AICW Initiative Launches Multi-Stakeholder Alliance for Women in AI

By: WE Staff | Saturday, 28 February 2026

• The AI Careers for Women (AICW) initiative was launched in April 2025 by the MSDE in collaboration with Microsoft
• The initiative has now moved on to its next phase with the launch of the multi-stakeholder alliance

The AI Careers for Women initiative was created by the Government of India and Microsoft in 2020 as part of a new program that encourages women to pursue careers in Artificial Intelligence (AI) through formal training.

The program launched its second phase in September 2021, when Microsoft entered into formal partnerships with SAP and LinkedIn to create an alliance of multi-sector constituents. The goal of this partnership is to create a sustainable, scalable, and inclusive career path for women through the use of AI in India.

SAP and LinkedIn were added as corporate members to the AICW initiative providing additional leadership and perceived benefits to the organizational membership within the industry.

Their involvement in the program was essential in demonstrating that AICW is transitioning into an industry-based platform with the focus of closing the gender gap in technology.

Both SAP and LinkedIn publicly demonstrates their commitment to upskilling women into the AI Economy and to actively include them within the economy.

AICW is a comprehensive initiative to develop an inclusive gender-diverse workforce in technology and AI. It supports women in bridging the gender gap in technology through the development of a seamless connection between higher education and career paths within the technology and AI sectors.

The AICW initiative encompasses eight states - Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Odisha and fosters the development of an interconnected network of higher education and careers in AI and technology through the implementation of a statewide "hub-and-spoke" system using higher educational institutions to connect to their regional employers in the tech and AI sectors.

The initiative gained traction in July 2025 when LinkedIn and SAP became corporate partners, fortifying the program’s leadership-focused ecosystem and bettering its national reach.

This partnership is major in the conversion of AICW into a solid, industry-aligned platform to help close the gender gap in the technology workforce.

The unveiling of this initiative demonstrates a joint commitment to prepare women for the AI economy through the development of skills and to provide accessible opportunities for their inclusion.

The goal of AICW is to bring together men and women of all races in the technology field through an ecosystem that connects higher education with careers within the industry.

The program covers eight States — Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Odisha — and will be operated through a hub and spoke model.