At CCW Vegas, CX Today’s Sophie Wilson sat down with three CCWomen Summit speakers – Melissa Solis, CEO of Inbenta; Kamana Khadka, Founder of Inclusion Multipliers; and Courtney Shealy, SVP of Global Pre-Sales at Medallia – to unpack the forces reshaping customer experience leadership. Their conversations surface an urgent message: AI is widening the gap for women in CX, and closing it demands action now.
The Crisis No One Is Talking About Loudly Enough
The numbers are stark. According to Melissa Solis, CEO of Inbenta and a 30-year veteran of the tech industry, approximately 13 to 14 million women currently work in the call centre and customer experience space – and analysts project that up to 50% of those roles could be displaced by AI within the next three to four years.
Solis said
“That is staggering. We’re going to have half these women missing in three years – not even here at this forum.”
Solis, who founded a company with $300 and sold it for $610 million before coming out of retirement to tackle the gender gap head-on, pulls no punches about the systemic failures at play. Policy changes haven’t worked. Representation in AI is dismal – less than 30% of the AI workforce is female, fewer than 15% hold leadership roles, and female CEOs are rarer still.
Her message is direct: women cannot wait for the system to fix itself. “Quit waiting on a man to solve your problem,” she said. “AI is an equaliser – anything you need to know, you can learn without stepping into a college, without spending money. Shut the TV off, start investing in yourself.”
Rethinking DEI: From Department to Distributed Leadership
While Solis zeroes in on individual empowerment, Kamana Khadka, Founder of Inclusion Multipliers, is focused on transforming the organisational structures that shape opportunity.
As DEI departments face widespread cuts across US enterprises – a trend accelerated by political backlash – Khadka is not sounding the alarm. She’s sounding a different note entirely.
“The future of DEI is actually pretty bright, companies that were truly committed from early on – like Costco, like IKEA – are doubling down. They may have rebranded, but the work continues.”
Khadka’s concern is less with the acronym and more with the architecture. Her framework, Inclusion Multipliers, advocates for taking DEI out of siloed HR departments and distributing inclusion responsibility across all leaders.
“When it’s distributed leadership, even if your budget goes away, the work still continues – and that’s how it should be.”
On the AI knowledge gap specifically, Khadka is clear-eyed. Women are disproportionately underrepresented in the rooms where AI decisions are made – not just in training, but in design. “Women need to be in the boardrooms and meeting halls where the decisions are being made about how to use AI, what’s the design,” she said. Her call to action for CX leaders: bring non-technical women into AI training conversations, not just the tech-savvy ones.
“That’s the way to shorten the equity gap.”
Humanising AI: The Case for Keeping Humans in the Loop
Courtney Shealy, SVP of Global Pre-Sales at Medallia, approaches the conversation from a different angle – the technology itself, and what it should and shouldn’t replace.
Her CCWomen talk focused on humanising AI in contact centres, and the core thesis is deceptively simple: leaders are asking the wrong question. Instead of what can we automate?, the better question is what should remain human?
“AI is going to be there to help us research, prepare, and take certain tasks off our plate, but it doesn’t replace the desire and need for human connection.”
The opportunity, as she sees it, is to use AI to eliminate redundant tasks so that human agents can do what they do best – coach, empathise, and build lasting customer relationships.
Medallia’s work centres on reading not just what customers say, but the intent and emotion behind their words.
“Can I not only understand the words they said, but their intent – hidden in the words they use, the emotions they speak about?”
That depth of intelligence, she argues, is what connects CX teams to real business outcomes: growth, customer retention, and risk reduction.
On women in leadership, Shealy is optimistic about AI’s potential as a leveller.
“It allows you and empowers you to level your skills up, if you have curiosity and creativity, you can ask questions, you can become informed – AI helps bridge that gap, whether you have the degree or not.”
Her advice to CX leaders evaluating talent: look for the people who are naturally asking questions – because that instinct, especially common in female leaders, is a superpower in CX.
The Overarching Themes: Three Voices, One Direction
Despite coming from different vantage points, Solis, Khadka, and Shealy are converging on the same truths.
1. AI is both the threat and the tool. All three speakers acknowledge AI is accelerating workforce disruption and widening gender gaps – but also that, used intentionally, it can democratise access to knowledge and leadership.
2. Emotional intelligence is a competitive advantage, not a soft skill. From Solis’s defence of empathy in the boardroom to Shealy’s argument for emotionally intelligent CX systems, the conversations at CCW Vegas signal a cultural shift in how these capabilities are valued.
3. Inclusion must be embedded, not bolted on. Whether it’s Khadka’s distributed leadership model, Solis’s call for women to own the table, or Shealy’s push for inclusive hiring practices, the consensus is the same: representation cannot be a programme. It has to be a practice.
4. Sponsorship over mentorship. Solis’s distinction landed loudly – mentorship talks, sponsorship acts. “Stick your neck out. Say, ‘This is an amazing leader – you need to look at her.'”
The message from CCW Vegas is clear: the CX industry is at an inflection point. The organisations and leaders that will thrive are those that use AI to amplify human strengths, design inclusivity into their culture, and refuse to let half their workforce get left behind.
FAQs
What is the AI knowledge gap for women in CX?
The AI knowledge gap refers to the disparity in access to AI training, tools, and leadership opportunities between men and women in the customer experience industry. Women make up less than 30% of the AI workforce and under 15% of AI leadership roles, leaving them disproportionately vulnerable to AI-driven job displacement.
How many women in customer experience could lose their jobs to AI?
Industry analysts project that up to 50% of the approximately 13-14 million women working in the call centre and CX space could face job displacement within three to four years due to AI automation.
What is the future of DEI in enterprises?
While many companies are scaling back formal DEI departments, experts like Kamana Khadka argue that the values of inclusion and belonging are not going away. The future lies in distributed leadership models that embed inclusion into every leader’s daily practice, rather than siloing it in HR.
How can CX leaders use AI to close the gender leadership gap?
CX leaders can use AI to democratise skills development, making it possible for women – technical and non-technical alike – to upskill rapidly. Leaders should ensure women are present in the rooms where AI design and deployment decisions are made, and actively sponsor talented women for leadership roles.
What does “humanising AI in contact centres” mean?
Humanising AI means using technology to handle repetitive tasks so that human agents can focus on empathy, coaching, and meaningful customer interaction. Rather than replacing human connection, the goal is to free up people to do what AI cannot: listen deeply, interpret emotion, and build genuine relationships.
What is the difference between mentorship and sponsorship for women in CX?
Mentorship involves guidance and advice, while sponsorship means actively advocating for someone – publicly championing their promotion, recommending them for opportunities, and putting your reputation behind their advancement. Sponsorship has a direct, measurable impact on career progression for underrepresented groups.
Explore more CX leadership insights from CCW Vegas and beyond – subscribe to the CX Today newsletter.
