Cognigy Hosts Local Students for Girls’ Day 2025

San Francisco | Düsseldorf | London, April 7th, 2025 – Cognigy, the global leader in AI-powered customer service solutions, proudly supported Girls’ Day (Mädchen-Zukunftstag) on Thursday, April 3, by welcoming 14 local girls to its HQ in Düsseldorf, Germany to explore the world of technology. 

Girls’ Day is a government-backed event that takes place across Germany every year. The key aim is for girls aged 13–16 to find out more about careers and industries in which women make up less than 40 percent of the workforce. As a global leader in AI-driven customer service solutions, Cognigy is perfectly placed to showcase the amazing and varied possibilities a tech career can offer.  

A Day of Hands-On Tech and Real-Life Role Models 

The event kicked off with a tour of Cognigy’s offices and a welcome session, where the girls got an introduction to who we are and what we do. They shared their expectations for the day before diving into engaging sessions led by inspiring members of the Cognigy Crew. 

Sarah Halley and Miriam Schröder introduced the world of Sales Engineering, demonstrating how technical know-how meets customer needs and sharing their own unique paths into tech.  

“Bringing technology to life – that’s what Girls’Day was all about. Together, we explored the world of AI agents with curiosity, creativity, and collaboration,” said Miriam Schröder, Senior Sales Engineer at Cognigy 

Dilek Imseytoglu and Alina Stepnova followed with a behind-the-scenes look at Engineering and Product Management, highlighting what it’s like to develop, design, and launch innovations at Cognigy. 

“Each product area we introduced, ranging from Agentic AI and Knowledge AI to Voice and NLU, was met with curiosity and eagerness to explore. What stood out most was how quickly the girls connected their own experiences with ChatGPT to the Generative AI-based technologies in our product, and how intuitively they began trying them out for themselves after our presentation.” - Alina Stepnova, Innovation & Prototyping Engineer at Cognigy   

After a pizza lunch, the group rolled up their sleeves for a hands-on workshop, building their own virtual agents using Cognigy.AI. With guidance from the team, the girls prompted, tested, and refined their creations, many for the first time, bringing their ideas to life and gaining real insight into the possibilities of AI. 

“The girls surprised us with their natural curiosity and aptitude for conversational design and delivered remarkable outcomes during the hands-on workshop,” said Sarah Halley, Director of Sales Engineering. 

Breaking Stereotypes and Inspiring the Next Generation  

“We aimed to bring some background of our work and product closer to the girls by making it not only understandable but also giving them a chance to try it out themselves,” said Katharina Groß, Senior People Operations Manager. “When we started in the morning, we wanted to see what prejudices the girls had and we’re happy we were able to disprove most of them. They left with a different view on people working in tech, mostly thanks to the real-life role models from our power team: Alina, Dilek, Sarah, and Miri.”  

“It was truly amazing to be in the office and soak up the atmosphere,” added Özge Durkaya, Learning & Development Manager. “It was so inspiring to see how many curious, excited young girls joined us this year and explored the world of tech. And it was just as great to see how many talented and amazing women in tech we have at Cognigy. Initiatives like this are so important to empower young girls to dream big and to show them they can become anything they want to be.” 

Building a More Inclusive Future 

Feedback from the girls was extremely positive, with some showing such an interest in AI that they started trying their hands at coding straight away. 

Quote of the day from one participant - "People in tech are relaxed, chilled and smart.” 

Cognigy Co-Founder and CEO Philipp Heltewig said: “We know that there is still a significant gender gap in our industry and, as leaders in our field, we want to do everything we can to address this. As a father to girls myself, it’s especially important to me that we help build a future where all girls can see themselves in tech. I’m delighted that so many girls took part in our Girls’ Day event and we are proud to play our part in helping to build a more inclusive future.” 

Sascha Poggemann, Cognigy Co-Founder and COO added: “Representation is so important. If girls don’t see women in tech roles, they may feel it isn’t a viable career choice for them. Our amazing female Cognigy Crew Members are a testament to the fact that this couldn’t be further from the truth and we hope that the next generation were inspired by everything they learned from them.” 

From sparking curiosity to breaking down stereotypes, Girls’ Day 2025 at Cognigy was more than a day of learning.  

Dilek Imseytoglu, Group Product Manager at Cognigy summed it up perfectly saying "When young girls realize that engineering isn’t just for one type of person, but a space where they can create, lead, and innovate - that’s where the future of women in tech begins."