Jack Morton’s Linda Cebecauerova warns AI skills gap is holding back junior women

Linda Cebecauerova of Jack Morton argues that barriers to using AI at work are already forming, particularly for younger women, and that employers need to give junior staff room to experiment.

As AI becomes part of everyday work, she writes, there is a growing assumption that early-career employees will know how to use it simply because they are young.

That ignores the fact that when AI arrived at the start of the decade, most of Gen Z and those entering the workforce were discouraged or banned from using it. Cebecauerova herself graduated in 2022.

Many junior staff are also still learning the basics of their jobs and building taste, judgment and confidence. Expecting AI fluency on top of that without dedicated time or support creates a gap between expectation and reality, especially for junior women.

She cites the Women Tech Network, which found that AI is the topic women most want to learn about, yet 63% report lacking the skills and access to training at work.

An opportunity for young women

Cebecauerova sees an opportunity in that gap. AI is not just another tool but a new way of thinking, and it does not sit neatly within traditional media or creative skill sets. It requires understanding how it fits into wider business strategy and keeping pace with a fast-moving competitive market. “These aren’t things junior talent are failing to grasp; they’re things the entire industry is still figuring out,” she writes.

Learning in public

She identifies a contradiction in how the industry talks about innovation: it encourages experimentation but still rewards polished results.

For people early in their careers, particularly women still establishing their voice, being visible can feel tied to getting things right. AI, however, rewards iteration, curiosity and a willingness to explore without a guaranteed outcome.

“The truth is: learning AI is messy. It’s unpredictable, nonlinear, and sometimes unintuitive. And that’s not a weakness, it’s the process,” she writes. Normalising that process widens who gets to help shape what comes next.

Making space

A more inclusive future in AI-driven industries depends on access to experience as well as tools, Cebecauerova argues. That means environments where junior staff feel able to test, question and explore without pressure to be perfect immediately, and treating curiosity as a resource to be supported rather than silently expected.

“Because the risk isn’t that some people won’t learn AI. It’s that only certain people will feel confident enough to experiment with it early, which compounds over time.”

Her message to junior women is that not knowing everything about AI is a starting point rather than a disadvantage. The industry is still exploring, and their perspective will help define how the tools are used.

The goal is not to catch up overnight, she says, but to stay curious, ask better questions and allow learning to be non-linear and unpolished. The future of innovation, she concludes, will be shaped “by those who didn’t confuse uncertainty with inability.”