The gen AI adoption gap is closing rapidly
Recent Deloitte research has highlighted a gender gap in generative AI adoption across various geographies. For the past two years, the Deloitte Connected Consumer Survey has investigated the adoption of gen AI by US consumers as part of its research into digital life.8 Our analysis revealed that women in the United States have been lagging in taking up this emerging technology (figure 1): In 2023, women’s adoption of gen AI was roughly half that of men (11% of women reported experimenting with gen AI or using it for projects and tasks beyond experimentation, vs. 20% of men). In 2024, the same survey revealed that gen AI adoption overall had more than doubled, but the gender gap remained: Thirty-three percent of women surveyed reported using or experimenting with gen AI, vs. 44% of men.
The gen AI gender gap has been noted in other geographies too: Deloitte UK’s 2024 Digital Consumer Trends survey of UK consumers reported that 28% of women were using gen AI, vs. 43% of men.9 Analysis of this study, as well as Deloitte UK’s European study on gen AI and trust, revealed double-digit differences between women’s and men’s adoption of gen AI in 12 additional European countries.
Full engagement may be harder to achieve
While the trend is encouraging, reaching adoption parity won’t automatically ensure that women will incorporate gen AI into their everyday workflows. Indeed, among gen AI users surveyed in Deloitte’s 2024 Connected Consumer Survey, 34% of women say they use the technology at least once a day, vs. 43% of men.13 And among gen AI users who reported using it for professional tasks, 41% of women currently feel that gen AI substantially boosts their productivity, vs. 61% of men.14 Tech companies and other organizations looking to benefit from using gen AI should heed these differences and take active steps to improve women’s engagement.
The contrasts between genders may stem partly from a striking difference in perspective on trust.15 As women progress from familiarity with gen AI into experimentation and use, negative emotions of uncertainty, anxiety, fear, and confusion diminish, while positive feelings of fascination, excitement, surprise, and trust grow (figure 2).16However, at both the experimentation and project and task use levels, women’s feelings of trust toward the technology are significantly lower than men’s, and their feelings of uncertainty remain higher. Indeed, only 18% of women surveyed who are experimenting with or using generative AI indicated having “high” or “very high” trust that the providers of the gen AI capabilities they use will keep their data secure—whereas, for male adopters, that number has reached 31%.17
Women in tech are forging ahead with gen AI—but better representation is needed
In the tech industry, there is a different story about gen AI adoption entirely—and women working in tech may hold clues for fostering greater gen AI engagement by women overall in the future. Not surprisingly, the industry creating AI products and services has higher levels of gen AI adoption among its employees: In Deloitte’s 2024 Connected Consumer Survey, 70% of women and 78% of men working in the tech industry reported experimenting with gen AI or using it for projects or tasks—far outpacing nontech women (32%) and men (40%).28 What may be more surprising is that women working in the tech industry appear to be moving beyond gen AI experimentation and into using it for projects and tasks faster than their male counterparts (44% vs. 33%). And both groups are anticipating greater benefits: About 7 in 10 women and men working in tech expect their use of gen AI to “substantially boost” their productivity at work a year from now.
Bottom line
There are several reasons why tech companies should work toward increasing women’s engagement with gen AI. First, with women controlling or influencing most consumer purchasing, failing to get women on board with frequent gen AI use could increase the risk that AI products and services won’t achieve their expected potential. Second, if women don’t engage with gen AI tools as fully as male employees, companies could risk not achieving the productivity gains they might expect to see after investing in gen AI. And, because gen AI depends upon collecting and building upon interaction data, the underrepresentation of women’s interactions could exacerbate biases in AI models.41 Finally, if women don’t participate in emerging gen AI use cases as fully as they could, that may keep them from maximizing future tech benefits (for example, advantages of chatbot interventions in medical or mental health) and deepen existing inequities.
