Women in Tech 2025: A Playground for Innovation, Passion & Power

You know it’s going to be a good day when the first speaker bursts into rap. That’s exactly how Women in Tech 2025 kicked off—and I was lucky enough to be there.

From spoken word about following your passion to techy fashion (Ada Lovelace would be proud), this wasn’t your average tech event. It was a full-on celebration of innovation, playfulness, and community—with 3,000 women gathered under one roof to spark ideas and shape the future.

Play Hard, Innovate Harder

“Play is the brain’s optimal state of throwing ideas around,” said neurologist Maria Sundell. She reminded us that playfulness—so often dismissed as childish—is actually key to solving complex problems. 

Elise Lilliehöök made mingling fun with a game-based app that turned “networking” into something way less scary. Hanna Lundgren talked dopamine design, dancing through stress, and treating your gut like a grown-up mood ring. Yes, I’m serious. Beige coat or circus hat—whatever your style, play is strategy.

Real Tech, Real Impact

I got chills when Malin from Daya Ventures shared how the first generation of FemTech gave us more data on women’s health than ever before—and how the second generation will use AI to act before women get sick. Now that’s innovation with heart.

Meanwhile, Lovisa, team lead of the Swedish national coding team, showed how young women are crushing stereotypes—and winning medals. All the girls on her team took home wins at the European Championships in coding. Bronze for Sweden. Gold in our hearts.

And yes, robots. Christina reminded us that sewing machines are still the hottest item in the maker lab, proving that fashion is tech. The punch card weaving logic? The root of modern binary computing. 🧵+💻 = ❤️

The AI Angle

Of course, there was a lot of talk about AI.

From Mentimeter’s AI engineer Phiphi, who reminded us that AI is so much more than just a model, to deep dives into how it’s transforming healthcare—AI was everywhere. 

We were introduced to the concept of digital twins—AI-powered replicas of individuals that can simulate reactions to treatments before they’re even administered. Pretty wild.

The message? AI shouldn’t be a separate strategy. It should be embedded in everything. If your company has an “AI strategy,” maybe it’s time to just call it your business strategy.

But we also heard real talk: Sweden is behind in AI. The advice? Be bold and don’t let old legacies hold you back.

And, maybe most importantly —

“Be a good prompter.”
(Thanks, Alexandra, Telia CTIO. We’re working on it.)

So How Are We Doing at Fastdev?

We’ve still got work to do. Only 23% of our workforce is currently female. But change is happening: 70% of hires since October 2024 have been women, and we’re proudly working with Jobbsprånget to give foreign academics a foot in the door. Our first batch of interns? We hired 3 out of 4.

This isn’t just about numbers. It’s about making space. About playing. About creating an innovation playground where people feel safe to fail forward.

Final Thoughts

From the Slay Beyond Slay Club to rap-fueled inspiration, I left Women in Tech 2025 feeling like we could change the world.

I’m bringing that energy back to Fastdev. For our daughters, our future teammates, and ourselves. Because when women build robots, launch FemTech, or harness AI to reshape the world—everyone wins.

And yes, we’re already counting down to next year.