Even woman-presenting AI bots are “paid” less, research says
[Primary — HR Dive] "We don’t want to inadvertently reproduce existing inequalities in a new technological setting," a researcher said.
An article from Even woman-presenting AI bots are ‘paid’ less, research says “We don’t want to inadvertently reproduce existing inequalities in a new technological setting,” a researcher said.
Published Oct. 8, 2026
Ginger Christ
Editor
Share
Copy link
X/Twitter
License
Add us on Google
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote address during the Nvidia GTC Artificial Intelligence Conference at SAP Center on March 18, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. Researchers recently found that in an experiment, people chose to pay AI agents with a female appearance 10% less than the male-presenting ones for completing the same work using the same technology.
Justin Sullivan / Staff via Getty Images
Listen to the article 2 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback .
As artificial intelligence assistants become more integrated into the workplace, even they may not be spared from the gender pay gap , according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Zurich, University of Limerick and SKEMA Business School placed 189 workers in a virtual reality office and assigned them tasks to complete with AI agents, including human-like agents presenting as male or female.
The participants were given money to split between themselves and the AI agents for completing the tasks “to recreate a real-world transaction,” according to a news release.
Researchers found that AI agents with a female appearance were paid 10% less than the male-presenting ones for completing the same work using the same technology.
“As AI agents become more common in the workplace, we need to think carefully about the characteristics we give them and the behaviours those choices may encourage. We don’t want to inadvertently reproduce existing inequalities in a new technological setting,” said Mary Hausfeld, assistant professor at the University of Limerick’s Kemmy Business School and a co-author of the report.
As AI agents are developed and deployed, companies should consider their appearance and presentation, Hausfeld said.
“Such choices may affect how much people trust AI, how they judge its contribution, and even how they financially reward it,” the researcher said.
In the human workforce, women earned about $0.82 per dollar earned by men in 2025, a July analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by resume builder MyPerfectResume found. That uncontrolled gap calculates out roughly to a $12,324 difference in yearly earnings, per 2025 data.
At the same time, women only made up 26% of hires in the fast growing AI field in 2025, LinkedIn research showed in August. And in the highest-paying AI roles , women had lower representation; 1 in 5 held head of AI jobs, while a quarter had director of AI positions.
Add us on Google
Share
Copy link
X/Twitter
License
Filed Under:
Comp & Benefits ,
HR Tech & Analytics
Verified vendor profiles for the companies named above — DHRMap wires every story to its directory.
Ginger was founded in 2011 by a team of entrepreneurs and data scientists at the MIT Media Lab who sought to build the world’s first mental health technology platform. Through smartphone-based technology, the platform was designed to identify patterns of anxie
Professional networking platform offering jobs, recruiting and online-learning products; a Microsoft subsidiary.
