This AI tool is designed to boost women's professional confidence

An AI tool developed by digital agency AnalogFolk aims to encourage women to "big up" their strengths and sell themselves in job interviews, at a time when the pandemic has hit female employees particularly hard.

 "BigUp AI" is essentially a language tool designed to help women, particularly when writing resumes or cover letters. Women are invited to "tell us about a strength," for example, and it will then rewrite the language to make it stronger and more bullish. (For example, this journalist wrote "I'm a fast writer," and it came back with "I excel in being action-oriented.")

The tool was originally developed for International Women's Day in beta, in response to research from Dr. Judith Baxter, published in "The Language of Female Leadership." Dr Baxter states women are four times more likely to shrink their successes and use language that undermines value and skill. In comparison, men are twice as likely to emphasize their successes and leadership.

The second version, which has just launched, has been enhanced by all-female creative team Sara Pouri, Gracie Hawes and Jacqueline Hedge, adding bold new visuals and promoting the tool across social channels with a set of inspirational quote posts to motivate professional women who may be job-hunting due to the pandemic and so-called "she-cession."

“Since we started beta-testing BigUp.AI earlier this year, we’ve faced a pandemic of global scale that’s made people feel incredibly small. Being at home without work, or consistently applying and getting turned down, makes it easy for women to lose touch with their self-worth. And for those in work, struggling with work/life balance and fearing their voice is being lost can lead to anxiety and burnout,” says Anna-Louise Gladwell, managing director of AnalogFolk’s London office, who has been leading the tool’s development. “COVID-19 has exacerbated a systemic social issue of female confidence, self-promotion and career advancement. So BigUp.AI is here to remind women of their value and help them find the words to express it.”

“BigUp.AI is the kind of project we came into this industry to work on," adds Kunal Muzumdar, managing director of AnalogFolk's New York office. It's "digital technology with a very real ‘analog’ purpose. We want to change the narrative around women’s successes. It’s all part of AnalogFolk’s ambition of being an impactful agency of change for people, brands and society, and we can’t wait to take it further.”