San Francisco: Generative artificial intelligence is used by 17.8% of the world’s working-age population, but the gap between rich and developing countries continues to widen, according to a report released by Microsoft on Tuesday.
In the first quarter of 2026, 27.5% of 15-64 year olds in developed countries were using generative AI tools, compared to 15.4% in developing countries, a gap that widened by 1.5 percentage points from the second half of 2025, the report estimates.
According to the Microsoft AI Economy Institute, this disparity is driven by large inequalities in access to internet connectivity, basic digital skills, and electricity.
AI model performance has historically been better in English, as most of the major AI companies are based in the US, but it has also slowed the uptake of such tools in non-English speaking countries.
But advances in processing non-European languages are accelerating adoption catch-up in some countries, particularly in Asia, the US tech giant noted.
The United Arab Emirates tops the AI usage rankings with 70.1%, followed by Singapore, Norway, Ireland, and France.
This estimate is primarily based on measurements from computers running Windows and Microsoft products such as Bing and Copilot.
Usage on Apple devices was only partially understood, and consolidated data for Russia, Iran, and China was lacking.
The United States, home to leading large-scale AI models such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, only came in 21st place with 31.3%.
According to the report, the AI usage rate in China, the world’s second-largest economy vying for dominance in the AI race, was 16.4%.
Microsoft pushed back against concerns about job losses due to automation, arguing in a report that its AI coding tools “could increase demand for developer jobs.”
However, the company cautioned that it was “too early to know the full impact” of AI on the labor market.
In April, for the first time in its history, the company asked approximately 9,000 U.S.-based employees to voluntarily leave the company.
Since January 1, nearly 99,000 people have been laid off, mostly in the technology sector, in the U.S., according to private aggregator Layoffs.fyi.
