From Checklist to Chatlist: Why Women Need to Be in the AI Space AI reflects the world as it's described to it. If those descriptions are predominantly male, we risk perpetuating systems that overlook women's lived experiences.

October 30th marks National Checklist Day, a date that quietly honours something deceptively simple: the power of the checklist. Something that can be so underestimated — checklists save lives in hospitals — and are the reason why space launches are deemed safe!

For many women, the mental load that we often carry is a full-blown mindset—sometimes written down, but usually a huge burden sitting inside our minds. Let's be honest, we've been conditioned to believe that if we tick all the right boxes, study hard, work harder, be dependable, stay humble, then we'll reach our goals. Checklists are comforting. They bring order to chaos. But they can also keep us small.

This brings me to my next point… the limits of the great checklist! Checklists are about compliance. They create clarity and consistency, but they rarely inspire curiosity or creativity. They ask, "Have you done this?" not "What could we do differently?"

The reality is that most of us know how to get things done. But at what cost? In workplaces around the world, women are over-represented in middle management yet under-represented in senior decision-making roles. We excel at process, but we're too often excluded from progress. And now, a new revolution is underway - one driven not by policies or meetings, but by machine learning models that are being shaped, refined, and trained every second by the people who use them. If women are not part of that conversation, the future will once again be built without us in mind.

AI is the biggest movement since the WWW revolution. Its power shouldn't be underestimated. We know most of the code is written by men (only 22% of AI talent globally is women, and at senior levels the share is even lower – less than 14), but women can and should substantially shape the dialogue. Early data shows that men have dominated AI adoption. In the first months after ChatGPT's launch, around 80 percent of users were male. That imbalance matters. Because every time someone uses an AI tool - whether to brainstorm, create, or query - they're helping train the system to think a little more like them. If the inputs are biased, so are the outputs.

So on this National Checklist Day, I'm proposing a shift - from checklists that measure efficiency to chatlists that spark participation. Because these conversations will start to break down the bias in AI. Why does this all matter? AI reflects the world as it's described to it. If those descriptions are predominantly male, we risk perpetuating systems that overlook women's lived experiences.

Think about how voice-recognition once failed to pick up female voices, or how early health-tech products misdiagnosed women's symptoms because they were tested mostly on men. Now imagine that same bias scaled across generative AI - embedded not just in products, but in the way knowledge itself is structured.

Women bring a different lens: empathy, nuance, collaboration, and context. These are not "soft skills" — they are the building blocks of human-centred intelligence. If AI is to serve humanity, it must be built with humanity in mind. That belief led to ChatGPShe, an initiative born under the GAIA umbrella, a women's leadership community designed to help women lead, learn, and grow through peer connection and executive coaching.

ChatGPShe turns the abstract idea of "AI inclusion" into practical action. It does this through four pillars:

1. Collective Learning – demystifying AI so women feel confident experimenting with it, not intimidated by it.
2. Community Engagement – creating spaces where women can swap prompts, share reflections, and learn together in real time.
3. Facilitated Sessions – ensuring that technology meets purpose, using AI to enhance reflection, creativity, and decision-making.
4. Real Women, Real Results – amplifying stories of women using AI to save time, accelerate ideas, and elevate their impact.

In our sessions, something remarkable happens. When women use AI tools to journal, brainstorm, or prepare for leadership challenges, they don't just learn new technology; they're breaking the bias in the system. They start to see AI not as something to fear, but as a partner in progress.

So this October 30, make a new kind of list—not a checklist of tasks, but a chatlist of actions:

1. Start a conversation with someone curious about AI.
2. Ask a question that challenges an old system.
3. Try a prompt that reflects your experience, your perspective, your voice. 4. Share it, refine it, repeat it - because each time you do, you're expanding the data that shapes tomorrow's intelligence.

National Checklist Day is about progress through preparation. But progress today demands something more - participation through conversation.