The Bund Forum Highlights the Power of Women in the AI Era: From Being Used for Her to Creating by Her

Can an aunt who only attended school for three years and sells steamed buns on the street create her own AI writing assistant? Can a rural homestay manager develop an English learning app without coding, telling the story of her hometown to foreign guests?

On September 11, at the 2026 Inclusion · Bund Conference's "Digital Mulan" session, these ideas had tangible answers. A group of women of different ages and professions presented their AI products on stage.

This conference was jointly initiated by Ant Group and the Ant Charity Foundation, with the theme "We WOMEN · AI", divided into two parts: "AI for Her" and "AI by Her", exploring how to better promote women as shared participants, co-creators, and co-builders in the development of artificial intelligence.

Liu Liqun, president of China Women's University (National Federation of Women's Organizations Training College), secretary-general of the Global Women's Capacity Building Center, and secretary-general of the Global Digital Empowerment Women's Development Exchange and Cooperation Center, stated in her speech that digital technology breaks through time and space limitations, broadening the dimensions of women's participation in economic and social activities; empowering accessible public services, reducing household labor and releasing women's development space; creating new industries, opening up new job and entrepreneurship opportunities for women, and highlighting women's value in the public sphere. However, gender digital gaps, hidden algorithmic biases, lack of female digital talent, and risks to rights and security still need attention. She said, "Improving women's digital literacy, unleashing development potential, and bridging the gender digital gap is both a practical issue and a mission of the times."

President of China Women's University (National Federation of Women's Organizations Training College), Secretary-General of the Global Women's Capacity Building Center, and Secretary-General of the Global Digital Empowerment Women's Development Exchange and Cooperation Center Liu Liqun delivers a speech

AI Comes to Our Lives, What Changes Can It Bring to Work and Health

A rural woman, just finishing work in the fields, puts on a suit and enters a tech company as an AI trainer when it's time to work; after work, she drives a car she bought with her own money to pick up her child. This scene impressed host Zhang Yue deeply when she visited the Shaanxi "Digital Mulan" project base.

AI has brought new job opportunities to women, but also brought pressure from changes in job positions. Yang Jianghua, director of the Digital Society Research Center at Xi'an Jiaotong University, cited data showing that about one-quarter of global jobs may be affected to varying degrees by AI. In jobs where AI can handle most tasks, women account for 4.7% and men 2.4%. He believes, "The evolution of technology itself does not bring occupational gender equality. Only through individual efforts, social innovation, and systemic governance can we provide shared digital opportunities and inclusive digital dividends."

Director Yang Jianghua of the Digital Society Research Center at Xi'an Jiaotong University shares his views

At the employment roundtable, guests from manufacturing, digital services, and finance shared their practices. Wang Yan, vice president of Human Resources at Yida China, believes that frontline female workers are familiar with production processes and actual needs, and continuous training can help them participate in the development and application of AI tools. Xu Ning, general manager of the AI Customer Service Division at Ant Science, introduced that 81% of the people on the cloud customer service platform are women. AI is lowering the barriers to remote training and onboarding, "bringing jobs to the doorstep," allowing some mothers to return to their children's side. Zhan Qun, general manager of the Individual Transaction Banking Department at Wangshang Bank, stated that Wangshang Bank has served 17 million female entrepreneurs, and support for female entrepreneurs is expanding from lowering financing barriers to helping them use AI to manage their businesses. Olavina Harahap, representative of Indonesian payment platform DANA, believes that AI training should focus on practical needs such as content marketing and customer communication, so that female small business owners can truly use it.

When the discussion turned to health, the issues became more specific. Can women in remote areas get timely screenings? Can those physical problems that are hard to talk about be first discussed with AI?

Nadia Rasheed, Representative of the United Nations Population Fund in China and Director for North Korea and Mongolia, said that AI has great potential to improve women's health, but "the premise is that it can reach women facing the greatest obstacles." She proposed that women should be involved in choosing, designing, and setting usage rules for related products, especially avoiding leaving out groups such as rural women and women with disabilities. The value of AI in women's health should ultimately be measured by whether it meets women's health needs.

Nadia Rasheed, Representative of the United Nations Population Fund in China and Director for North Korea and Mongolia, shares her views

The health roundtable focused on early screening, grassroots services, and daily health support. Sun Xiaorong, founder and chairman of Wuhan Landings Intelligent Medicine, introduced that her team once issued 50,000 reports in a single day in a cervical cancer screening project, with AI identifying suspicious cells and doctors reviewing them online, enabling limited professional resources to serve more women in the grassroots. Zhang Ling, senior algorithm engineer at DAMO Academy, introduced that the team is exploring multi-cancer screening using plain CT combined with AI, with breast cancer screening achieving an average sensitivity of 85% and specificity over 99% without contrast agents, and the relevant applications are still in productization and clinical trials.

Bai Yujing, senior program officer at the Gates Foundation, introduced a portable ultrasound device developed in China by the foundation, which is palm-sized. "Scan vertically three times, horizontally three times," six segments of scanning videos assist in identifying gestational age, amniotic fluid volume, etc., and can identify pregnancy risks three weeks earlier. Tao Sixiong, head physician of the Breast Surgery Department at the Second Hospital of Zhejiang University, called for health AI to go deeper into counties, towns, and rural areas, and strengthen its public nature, responding to daily health needs that are often overlooked, such as breastfeeding.

Women Who Don't Know Code Also Have Their Own Product Ideas

From receiving services to participating in creation, the products created by women using AI vibe coding at the conference mostly started with a specific life problem.

Two 13-year-old girls brought works based on needs around them. Jia Yishan from Beijing Chaoyang Zhongde School found in the Ant Science OPC Maker Camp that several teammates' grandparents had trouble taking medicine on time, so she worked with her partners to design the "Yao Xiaobao" smart medicine box. Xie Anqi from Hangzhou Yungu School and her classmate Huang Zeyang made the "Husky Study Butler" in one and a half days, helping students who get distracted easily stay focused while studying.

Two 13-year-old AI Native girls presented their works

As AI natives, they also have their own ways of interacting with AI. Jia Yishan said, "We can ask AI questions if we don't understand something, and if AI makes a mistake, we can correct it. That's also a way of learning." When talking about using AI to assist learning, Xie Anqi emphasized, "If you really believe you should master it, you must have the ability to understand it yourself."

Works from members of the "Mulan Makers' Forest" came from more women's daily lives and work needs.

Mu Yumei, over 50 years old, sells steamed buns in Shenzhen and writes poetry. She dropped out of school in third grade, collected scrap, and moved around working, making a living by selling steamed buns for over ten years. After joining the Green Rose Reading Club in 2024, she began to write poems. The wheat fields of her hometown, the hardships of working, and the chicks raised with her granddaughter all became content for her poems, and she has now written nearly forty of them.

At this "Mulan Makers' Forest," she collaborated with technical volunteers to create an AI writing assistant, recording daily inspiration and helping herself organize feelings to express. As for how to finally write it, it was still up to her. "Although I only attended school for three years and still sell steamed buns, how to make steamed buns and how to write poems, my life is decided by me!"

Wang Aidi comes from Tianshui, Gansu, and now works as a homestay manager in Dongxiang. Once, during an international study tour, she wanted to introduce the local food and folk songs to guests, but couldn't speak English and couldn't express herself. This experience made her determined to learn English and brought her needs to the "Mulan Makers' Forest," where she co-created an English tool suitable for homestay reception scenarios called "Mulan Voice."

"Although I don't know code, I understand the needs," Wang Aidi said. Two years of homestay work taught her what to say in certain situations and what local culture she most wanted to introduce to guests. She hopes to bring the tool back to the mountains and learn with more rural women. On the day of the conference, she met a foreign guest in the elevator, hesitated for a second, then greeted him.

Hu Chunfang, a hearing-impaired weaver in Hangzhou Xiaoshan, teaches weaving to over 300 hearing-impaired students. At the Mulan Makers' Forest, she collaborated with a team to create "Bridge Not Broken," where inputting ideas generates design drawings via AI, which are then combined with her years of weaving experience to generate deconstruction tutorials, helping students try original designs.

Mao Mao's mother from Xinyang, Henan, once struggled to find a music teacher willing to accept blind children, so she learned the musical notation herself and sang to her child. She and her partner co-created "AI for Love, Because of Love," trying to solve difficulties in singing notation, correction, and self-practice, providing music learning support for more blind children at home.

Dou Yongyan from Jishi Mountain, Gansu, is a cloud customer service agent. After her grandmother passed away, she collaborated with volunteers to create an emotional companion assistant, which records memories, saves photos, and writes family letters, expressing her longing. She clearly knows AI is not her real grandmother, but the tool helps her say things she never had the chance to say. "For me, the real significance of this family letter is that I finally said the words I never had the chance to say."

Lai Yunqi, founder and CEO of FLOW AI, believes that AI is lowering the threshold for small teams to develop products and operate, providing more flexible conditions for women to start businesses. As more execution work can be handed over to tools, understanding user needs becomes more important. She encourages women to start with a simple AI tool based on their own needs, let others with similar needs use it, and gradually improve it.

Lai Yunqi, founder and CEO of FLOW AI, shares her views

From English conversations in homestays to poems by the steamed bun stall, and design drawings by hearing-impaired weavers, women's work experiences and life feelings are influencing what problems AI products should solve and how they should be designed.

Xiao Wangjing, vice president of Ant Group's Sustainable Development Department and secretary-general of the Ant Charity Foundation, said, "This is the ninth year since Ant launched the Digital Mulan Women Support Program. We have always believed and practiced that technology creates opportunities for women, ensuring that women are not left behind in the digital era." Facing the opportunities and challenges brought by AI, she emphasized, "Women cannot just be users and consumers of AI, but should become co-creators and shapers of AI."

Xiao Wangjing, vice president of Ant Group's Sustainable Development Department and secretary-general of the Ant Charity Foundation

In her view, AI can help more women turn their life experiences and needs into product ideas, giving rural women the opportunity to participate in technological design, evolving from users to co-creators and definers of products. At the same time, "AI should not only pursue the boundaries of capability but also redefine the boundaries of responsibility by people," ensuring that the needs and rights of women are fully considered in the design and application of technology.

"The more AI develops, the more people need to be present, and 'We WOMEN' need to be even more present. In the past, we hoped she could enter the future; today, we hope she becomes a co-author of the future," Xiao Wangjing said.

During the conference, the China Women's Development Foundation, the China Health Education Center, the Ant Charity Foundation, and other partners jointly launched the "Mulan AI Health Plan," promoting related services in places such as Dezhou, Shandong; Qingjian, Shaanxi; and Jishi Mountain, Gansu, bringing AI closer to the health needs of grassroots women.

The China Women's Development Foundation, China Women's University (National Federation of Women's Organizations Training College), Shanghai Municipal Federation of Women's Organizations, China Rural Development Foundation, Ciyuan Xiangshan Lab, China Internet News Center, and representatives including experts and the Ant Charity Foundation jointly released the "We WOMEN · AI" initiative. The initiative focuses on women's economic participation and high-quality development, supporting more women to become shared participants, co-creators, and co-builders in the AI era through case studies, opportunity creation, and public awareness campaigns.