“When I look towards 2026, I find myself caught between cautious optimism and frustration,” said Karen Blake, tech inclusion strategist and former co-CEO of the Tech Talent Charter.
It’s a sentiment those in the technology sector have felt many times over the past 10 years, where the number of women in the technology sector has crept up from 16% in 2015 to 22% in 2025.
This six percentage point increase represents both a massive improvement and a devastatingly slow one – this change has come through a large amount of effort from many dedicated organisations and individuals, but there’s no denying the improvement feels small in comparison with the amount of effort put in.
“We’ve reached 441,000 women working as IT specialists, 22% of the profession, up from 19% six years ago when the sector had just 315,000 women,” said Blake. “That is progress, hard fought and won. The industry is growing, and we have more women than ever in these roles.
“But to achieve equal representation, we’d need to add another 530,000 women to the sector. We’re talking about more than doubling current numbers.”
The current landscape
There’s no doubt the conversation surrounding diversity in tech has evolved in the past 10 years, with the focus shifting from just increasing the number of women in the sector to pushing for representation of all types of people in tech roles, whether from the perspective of ability, age, gender, sexuality, race or socioeconomic background.
Initiatives such as the now-defunct Tech Talent Charter began to push organisations for data surrounding what percentage of these groups exist in the technology workforce, how they’re being drawn in and retained, and how they feel about working in the technology sector.
The UK government launched a Science and Technology Committee (STC) to gather opinions and data about the state of diversity in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) disciplines, and how it could be improved, and also launched a Women in Tech Taskforce made up of experts able to “identify and dismantle” the barriers preventing women from joining or staying in the tech sector.
Countless other organisations and initiatives have been pushing for the same thing, but the fact remains that progress is slow.
Not only is it slow, but one of the reasons there is still such a low number of underrepresented groups in tech is because once they enter the sector, they’re leaving.
In some instances, a lack of inclusive culture or flexible working in tech workplaces is leaving people dissatisfied and unhappy, while the Lovelace report found a lack of opportunity for progression, and pay gaps are also to blame.
“We know women are leaving at higher rates than men,” said Blake. “We know the pay gap persists even as companies increase salaries to attract talent. We know intersectional representation has barely moved even as demand for skilled workers has never been higher. Yet somehow the industry resists the cultural and structural changes that might actually address these issues.
Perhaps the frustrating truth is that tech doesn’t just accidentally exclude women and people of colour. The culture and structures actively resist diversity in ways we’re not fully confronting.”
The next year needs to see the industry address inequities in inclusion, career progression and flexibility, said Blake, or else “numbers will continue their slow crawl forward while the real problem stays untouched”.
Reframing the drive
Rather than doubling down to solve these issues, 2025 saw a mass dialling back of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) by employers.
A combination of economic uncertainty and financial struggles has meant diversity initiatives at firms – often seen as a “nice to have” rather than a “must have” – are the first to be cut.
In some cases, the conversation surrounding DEI has shifted, becoming a quiet and small part of organisations rather than a marketable asset to showcase.
This was further exacerbated by behaviour in the US. At the beginning of his current term, Donald Trump ordered the dismantling of DEI programmes, causing a backlash in the UK at companies working with US firms in particular.
There is a concern that these trends will continue into 2026, despite research in the past suggesting that firms and their employees fully understand how important a diverse workforce is.
As pointed out by Sheridan Ash, co-CEO of technology education charity Tech She Can, the economic climate is not set to become more stable, and disruptive technologies will continue to rock the boat, so how firms approach diversity will begin to look different, meaning firms starting to look at diversity from the perspective of “fairness, skills and access to opportunities” rather than the percentage of women or other underrepresented groups that are in tech roles.
“In 2026, diversity initiatives will increasingly be judged on outcomes, tied to business performance metrics that deliver value for the organisation, and its people and the communities it services and works in,” she said. “Companies will continue the move away from centralised DEI teams with more distributed accountability.
“As the tech industry enters 2026, the conversation around diversity is no longer about whether it matters, but how it will survive, adapt and prove its value in a more volatile economic and political climate,” said Ash.
“After years of bold pledges, public dashboards and high-profile reckonings, the coming year looks set to redefine what diversity in tech actually means – and how seriously the industry is prepared to pursue it.”
The inevitability of AI
The pace of change for DEI becomes even more dire when considering the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), something set to gain more momentum over the next year.
Without diverse teams, these technologies won’t be fit to serve the populations they are developed for, even being made with inbuilt bias if those making the technology do not reflect its user base.
This has always been a concern, but many believe 2026 will be make or break for the equitable development of AI, with Russ Shaw, founder of Global Tech Advocates and Tech London Advocates, saying it could even serve to be an opportunity to get things right and “unlock a wave of innovation that will keep the country at the very forefront of the global stage”.
“There’s a great opportunity to make 2026 a turning point for the UK tech ecosystem – where AI can begin to open the doors of the industry to everyone,” he said. “The emerging technologies are far more accessible to all and are proving to be an important equaliser, stripping away old barriers and creating opportunities for talent across the country to enter the sector.
“Embracing this diversity is the smartest move the UK can make for its economy. When a mix of voices is at the table building AI, the result is better products that work for everyone, reaching wider markets and driving real growth.”
Non-biased development isn’t the only reason diversity in AI development is important, with Ash pointing out that there are also reputational, legal and financial issues to consider.
“Diversity in AI is becoming an essential requirement to avoid operational and reputational risk,” she said. “With AI systems increasingly involved in hiring, performance assessment and content moderation, biased outputs are no longer just reputational issues; they are potential legal and financial liabilities.”
While there are many differences in how DEI will be approached in 2026 – from addressing inequalities and focusing on inclusion, to dealing with uncertainty and AI – the push overall will be the same: to increase representation of underrepresented groups in tech roles.
“Diversity in tech will increasingly be about who builds the systems that build society,” said Ash.
