Many new products on display at the ongoing World Artificial Intelligence (AI) Conference in Shanghai have been developed by women.

AI unicorn SenseTime brought its autonomous driving mini-bus to the conference. And the development team behind it is led by a female engineer.

Shi Jianping has been working in the AI industry for years and is one of the few female engineers at the company, dominated mostly by men.

"At least 80 to 90 percent of the people in our team are men. I think the female perspective brings a different understanding to visual aesthetics and details," said Shi, vice president of intelligent driving business at SenseTime.

A Tsinghua University report released last year suggests that women make up only 9 percent of the world's most influential AI professionals. Gender imbalance is something that this year's conference is trying to solve.

In the past events, records show that women accounted for some 10 percent of the total attendees. As a result, the event organizers have launched a special campaign aimed at supporting female professionals in the industry.

The initiative to support women to play a pivotal role in the AI industry is aimed at their unique advantages to AI development.

"In the times of machine and human interactions, you need more emotional feelings embedded into products. Those products have to be really reflecting people's way of being touched. In this area, women have more insight in terms of product design," said Vivian Jiang, deputy CEO at Deloitte China.

Some say the campaign is still not enough. Some companies say they are making efforts to attract more female employees.

Helen Mu runs a fintech firm named Huifu Payment in China. She said she is willing to offer fair opportunities to all employees.

"In recruitment, we aim to treat candidates fairly, regardless of their genders, and focus on their abilities. We will also give them a space to showcase their talent," she said.

This year at the World AI Conference, the local government also set up a competition for female college students to showcase their AI innovations.