Simplifai on Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity

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March 8, 2021

Simplifai on Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity

Today on the 8th of March, we celebrate International Women’s day by taking a stand for equality. Our workforce comprises 35% women from ten different nationalities, with offices in Norway, India, and the Netherlands. As an AI-company that is scaling globally at a rapid pace, we aim to keep our team equal, inclusive, and diverse. We believe in these virtues that give us strength while developing innovative solutions and also to keep out gender bias in our AI models in terms of ethics.

Equal Opportunities at Simplifai

At Simplifai, we encourage each other to share ideas and inputs across disciplines and roles, juniors or seniors, aim to provide equal opportunity to grow and expand our employees' skills and knowledge.

Last year, Vasim Shaikh was promoted to the position of CEO of our India office. Here are a few words from her about this day and on the overall contribution of female strength to the company:

– "I’ve been associated with Simplifai for the last 3 years, and it was a conscious decision to choose this opportunity as I wanted to achieve something more than what I was currently doing. When we started in India, I was not aware we would be scaling so big, and it was a huge responsibility to handle such an important role. I have been able to do it till now because of my wonderful team members here at Simplifai.

I believe that if any female wants to achieve success, she needs to put more than 100% effort and work on herself without seeking confirmation from others. Many women seek the right support to get acknowledged by their peers. But in order to achieve her dreams, a woman should not depend on others or wait for acknowledgment, but work hard and believe in herself, as we are more than capable of doing anything.

I can proudly say that we strive to maintain an open and safe environment as we aim to upkeep a diverse team. This is crucial since we share three different work cultures altogether. We give equal importance to all genders by looking objectively at their skills, be it challenges or opportunities.

At Simplifai, we have about 35% women, with some working in lead roles, and all of them are doing wonders. They are managing deliveries on time and ready to put in extra efforts whenever needed. There is no indifference in work done by men and women, and this should also be reflected in how they’re treated.

I don’t prefer to compare genders; all are different individuals with different characteristics. But I believe many women are, in fact, working harder because they need to succeed at their workplace and take care of home and family. Therefore, it’s important to recognize and celebrate their hard work."

“It’s important to recognize the hard work of women, wherein many are working in double shifts at the workplace as well as at home taking care of their family.”

Vasim Shaikh, CEO, Simplifai India

Eradicating gender bias is not just a need of the hour. It has taken so many years to tackle this issue, just to promote equality at the workplace, that a lot of work still needs to be done in this direction. Let us take a look at a few key solutions that should be implemented with a maximum focus in order to actually bring gender equality to fruition, especially in tech companies.

Private Companies Should Take Action to Reduce Gender Gap

The world has advanced further on women’s rights and opportunities, as there are more women in all job sectors. Many are steadily climbing the path of leadership roles. But there’s still a long road to achieving true equality. Sadly, statistics report that the gender gap has actually increased due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and especially minorities seem to be losing.

The responsibilities not only lie with governments and world leaders but also with all companies and organizations. They all can take action and make a difference by being aware of the unconscious bias against women, particularly from minorities, when they’re hiring, re-organizing roles, promoting, or deciding salaries. There are also a lot of tools out there to help companies work actively on diversity and equality. Gender bias is represented among both men and women, according to a UNDP report last year, which found that about 90% of people hold some bias against women.

Diversity - Fair and Profitable

Diversity helps develop innovative products and services when views and ideas are shared. The technology we are producing should be reflective of a diverse world, especially when developing solutions are used in non-first-world countries. By being a non-inclusive place to work, employers can miss out on great ideas and skills. Diversity is definitely a strength and a necessity while working in AI and technology in general. Being diverse means being rich in perspectives while solving problems so that innovation can flourish.

Gender and Racial Biases in AI

As AI technology is evolving, it significantly affects our society and individual lives, as machine learning algorithms are being trained through existing datasets. If the ones in charge of this development are a homogeneous group, the model will reflect their perspective and leave big holes in knowledge. There’s a high risk of gender and racial bias being reflected and amplified by AI, which can be dangerous if not tackled early. We need to include more women be a part of building AI solutions. If these actions are not well represented through both sampling data as well as in developmental phases, bias errors could creep in.

The erstwhile concept of using poor data samples that consist of historically-unfair and racially manipulated data needs to stop. The world will greatly benefit from adopting the objective use of AI that does not mirror stereotypes and denies minorities and financially-backward communities any kind of opportunities.

Developing inclusive AI technology solutions

Some AI-solutions sold to businesses are complicated and might require a certain skill set to use them along with a knowledge of coding. At Simplifai, we develop user-friendly AI-solutions that can be used without any technical or coding skills. Our platform Simplifai Studio has been carefully designed so employees at any seniority level and in any role should be able to use it. We take all inputs from our clients, partners, and sales meeting seriously to continue improving our solutions.