AI for Equity: TechHerAI’s Mission to Transform the Tech Industry

We are the team behind TechHerAI, a nonprofit initiative focused on supporting women—particularly recent graduates—pursuing careers in the tech industry. Our mission is to create equal opportunities by offering AI-driven tools that deliver accessible and high-quality career guidance.

Our team members are:

- Jiazhao Shi, Team Leader.

- Chuanrui Li, Software Engineer.

- Donghui Zhang, Software Engineer.

- Kuan Lu, Machine Learning Engineer.

With backgrounds spanning AI, software engineering, and product design, we are united by a commitment to leveraging technology for social impact. The inspiration for TechHerAI came from seeing how layoffs and competitive hiring practices have disproportionately affected underrepresented groups in tech. We believed that while AI is reshaping industries, it also holds the power to uplift those most affected.

What started as a passion project has grown into a scalable platform, powered by NLP, FastAPI, and deep learning models refined with human feedback. Receiving the NY Digital Award validates our mission, and we’re motivated to keep pushing the boundaries of AI for social good.

We submitted TechHerAI to the NY Digital Awards because it stands for more than just technical innovation—it’s a purpose-driven initiative aimed at breaking down real barriers faced by women in tech. As a team, we believe design and technology should go beyond profit and serve a greater good, which is why NY Digital’s emphasis on creativity and social impact deeply aligned with our values.

Winning this award is both an honor and a powerful motivator. On a personal level, it affirms the many late nights and tough decisions we made to build something meaningful from the ground up. Professionally, it brings our platform greater visibility and credibility, helping us connect with more users, engage potential collaborators, and reinforce our belief that AI should be a force for positive change.

The success of TechHerAI began with a clear and pressing insight: entering the tech industry has become increasingly challenging—particularly for women and recent graduates. As layoffs and hiring freezes spread across the field, we witnessed talented individuals being overlooked due to limited access, confidence, or guidance. That’s what moved us to take action.

We built TechHerAI to help close that gap. Rather than relying on costly coaching or fragmented online advice, we developed intelligent, accessible tools—powered by AI—that simulate real interviews, generate tailored cover letters, and match users with relevant job opportunities. But more than just a platform, our goal was to foster a supportive space where women feel recognized, encouraged, and empowered.

In today’s tech landscape, TechHerAI stands for more than innovation—it stands for inclusion. It proves that AI isn’t just about automation or efficiency, but can also be harnessed to drive equity and positive change. Our journey shows that when guided by strong values, technology can be a powerful force for good.

What truly set TechHerAI apart was our unwavering commitment to social impact, combined with thoughtful technical execution. While many career platforms exist, few are purpose-built to support underrepresented communities through advanced AI—and even fewer operate under a nonprofit model.

We weren’t just addressing a broad challenge; we focused on a timely and specific issue: helping women enter the tech industry during one of the most difficult job markets in recent memory.

Several core elements helped distinguish our project:

-Purpose-driven design: Every feature—from mock interviews and cover letter generation to curated job listings—was created to directly address challenges women face when pursuing tech careers.

-Sophisticated AI implementation: We fine-tuned large language models using supervised learning and reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF), ensuring outputs were relevant, refined, and aligned with real-world hiring practices.

-Global accessibility and scalability: Leveraging FastAPI and Hugging Face, we built a high-performance platform that is free, user-friendly, and accessible worldwide.

At its heart, TechHerAI stands out because of the synergy between mission and execution—a meaningful social vision supported by robust engineering.

One of our biggest challenges was the lack of real-world interview data to fine-tune our model. High-quality, domain-specific data is essential for building effective NLP systems, but actual interview transcripts and feedback are rarely available due to privacy and confidentiality issues.

To address this, we used a two-pronged strategy. First, we collected publicly shared interview experiences and feedback from forums and professional networking sites. Second, we employed AI to generate synthetic yet realistic interview scenarios across a variety of roles and experience levels. We then used these datasets to fine-tune existing models through supervised learning and reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF).

This approach significantly enhanced the semantic accuracy and fluency of our AI-generated responses, resulting in more realistic and supportive mock interview experiences for users.

Winning the NY Digital Awards is both a milestone and a motivator for the TechHerAI team. It reinforces our belief that technology can be a force for equity and empowerment. We hope this recognition not only raises awareness of our mission but also helps us connect with more women entering the tech industry—and with collaborators, mentors, and supporters who share our commitment.

Since the announcement, the award has provided a strong foundation for our next phase of growth. It has enhanced our credibility and sparked new conversations with potential partners. We’re confident this recognition will continue to drive momentum as we grow our reach and deepen our impact.

Some members of our community have shared how proud they are to see a women-focused tech initiative receive international recognition. That quiet support means a great deal to us—it’s a powerful reminder that even behind-the-scenes impact can carry deep significance. We’re excited to spread the word more widely and hope this milestone encourages more users and partners to join us in advancing opportunities for women in tech.

Begin with a clear sense of purpose. Whether you're developing a product, launching a campaign, or preparing an award submission, anchoring your work in a meaningful mission helps make it truly impactful and memorable. For us, every element of TechHerAI was built with the goal of empowering women in tech—not just creating another tool.

When crafting a strong award entry:

1. Tell a compelling story - not just what you built, but why it matters and who it benefits.

2. Emphasize tangible outcomes—support your story with real data, user growth, or community engagement.

3. Keep it human—while technology drives innovation, the true value lies in the people it supports.

And most importantly, be persistent. Great ideas take time to thrive. Stay focused, keep improving, and don’t hesitate to apply—often, the biggest challenge is simply having the confidence that your work deserves recognition.

We see the creative industry’s evolution—particularly the rise of AI and human-centered design—not as a disruption but as a powerful driver of inclusion, accessibility, and impact. Technologies such as generative AI, large language models, and intelligent interfaces are democratizing creativity, allowing small teams like ours to develop solutions once limited to large corporations.

At TechHerAI, we strive to lead this transformation—not by using AI for novelty, but by applying it with clear purpose. We believe the future belongs to platforms that blend advanced technology with genuine social value. That’s why we are dedicated to expanding TechHerAI into a global support network for women in tech—broadening our services, enhancing personalization through adaptive learning, and fostering a vibrant community focused on career empowerment.

As the industry progresses, we aim to serve as a model for mission-driven innovation, demonstrating that thoughtful design and ethical AI can promote both individual growth and broader systemic change.

It’s completely normal to feel unsure at first—many of us did. But what we’ve discovered is that awards aren’t solely about winning; they’re an opportunity to reflect on your journey, clearly express your impact, and appreciate the value of your work. That process alone helps build confidence.

For those with less experience, we’d say: don’t underestimate the strength of your ideas, especially when they address real problems with intention. Competitions like the NY Digital Awards recognize innovation, creativity, and purpose—not just polish or scale.

If needed, start small. Share what you’ve created, why you created it, and the difference it’s making. Over time, you’ll gain recognition, amplify your voice, grow your network, and inspire others. That’s the true reward—your story can open doors for both yourself and those around you.

In today’s rapidly changing world, creativity goes beyond originality—it’s about intention, inclusivity, and meaningful impact. As creatives, marketers, and technologists, we have the unique ability to shape stories, open new opportunities, and create platforms that reflect the future we envision.

Our message is clear: let your creativity drive not just innovation, but empowerment. By designing with empathy, marketing with honesty, and building with inclusion at the heart, we don’t just attract attention—we inspire lasting change. Together, let’s continue pushing boundaries, elevating marginalized voices, and fostering communities where everyone can flourish.

This achievement is dedicated to the thousands of women whose resilience, ambition, and stories inspired the creation of TechHerAI. Their journey motivated us to develop a platform that genuinely supports and empowers underrepresented talent in tech.

We also want to acknowledge the open-source and AI research communities whose contributions made our development possible, as well as the mentors and early users who provided invaluable feedback during the platform’s early stages. Most importantly, this award belongs to our entire team—Jiazhao, Chuanrui, Donghui, and Kuan—each of whom brought unique skills, countless late nights, and unwavering dedication to turning TechHerAI into a reality.

Together, we are building more than just a product—we are building a movement.

TechHerAI is an AI-driven career platform that makes mock interviews, cover letter creation, and job listings accessible to all—equipping women in tech with the resources and confidence needed to thrive in a competitive job market.

This sentence reflects both our mission’s core and the tangible benefits of our platform, emphasizing the fusion of cutting-edge technology with a strong social commitment.

We are currently developing several exciting new features to expand TechHerAI. A key focus is launching an emotion and logic analysis module for our mock interview system, which will enable us to offer more comprehensive feedback—assessing not only the content but also the delivery, clarity, and confidence of users’ responses. Additionally, we are exploring multilingual support to make our tools accessible to women in non-English-speaking regions.

We also plan to collaborate with universities and coding bootcamps to provide TechHerAI as a free career preparation resource for students and recent graduates. On the technical front, we continue to enhance our AI models, including experimenting with smaller, more efficient architectures to support deployment in areas with limited bandwidth.

Ultimately, our aim is to create a global, inclusive ecosystem where women in tech, regardless of their background, can succeed with the support of intelligent, accessible AI tools.