A new study finds that people tend to pay female-presenting AI agents less than male-presenting ones for the same tasks. Researchers report a gap of about 10% in compensation preferences, reflecting differences in how participants evaluate agents’ work based on perceived gender.
The findings come from an experiment led by the University of Limerick on human interactions with AI agents in workplace settings. In the study, participants complete work tasks and allocate payment amounts to agents that present as male or female. Euronews and The Independent both describe the results as close to a 10% difference, while Forbes reports a specific figure of about 10.25%, depending on how the payment comparison is framed.
Across the outlets, the reported interpretation is that humans are more likely to trust and assign higher value to male-presenting agents than female-presenting ones, even when the AI agents perform the same work. The studies’ focus remains on perception and willingness to pay rather than any AI system making autonomous pay decisions.
