How to add hard coded values into a JSON response

I am trying to use PHP to generate JSON to specifically take a desired shape.
Below is a snippet of my PHP code:

      if($con){
    $sql="select * from people";
    $result=mysqli_query($con,$sql);
    if($result){
          header("Content-Type: JSON");
        $i=0;
        while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)){
            $response[$i]['gender']=$row['gender'];
            $response[$i]['first']=$row['first'];
            
            $i++;
        }
        echo json_encode($response, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
    }
}

Here is my current JSON response

  [
   {
      "gender":"male",
      "first":"Angela"
   },
   {
      "gender":"female",
      "first":"Krista"
   }
]

And here is my desired response:

{
    "inputs": [
      {

        "values": {
          "gender": "male",
          "first": "Angela"
        }
      },
      {
        "values": {
          "gender": "female",
          "first": "Krista"
        }
      }
    ]
  }