality: 81% Male vs 59% Female at work — who builds the technology, determines who it serves first.
Sources: HumanResourcesOnline 2025, Deloitte Digital Consumer Trends 2025
"Participation is a systems-quality issue, not just a labor issue." UNESCO
Chapter 3: The Paradigm Shift
From Prompter to Orchestrator
We have seen the economy. We have seen the gap. Now, the solution: a fundamentally new relationship with AI. Not asking questions, but delegating missions.
"The most profound shift in AI is not about smarter models. It is about AI that acts rather than answers."
Chapter 3: Side by Side
The Agentic Difference
Think about the last time you used ChatGPT. You typed a question. It gave you text. You copied it somewhere. That is the old world. Here is the new one:
pd.read_csv(), then use plt.plot() to visualize it. Would you like a code snippet?
Chapter 3: The Loop
The Agentic Workflow
An agentic AI does not just answer. It enters a continuous loop: observe, think, act, reflect, and repeat, until the mission is complete.
"You are the director. The AI is the team."
Chapter 3: The Architecture
Building the AI Brain
Here is the secret: an agentic AI is only as good as the memory you give it. Two simple files turn a generic chatbot into your personal, persistent technical partner.
📄 agents.md
The Constitution. Persistent rules and directives that define the AI's role, constraints, and operating style for the project.
📑 gemini.md
The Workspace Context. Task-specific roadmaps and analysis the AI generates to maintain state and memory across prompts.
We don't just prompt; we architect persistence.
Chapter 4: Lab Workflow
Practical Power Tools
Theory is done. Now we build. Here is the safety-first workflow you will follow in the lab, and the golden rule: always review before execution.
Lab Flow
- Lab A: Explain & Verify
- Lab B: Automate (Dry Run)
- Lab C: Agentic Refactor
Safety Defaults
- ⚠ Review before execution
- ↻ Prefer diffs/commits
- 🔒 Local model setups
Chapter 4: Your Turn
Let's Build
You have the context. You have the tools. Now it is time to open your terminal and direct your first AI agent.
Setup Guide →Chapter 5: Psychological Lift
From Uncertainty to Techno-Optimism
Women in aerospace already solve complex systems under uncertainty. Agentic AI extends that same capability into software, analysis, and decision support. This is not a replacement story, it is a leverage story.
Mastery Experience
By the end of this workshop, you will have directed an AI system through a real workflow. Action builds confidence faster than theory.
Belonging Signal
AI needs aerospace thinking, mission discipline, and safety-first leadership. Your domain background is a strategic advantage.
Future Narrative
Hope grows when we can see concrete pathways. Your next step is not to know everything; it is to start one mission this week.
"Optimism is not waiting for the future to improve. It is building skills that improve the future."
Chapter 5: 7-Day Launch Plan
Your First Agentic Mission
Use implementation intentions: choose one aerospace-relevant task, decide when you will do it, and define success. Small wins compound into career momentum.
- 🛰️Day 1: Pick one mission, example: summarize satellite anomaly reports.
- 🧭Day 2: Define constraints, accuracy target, traceability, and safety checks.
- 💻Day 3: Run a Gemini CLI workflow and capture before-and-after productivity.
- 📈Day 5: Share outcomes with one peer, manager, or mentor for feedback.
- 🚀Day 7: Commit to the next mission, bigger scope, same disciplined loop.
Thank You
"The future belongs to those who direct the machines, not those who fear them."
Keep building. Keep leading. Keep directing. WIA-Europe women in aerospace are needed at the center of AI leadership.