Women leaders' summit: C-suite gains stall near 30%, AI set to redraw org charts

Fortune's annual Most Powerful Women Summit, an invitation-only gathering of senior women in business, ran from October 12 to 14, 2026, at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara near Santa Barbara, California. Two messages stood out from its sessions. Kelly Baker, chief human resources officer of the US financial services firm Thrivent, warned that women's progress into top jobs has stalled, with their share of C-suite and board roles stuck at about 30%. And Amrita Ahuja, chief financial officer and chief operating officer of the payments company Block, said artificial intelligence agents are likely to start appearing on company organisation charts, with human staff responsible for training and running them.

For years the standard explanation for the shortage of women at the top was the "pipeline": not enough women in the middle ranks to promote. Baker's argument at the summit was different. In her view, companies have simply stopped working as hard at developing and recruiting women for executive jobs, distracted by a fast-moving business climate. Her point is that progress on gender balance is not self-sustaining; when attention drops, the numbers stop moving.

The hiring data supports that reading. Women's share of new C-suite hires climbed steadily for several years and then flattened. Earlier research has also shown that many recent gains came in support roles, such as human resources chief, rather than in the operating jobs that usually lead to the chief executive's chair. That matters for any woman planning a path to the top: which role you hold can count as much as how senior it is.

Ahuja's remarks add a new layer. Block has been restructuring as it uses more AI to automate work, and its chief executive Jack Dorsey cut about 40% of staff earlier this year. Her prediction that AI agents will sit on org charts, needing to be "developed over time" much like people, signals that management itself is changing. Leaders will be judged on how well they build and supervise mixed teams of people and software.

For Indian women professionals the lessons travel well. An AIMA-KPMG survey released in February found that 79% of Indian women professionals aspire to leadership roles, but only 1% currently hold a board-level position. The summit's message is that steady sponsorship and early moves into operating and technology roles are what keep careers from stalling.

Short-term: Expect more debate in boardrooms about whether diversity programmes have been quietly scaled back, and more companies experimenting with AI agents inside teams.

Long-term: Women who build skills in running AI-enabled teams and take on profit-and-loss roles may be better placed as executive jobs are redefined.

Who is affected: Women managers and executives, HR leaders, company boards and employees whose work is being reorganised around AI.

Questions and Answers