AI versus Metaverse: Which Better Serves Women's Economic Empowerment?

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) and the metaverse are both promoted as technologies that can accelerate women's economic empowerment in developing economies, yet the two place very different demands on the women they claim to serve. This paper compares AI and the metaverse specifically through the lens of women's livelihoods, enterprise growth, and financial inclusion, using Kabeer's empowerment framework – resources, agency, and achievements – to structure the comparison. Drawing on evidence from self-help-group (SHG) and microfinance-institution (MFI) digitalisation in India, documented AI-based credit-scoring pilots for women vendors, the GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report, and emerging research on harassment in immersive virtual environments, the paper finds that AI is currently the more accessible and better-evidenced pathway to women's economic empowerment. AI tools run on the mobile phones women already use, are increasingly embedded in SHG-linked digital finance, and have documented pilot outcomes for women's credit access. The metaverse, by contrast, layers a gender-neutral cost barrier (hardware and connectivity) on top of a gender-specific safety barrier (documented, disproportionate harassment of women and girls in virtual reality environments), leaving its pathway to women's empowerment blocked well before the achievement stage. The paper closes with implications for MFIs, SHG federations, and enterprise-development practitioners on sequencing digital investment for women's inclusion.