Women In Cloud Report Finds Gaps In AI Career Pathways

Women in Cloud (WIC) today released its Economic Access Report 2026 highlighting the striking paradox of modern economic life which suggests access to AI learning platforms, certification programs, digital communities, and global opportunities have never been more visible but numerous capable women professionals felt their careers have been stalled. 

Economic Access Report 2026 is the first of its kind community-driven report that saw participation from more than 250 women participants (founders, students and leaders) from a wide cross-section of the digital economy. These participants from across the world joined the WIC Community Kickoff 2026 for the study that captured real-time decision, perception, and emotional signals while participants were actively engaging with the opportunity. 

Key Findings: Opportunity Without Clarity

The research assessed five core access domains:

1. Skills & credentials, 

2. Jobs & careers, 

3. Entrepreneurship & funding, 

4. Leadership & visibility

5. Community & networks

Notable insights include:

• Only one in ten participants can clearly see how to get hired. The labor market is no longer a ladder; it is a maze. People may be accumulating skills, but two out of three cannot see a direct route to employment.

• Skills represent the most visible access pathway in the system. However, only one in four participants experienced genuine clarity.

• Over 56% report that access to funding and entrepreneurship pathways is completely unclear. This was the most fragile domain that was identified.

• 1/3rd of the respondents feel that pathways to leadership and sponsorship remain vague.

• While community participation is high, 26% say they do not know how to convert relationships into referrals, capital, or opportunity.

Commenting on the study, Chaitra Vedullapalli, President & Co-founder, Women in Cloud, said, “The idea to create this report stems from the fact that we do not have a reference point when it 

comes to investing in people and infrastructure that are aligned with economic outcomes, especially for women professionals. This report has clearly highlighted the fact that we are living through a paradox of modern economic life. Never before have so many people had access to learning platforms, certification programs, digital communities, and global opportunities. And yet, never before have so many capable individuals felt stalled. Today, we know that the biggest obstacles to economic access are not technological but navigational, financial and psychological in nature.

The data reveals why people can see the marketplace but they cannot see the map. They know where skills live, but they do not know where income begins. They see founders raising capital, but they do not know how to become fundable. They watch leaders speak, but they do not know how to be sponsored.

The report also suggested that across demographics, geographies, and career stages, participants consistently linked economic access to five interlocking forms of Economic Agency -
Confidence, Income, Independence, Influence, and Direction. The report further suggests that confidence in 2026 is no longer merely a mindset but an outcome of clear, visible, and trustworthy economic pathways.

What the Community Wants Next

• 92% of participants indicated that access to skills and credentials is at least somewhat visible

• 10% stated that access to jobs and careers is genuinely clear. 

• Over 56% reported that access to funding and business development is completely unclear. 

• Nearly one-third noted that pathways to leadership and visibility remain vague. 

This disparity between understanding what exists and knowing how to attain it characterizes the economic experience of 2026. Across all demographics, including age, geography, and career stage, confidence emerged as a term that was not as a theoretical concept, but as a lived reality. 

Participants said people lose confidence when they don ’t understand how the system works. 

In response to the findings, Women in Cloud announced the WIC Confidence Circle, an action-oriented, peer-driven immersion designed to convert clarity into confident moves and measurable economic outcomes. 

The initiative focuses on:

• Making economic pathways visible

• Supporting consistent, disciplined action

• Celebrating progress and reinvestment

• Turning community access into real economic lift

Women In Cloud also plans to publish a transparent 2026 Economic Access Roadmap, launching pilot career and placement pathways, and reporting progress back to the community on an ongoing basis.