Generative AI is being installed in all offices. She writes, summarizes, analyses, codes, presents. And women, over-represented in the most exposed professions, find themselves on the front lines of this transformation. Suffer or seize? Here’s how to make AI a true ally – without dissolving what makes you irreplaceable.
Generative AI in the office: where are we really?
The statistics are dizzying: according to the study Work Reimagined 2025 from EY, nearly 9 in 10 employees now use AI in their work. ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude – these tools have become as common as email.
Yet the same report reveals a troubling paradox: despite this massive adoption, only 28% of organizations manage to transform this deployment into high value-added results. The majority of users use it for basic tasks: searching for information (54%), summarizing a document (38%). Barely 5% consider themselves advanced users.
The conclusion is clear: everyone uses AI, but very few really know how to use it.
And this is precisely where everything comes into play, especially for women.
Why are women on the front lines?
It’s not a detail. It’s an emergency.
The disturbing figures
The ILO-NASK report from May 2025, the most precise ever carried out on the subject (30,000 tasks analyzed), is clear: in rich countries, women’s jobs are three times more exposed to automation than those held by men – 9.6% compared to 3.5%.
The reason is structural. Women are heavily concentrated in administrative and business support functions: secretarial work, reception, payment management, accounting assistance; where many tasks are routine and codifiable, and therefore more easily substitutable by generative AI.
The adoption paradox
But here’s the other side of the problem: according to the World Economic Forum, 59% of men aged 18 to 65 use generative AI at least once a week, compared to 51% of women. Women are the most exposed to the risks of AI… and among those who adopt it the slowest.
While generative AI is expected to drive job growth in technology-intensive sectors, women remain largely excluded from these opportunities. By 2022, they represented around 30% of the global AI workforce, just four points more than in 2016.
The conclusion is obvious: not mastering generative AI is no longer a neutral option. It means taking the risk of finding yourself on the wrong side of the transformation.
The real question: ally or replacement?
The most common mistake is asking the wrong question. It’s not ” will AI replace me? ” but “ Do I know how to use AI better than my competitor?“
One in four workers worldwide are in a profession that is more or less exposed to generative AI, but most jobs will be transformed rather than eliminated because human intervention remains essential.
The nuance is crucial. Generative AI excels at everything repetitive, structured, volume : writing standard letters, summarizing documents, formatting data, first draft of a report. What she can’t do, and will probably never be able to do as well as a human, is another story.
The 5 human skills that AI will not replace
1. Contextual judgment
AI generates. She doesn’t judge. She doesn’t know that this client is sensitive, that this committee is political, that this reformulation will offend. The sense of context, of nuance, of the implicit – that’s you.
2. Relational intelligence
Convince, unite, defuse a conflict, inspire confidence in a difficult meeting. These skills are based on empathy, reading emotions and the ability to adapt your speech in real time. No language model is capable of this.
3. Critical thinking and reframing
AI is a mirror: it reflects what we ask of it. It does not question the premises, does not question the strategy, does not say “but are you sure you want to go in that direction?” » Questioning, reframing, challenging – it’s irreducibly human.
4. Disruptive creativity
Generative AI created by recombination. She produces “very good average”. True originality – that which surprises, which disturbs, which opens a new market – is born from a lived experience, from an intuition, from an angle that no one had seen. This is your land.
5. Responsibility and decision
Ultimately, someone has to sign. To assume. Deciding with incomplete information. Engage your reputation. AI can inform the decision. She can’t take it for you.
How to use AI in the office without losing its soul (or its value)?
Principle #1: Delegate tasks, not thinking
The golden rule: entrust to AI what consumes time without creating value. First drafting a difficult email, searching for information, formatting a table, summarizing a long document, transcribing a meeting.
Keep for yourself: analysis, positioning, final decision, customer relationship.
EY puts it very well in its study: the 5% of advanced users who really benefit from AI use it “ as a true thought partner rather than just a tool. » That’s all the difference.
Principle #2: Develop your “ready intelligence”
Knowing how to talk to an AI is a skill in its own right. A vague prompt gives a mediocre result. A precise, contextualized prompt, with clear constraints, gives a usable result.
Invest 30 minutes a week testing new ways to interact with AI tools in your industry. It’s the new Excel: those who master it have a head start.
Principle #3: Keep a critical eye on outputs
A study from the Berkeley Haas Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership analyzed 133 AI systems across different industries and found that about 44% of them exhibited gender stereotypes. AI reproduces the biases of the data it was trained on.
Never use an AI output without rereading it, questioning it, contextualizing it. Your critical perspective is an added value in itself.
Principle #4: Document and promote what AI does not do
This is an often overlooked point: as AI takes over executive tasks, what you do more becomes even more visible and valuable. Get in the habit of formulating, naming, and promoting your non-automatable contributions – in your annual interviews, your project reports, your personal branding.
Principle #5: Stay on active standby
In France, job offers in professions exposed to generative AI increased by 274% between 2019 and 2024. Jobs are evolving quickly. The expected skills too. Identify the training, certifications and resources that keep you on the move – without waiting for your company to push you.
The trap to avoid: hollow productivity
EY identifies a phenomenon it calls “ productivity trap »: Employees save a few hours thanks to AI, but nothing that fundamentally disrupts the way they work or the overall performance of the company.
In short: using AI to do the same thing faster is good. Use it for do fundamentally different and more strategic thingsthat’s what really changes the game.
The real question to ask yourself every week: “ The time I saved thanks to AI, what did I do with it?“
If the answer is “ I processed more emails“, you are in the trap. If the answer is “ I deepened an analysis, developed a customer relationship, thought about a new approach“, you are on the right trajectory.
FAQ – Generative AI in the office: your questions, our answers
Will generative AI eliminate my job? Probably not your entire position – but some of your tasks, yes. The ILO is clear: the vast majority of jobs will be transformed, not eliminated. The real question is not “will my job disappear?” » but “how do I evolve with him?” »
Where do I start if I’m not comfortable with technology? Start simple: take a consumer tool like ChatGPT or Gemini and test it on a real task in your daily professional life. Summarize a long email received. Write a first draft of the meeting minutes. Prepare questions for an interview. Fluency comes with practice, not theoretical training.
How do I know if I’m using AI well or if I’m becoming dependent? The test: if the tool disappeared tomorrow, would you be able to do the task without it? If so, you use it as an amplifier. If not, you may have delegated something that you should continue to master on your own.
Can AI help me advance in my career? Yes – if you use it strategically. Preparation of interviews, simulation of negotiations, analysis of your strengths and areas of development, sector monitoring, writing of your professional report. AI can be a coach accessible 24 hours a day, provided you ask it the right questions.
My company does not offer AI training. What to do? Don’t wait. Online resources are numerous and often free: YouTube tutorials, specialized newsletters, online communities of practice. In a job market where AI skills are increasingly valued, taking this initiative is also a strong signal sent to your hierarchy.
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Generative AI is neither a fatal threat nor a magic wand. It’s a tool – powerful, imperfect, evolving.
What will make the difference in the coming years is not being “pro-AI” or “anti-AI”. It is to know exactly what you bring that AI can’t bringand to cultivate it with intention.
Your experience, your judgment, your relationships, your ability to decide in the face of uncertainty. That’s your irreducible added value. AI can amplify it. She cannot create it for you.
