Yes, I did use AI to help me write this. I'm one of those people pushed to the point of burnout, balancing multiple passions while feeling the heaviness of the world and crisis after crisis.

 I need tools that help me accelerate action. If I don't use tech, I only have energy and time for a couple of my passions. When I do use it, I have the capacity for more - and in a society driven by a scarcity mindset, having more capacity is a very good thing.

We need more - more passion, more awareness, more bravery and more disruption - until we finally reach enough for everyone. We shouldn't be settling for what we have now; it simply isn't enough. Because at the same time, we also need less. Less misogyny, less greed, less injustice, less apathy and less loneliness.

I know I'm not alone in this.

At WomenEd NI's 6th birthday unconference, I hosted a breakout session on "A Feminist Approach to AI." The conversations that took place and those that have unravelled since have really impacted me.

I've also been trying to process some really difficult news stories about this AI space. Horrendous stories like Meta using images of teen girls to advertise their app Threads to men (Booth, The Guardian); hackers seizing 8,000 nursery children's personal information, including sensitive safeguarding data (Tidy, BBC); and AI videos from Google’s Veo 3 of women pleading for their lives before being shot, being viewed over 200,000 times before YouTube took them down (Boucher, The Independent).

All this came close to paralysing me. I haven’t even been able to post online about the unconference because I haven’t been able to process the impact of that day. Until now.

The unity of the WomenEd network is incredible. There is something special about the generosity of contributors who voluntarily give their time and talent to inspire us and remind us that we are worth campaigning for, we are worth investing in, and we are worth listening to.

How powerful a feeling is it to be listened to by something that isn't your technology!?

That brings me hope - and also brings me back to my breakout session. The three takeaways I shared to navigate this era with a feminist approach to AI were:

1. Cultivate an intersectional lens.
2. Be a critical consumer.
3. Champion co-creation.

(This could easily be a #WomenEd Tech blog series, so please connect with me if you want to collaborate on it!)

In short, I discussed how AI is impacting all of us in ways we don't fully realise yet. It's important that we look up and out at what is happening to those around us:

• Who is benefiting, and who is being exploited?
• Who is thriving, and who is barely surviving?
• Who is learning and leading, and who is confused and stuck?

I don't believe any individual, company, or school should be racing ahead to “win” at AI. To do so, you have to leave others behind. It's a pointless competition, especially in education, because it just highlights the existing inequalities in our school system.

The goal should always be that all students have the same opportunities, resources and safety to experience success. Unfortunately, many of us know all too well that:

• Digital poverty still exists. Some schools are fully kitted out and some can’t even replace broken charging cables.
• There's a growing skills and digital literacy gap - both for students and the teaching profession too!
• Years of underfunding and mismanagement have resulted in many of our school resources and personnel being stretched to the limit.
• The profession is haemorrhaging talent, increasingly from women in their 30s.

So yes, for education, it's a pointless competition to be a winner in AI, but there is definitely capacity for more leaders in AI.

Instead of silos and single champions, I'd rather champion co-creation where we collectively imagine what the future could be. I'd rather see a measured, collaborative approach where we bring others along with us, learning and growing together.

Below is a Venn diagram co-created by the attendees in my breakout session that illustrates the relationship between Feminism and Leadership. The intersection for them both includes:

• Hope for the future
• Listening to other voices
• Empowerment
• Collaboration

Upon reflection, some of the #WomenEd values are represented in that list. And who wouldn’t want more of them!? 

More Community. More Communication. More Confidence. More Collaboration!

Thank you, WomenEd, for creating a space where we can all experience "more".

I'm now really looking forward to more connection and inspiration at the next WomenEd NI event: "Naked Presentations" on 28th February at W5 Life, Belfast. 

Sign up to our newsletter to hear how you can get involved and join: linktr.ee/womenedni

Nicole O’Connor | @DigiKnowNicole | LinkedIn

References:

Booth, Robert. “Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man.” The Guardian, 21 September 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/20/parents-outraged-meta-uses-photos-schoolgirls-ads-man. Accessed 26 October 2025.

Boucher, Harriette. “Graphic AI videos of women being murdered seen by thousands of people online.” The Independent, 11 October 2025, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/google-ai-violence-women-youtube-b2837144.html. Accessed 26 October 2025.

Tidy, Joe. “Hackers say they have deleted children's pictures and data after nursery attack backlash.” BBC, 2 October 2025, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8rv83mrlyyo. Accessed 26 October 2025.

Copyrights

All images are from the slides used in this breakout session and have been created copyright free using Generate Image in Adobe Express for Education.