{"id":57408,"date":"2026-07-03T11:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T03:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/asia-pacific\/?p=57408"},"modified":"2026-07-03T15:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:00:18","slug":"women-trust-and-the-new-ai-reality-who-gets-to-shape-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/asia-pacific\/general\/changetheface\/women-trust-and-the-new-ai-reality-who-gets-to-shape-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Women, Trust, and the New AI Reality: Who Gets to Shape the Future?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Link to PDF<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not long ago, I found myself thinking about a question I had never considered at the beginning of my career:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happens when technology stops waiting for instructions?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most of my professional life, technology has been something people use. We open an application, search for information, click a button, make a decision, and move on. Even the most advanced systems have largely existed as tools\u2014powerful tools, certainly, but still waiting for a human being to tell them what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is beginning to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, we are entering the era of Agentic AI: systems that can reason, plan, make decisions, and take actions on our behalf. For the first time, we are building technology that doesn’t simply respond to requests but increasingly acts as a collaborator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As exciting as this moment is, it also feels deeply personal. When I think about the future of AI, my mind doesn’t immediately go to models, algorithms, or technology stacks. Instead, I find myself thinking about people\u2014about who gets to shape this future, whose voices are represented, and whose perspectives influence the technologies that will define the next generation. More often than not, those reflections take me back to a younger version of myself sitting in a university classroom in Iran, wondering what her place in that future might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years ago, when I was pursuing my Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, specializing in Telecommunications, conversations about artificial intelligence looked very different from today. Back then, I was fascinated by networks. The idea that people could connect across cities, countries, and continents through invisible systems felt almost magical to me. I wanted to understand how those systems worked. More importantly, I wanted to build them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was fortunate to be accepted into one of the country’s most competitive engineering programs, and I was also one of only a handful of women in my field. At the time, I did not think of myself as a pioneer. I was simply trying to keep up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many women in technical disciplines, I became familiar with a feeling that is difficult to explain but instantly recognizable to those who have experienced it. It is the feeling of walking into a room and noticing that you are one of the very few women there. It is preparing a little harder, speaking a little more carefully, and sometimes wondering whether confidence is something everyone else was born with and you somehow missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one openly told me that I didn’t belong. Yet belonging was something I had to learn for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, that may have been the most important lesson of my career. Not telecommunications. Not engineering. Not technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning to trust my own voice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t realize it then, but that lesson would follow me through every stage of my professional life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next fifteen years, I had the privilege of witnessing one of the most extraordinary periods of technological transformation in history. I saw the industry evolve from 3G to 4G, from 4G to 5G, from traditional network architectures to cloud-native platforms, and now toward AI-powered and programmable networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every generation promised to change the way people connect, and every generation did. But AI feels fundamentally different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The previous waves of innovation changed infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is beginning to change decision-making itself.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That distinction matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout my career, I have worked at the intersection of technology, strategy, and transformation. Whether discussing connectivity, digital ecosystems, identity, APIs, or emerging technologies, I have often found myself asking a surprisingly simple question: Will people embrace this?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not because the technology works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But because it genuinely improves their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technologies that succeed are rarely the ones that are most impressive. They are the ones that solve real problems, create meaningful value, and fit naturally into people’s lives. They make things easier, safer, faster, or more accessible. In the end, people do not adopt technology because it is sophisticated. They adopt it because it is useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why I believe the conversation around AI needs to extend beyond technical capability. The real question is not whether AI can do extraordinary things. We already know it can. The more important question is what kind of future we are creating with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This becomes even more important as we move into the age of Agentic AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike traditional AI systems that answer questions or generate content, Agentic AI can pursue goals, coordinate activities, interact with multiple systems, and increasingly act as an intelligent partner. Imagine an entrepreneur launching a business with a team of AI agents helping manage operations, marketing, customer engagement, and financial planning. Imagine students having access to personalized learning companions that adapt to their needs. Imagine healthcare becoming easier to navigate or small businesses gaining access to expertise that was once available only to large enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The possibilities are remarkable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For women, they could be transformational.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the world, women continue to navigate complex and often competing responsibilities. Careers, caregiving, education, entrepreneurship, family obligations, and community leadership frequently overlap. Technology has always promised to make life easier, but Agentic AI may be one of the first technologies capable of meaningfully expanding people’s capacity to participate, create, and lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine what becomes possible when time spent on repetitive tasks can be redirected toward innovation, learning, entrepreneurship, or leadership. Imagine what happens when access to knowledge, guidance, and expertise becomes dramatically more accessible. For many women around the world, that shift could unlock opportunities that previously felt out of reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But none of this will happen automatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology reflects the people who build it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people talk about diversity in technology, the conversation often focuses on representation. Representation matters, but I have come to see it as the beginning of the conversation rather than the destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What matters even more is perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experiences we bring shape the questions we ask. They shape the risks we identify, the opportunities we recognize, and ultimately the systems we build. AI does not emerge from a vacuum. Every model, every product, and every intelligent agent reflects countless human decisions: what data is used, what outcomes are optimized, what problems are prioritized, and what trade-offs are accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who sits around those tables matters.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As someone who spent much of her academic and professional life being one of the few women in the room, I understand how easily perspectives can be overlooked when they are not represented. The future of AI should not be shaped by a narrow group of voices\u2014not because inclusion is fashionable, but because better outcomes emerge when more experiences inform the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenges facing humanity are too complex to be solved from a single perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And perhaps that is what excites me most about this moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in my career, we are not simply discussing how technology connects people. We are discussing how technology collaborates with people. The decisions we make now will influence how future generations work, learn, create, communicate, and participate in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is a tremendous responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also an extraordinary opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I think about my younger self in Iran, I realize she spent a lot of time wondering whether women truly belonged in the worlds of technology, innovation, and decision-making. She wasn’t questioning her passion or her abilities. She was questioning whether there would be a place for her voice in shaping the future she dreamed about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I no longer ask that question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, I ask a different one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can we make sure more women help shape that future?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the age of AI will not be defined by algorithms alone. It will be defined by the people building them, the values they bring, the choices they make, and whether they create a future that expands opportunity for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future of AI is being written right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My hope is that more women pick up the pen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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