Women’s leadership nonprofit Lean In is pivoting its focus toward closing the gender gap in AI adoption, and has appointed a 25-year-old former tech product manager as its new CEO to lead that effort.
Bridget Griswold, who previously worked as a product manager at Meta, joined Lean In in January as head of product and AI. By March she had stepped into the chief executive role, replacing co-founder Rachel Thomas. The appointment drew public scrutiny over her age and limited nonprofit experience, but Lean In founder Sheryl Sandberg said the organisation specifically wanted someone with an AI-native background and product instincts — not a traditional nonprofit career path.
The strategic shift comes on the back of data that Lean In finds alarming. A survey of 1,000 US adults conducted by the organisation found that 33% of men use AI tools on a daily basis, compared to 27% of women. The gap may look modest in isolation, but Sandberg argues that sustained differences in adoption rates, compounded over time, could significantly widen existing inequalities in the workforce.
The concern isn’t just usage rates. Women are more likely than men to describe feeling threatened, overwhelmed, or like they’re doing something wrong when they use AI tools. They’re also more likely to hold back due to concerns about accuracy and ethics. Griswold acknowledges that those instincts aren’t unreasonable — but worries they may be widening the gap at a moment when AI proficiency is increasingly tied to career advancement and job security.
The structural dynamics make this more urgent. Women’s jobs are estimated to face automation at three times the rate of men’s, and women remain significantly underrepresented in the teams building and deploying AI systems. That combination — higher exposure to displacement, lower representation in shaping the technology — is what Lean In is now framing as its central challenge.
Workplace dynamics are also part of the picture. Lean In’s data shows men are 27% more likely than women to have been praised by their employer for using AI, and women are 23% less likely to receive manager encouragement to adopt it. Sandberg’s argument is that this kind of bias often isn’t intentional, but surfacing it explicitly is what starts to change it.
Lean In is making this pivot while also navigating internal turbulence. The Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation, which operates the organisation, reduced its headcount by about a quarter over the past year through layoffs and departures. Griswold’s appointment signals a leaner organisation with a tighter focus — using AI both as a cause to champion and as a tool to amplify the nonprofit’s own reach and impact.