How can advanced digital technology help companies take a more targeted approach to gender equality? This was the question Add Gender set out to answer through Norm Navigator, a project supported by Avancerad Digitalisering.
The result was a digital tool that combines AI, data analysis and human expertise to identify where organisational change can have the greatest impact.
“We wanted to bring together everything we had learnt over 18 years of working with gender equality and explore whether we could translate it into a digital solution. The idea was to use advanced digital technology to identify the levers that make a real difference,” says Pernilla Alexandersson, founder of Add Gender.
Gender equality is a systemic challenge
A central insight behind Norm Navigator was that gender equality challenges can rarely be resolved through isolated initiatives. Its starting point is Sweden’s gender equality policy objective: that women and men should have equal power to shape society and their own lives. This means addressing both gender representation across roles and career paths and issues such as culture, influence, leadership and communication.
“Many organisations focus on one area at a time, such as recruitment. But if women are recruited and then leave the company a few years later, the problem has not been solved. You need to understand the whole system,” says Pernilla.
This is where digitalisation comes in. By using AI to analyse several aspects of an organisation simultaneously – from leadership and communication to culture, governance and workforce development – the tool can identify the areas where action has the greatest potential to drive change. The analysis also extends beyond internal operations to cover areas such as innovation, product and service development, customer segments and sales.
The aim is to help companies see connections that might otherwise remain hidden.
“Sometimes the solution is not where you expect it to be. Seeing it clearly laid out often leads to entirely new insights.”
AI as support – not a replacement
Exploring the interaction between people and AI has been an important part of the project.
“We have not built a tool that replaces experts. Quite the opposite: it is about using AI where it performs well, such as analysing large amounts of information, and allowing people to focus on interpretation, dialogue and organisational change.”
During the project, the team developed new approaches to human–AI collaboration. They even began referring to the AI as a colleague and named it “Nomi”.
“It helped us think about when the technology should be involved in the process and when people need to take over. It became a practical way of working with ethical AI.”
In this context, ethical AI is primarily about using technology while keeping people central to the process. AI should strengthen human collaboration and gender equality, rather than undermine them. By bringing together expertise in areas including UX, psychology and the critical examination of social norms, the team aims to incorporate ethical considerations from the outset – and reduce the risk of technological solutions reinforcing discrimination or gender inequality.
Essential support for innovation
According to Pernilla Alexandersson, funding from Avancerad Digitalisering was essential to developing the solution.
“We could have built a simpler digital product, but the support allowed us to explore in depth how AI, data and systems thinking could be combined to deliver real value. That was where the real innovation lay.”
The project has produced an initial working version of the tool, which is now being used in the team’s work with industry and individual companies.
Potential for Swedish industry
Pernilla Alexandersson sees significant potential in using advanced digital technology to address complex issues such as workforce development, innovation and gender equality.
“Gender equality is not just about fairness. For industry, it is also about attracting talent, strengthening the capacity to innovate and becoming more competitive. The better we understand the systems, the better the decisions we can make.”
Next steps
The next step is to encourage more organisations to test the tool and help shape its further development. Add Gender is particularly interested in hearing from CEOs, quality managers, sustainability managers and HR directors who want to explore new approaches to social sustainability, gender equality and anti-discrimination.
“We are looking for organisations willing to take a bold approach, co-create and learn alongside us. What delivers the greatest value, how can we make the best use of AI, and what direction should the tool’s development take?”
For participating organisations, this also offers an opportunity to bring different areas of expertise together: employees with an interest in technology can work alongside colleagues focused on culture, organisational development and human relationships.
“We need to be willing to test new applications of AI and advanced digital technology. Innovation is not just about the technology itself, but about the problems we choose to solve.”
Project Facts
Project name: Norm Navigator – Digitalising systematic gender equality efforts as a lever for industry
Project lead/coordinator: Add Gender AB
Partners: Add Gender AB, Sigma Industry West, Boid and Jolint.
Project period: November 2023 – November 2024.
Funding programme: Avancerad Digitalisering – Enabling Technologies.
Goal: To develop a digital tool to measure, analyse and improve gender equality in industry.
Total budget: SEK 2,140,993
Purpose: To make industry’s gender equality efforts more systematic and data-driven, strengthening inclusion and competitiveness.