Global adoption of Generative A.I. According to new data published by , the population will increase to reach 16.3 percent of the world's population in the second half of 2025. Microsoft AI Economics Institute.
The numbers show that around one in six people around the world use generative AI tools to learn, work or solve problems, even as regional disparities continue to widen.
Juan M. Lavista Ferres, corporate vice president and chief data scientist at Microsoft, shared the findings in a LinkedIn post coinciding with the release of the institute's latest AI Adoption Report, pointing to both accelerating adoption and widening global inequality.
Adoption rate has increased, but disparities between regions are widening
According to the report, global adoption increased by 1.2 percentage points in the second half of 2025, up from 15.1 percent in the first half. However, the gap between the two regions widened, with the utilization rate of the working-age population reaching 24.7 percent in the Global North and 14.1 percent in the Global South.
“Global generative AI adoption continued to grow in the second half of 2025, reaching 16.3% of the global population, up from 15.1% in the first half,” Feres wrote on LinkedIn. He added: “Roughly one in six people around the world now use genAI tools to learn, work, or solve problems.”
Countries that continue to invest in digital infrastructure, skills development, and public sector AI adoption continued to dominate the rankings. The United Arab Emirates remains the highest ranked country, with 64.0% of the working-age population using AI tools, followed by Singapore at 60.9%.
In contrast, the United States ranks 24th in working-age adoption at 28.3%, even though it leads the world in AI infrastructure and frontier model development. The data suggests that innovation leadership alone cannot guarantee widespread adoption at the population level.
Policies and access shape national outcomes
The report highlights South Korea as the country with the biggest movers in the second half of 2025, rising seven places to 18th in the world rankings. Growth was associated with coordinated government policies, improved language performance in large-scale language models, and widespread integration of AI into schools, workplaces, and public services.
In his post, Ferres said the data shows a “widening digital divide,” adding that “AI adoption among the working-age population is now 24.7% in the Global North compared to 14.1% in the Global South.”
This analysis also pointed to the importance of accessibility in shaping adoption patterns. Open and free-to-use models have been shown to scale more quickly in markets that are underserved by traditional providers, especially those where access to commercial tools is limited by payment barriers, language restrictions, or platform restrictions.
Changing adoption dynamics of open models
One of the clearest signs of late 2025 was the rapid rise of DeepSeek, an open source AI platform that gained traction across parts of Africa, China, and other regions with limited access to Western AI services. DeepSeek has increased previously slow market adoption by removing the cost barrier and releasing its model under an open license.
Ferres added, “DeepSeek's rapid rise is a reminder that adoption is not only determined by the quality of the model, but also by access and availability. Open source models and free chatbots remove barriers and allow us to scale quickly in markets that are underserved by traditional providers.”
The report concludes that while the use of generative AI is rapidly expanding globally, future growth will depend more on infrastructure, language support, skills development, and public sector adoption than just model capabilities.
“If you are working on your AI strategy for 2026, this report is worth reading, especially for its implications for infrastructure, skills, languages, and public sector adoption,” Ferres wrote.
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