Why are women using AI less than men? The gender usage gap, explained

How big is the AI usage gap?

The AI usage gender gap varies across industries. “In more technical fields, women use AI more, as you would expect, but still less than men,” says Mary Noble-Tolla, head of research and education at Lean In. Although this gap undoubtedly exists, the exact size of it across all parts of the workforce also varies depending on the study:

• A survey done by Lean In in March 2026 found that men are 22% more likely to use AI daily or constantly at their job and are 7% more likely to have ever used it at work.¹
• A working paper from Harvard Business School that looked at evidence from 76 academic, industry, and government sources also found men’s AI adoption rate is roughly 22% higher than women’s.⁴
• Pew Research looked specifically at AI chatbot use and found that a similar share of men and women report using these programs, although men are more likely to use them on a daily basis (27% versus 20%). Men were also more likely to say they use them to complete work tasks.⁵
• July 2026 research from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center found that women were 24% more likely than men to say they have never used AI.⁶

Is the AI usage gap only a workplace issue?

No, the AI usage gap is not only a workplace issue. Researchers have looked at usage across daily life as well as at work and found a gender gap in both areas. However, the workplace is where women are more likely to experience negative impacts of not adopting AI, if their job requires or could benefit from AI usage, or if they are applying for roles where it’s prioritized.

Why does the AI workplace usage gap exist?

Ethical concerns about using the tools

Ethical concerns come up time and time again in surveys of women about why they are hesitant to use AI. Oxford-led researchers found that concerns about AI’s effects on mental health, privacy, climate, and employment reduce women’s use of generative AI more than men’s.⁷ Data centers are among the fastest-growing sources of emissions and can impact local environments and utility bills as well.⁸,⁹

Women are also more concerned about AI-related job loss. The March Lean In survey found that women are almost twice as likely as men to predict that more women will be laid off than men due to AI.¹⁰ Pew Research also found that women are more likely than men to say that AI will lead to fewer jobs in the future.¹¹

Fear of being judged harshly for relying on AI tools

That same LeanIn.Org survey found that women are 32% more likely to worry that they’ll be perceived as cheating when they use AI — a fear that isn’t baseless. In the study, men who used AI on the job were 27% more likely to have been praised for doing so than women. In one study that looked at engineers specifically, women who used AI for work were rated 13% less competent by peers, versus 6% for men.¹²

This is a familiar phenomenon called attribution bias, where women are generally less likely to get credit for the same successes as men.¹³ “Women are less likely to put AI skills on their resumes,” Noble-Tolla says. “That might be because they sense that they will be criticized or people will think they’re cheating.”

Less encouragement from managers

Even if they aren’t accused of cheating, women appear to get less encouragement from managers than men to use AI, according to the Lean In survey. Lean In’s 2025 Women in the Workplace report also found that only 21% of entry-level women are encouraged by their manager to use AI, compared to 33% of men at the same level.¹⁴

Women use AI less intensively even after adopting it

Even when women do integrate some AI tools into their day, they tend to use it less than men. The Shorenstein study, for example, found that men who use AI tend to spend 4.6% of their browsing time on them, compared to 2.9% of women.¹⁵ This could be because women don’t find these tools especially helpful even after they try them: A February Pew Research study found that only 25% of women say chatbots are helpful for their productivity, compared to 37% of men.¹⁶

Why does it matter that women use AI less than men?

How important it is that you learn to use AI tools for work appears to depend largely on the industry you’re in. A survey of over 1,300 developers across 61 countries found that 64% of female developers say AI is accelerating their careers.¹⁷ Someone working in hospitality or skilled trades like carpentry may find little to no use for AI tools in their workday and are less likely to have their position automated away in the future.¹⁸ Unfortunately, a 2026 study found that women make up 86% of workers who are highly exposed to AI job loss, and the least able to adapt to it.¹⁸

“Even if you feel really tech averse, it’s important to build some knowledge and skills in AI,” Noble-Tolla says, reiterating the fact that LeanIn.Org research has found that the majority of employers expect employees to have some AI competency in their skillset. Plus, “we have research showing that people who use AI are more likely to be promoted,” Noble-Tolla says. Twice as likely, to be specific.¹⁹

However, it is worth noting that less usage doesn’t automatically equate to a lot less knowledge. The July Shorenstein Center study asked men and women the same 12 questions about AI and found that women only got an average of one more question wrong than men. “Some of the apparent gender gap in knowledge may also reflect greater confidence, or potentially over-confidence, among men rather than greater knowledge alone,” the study’s authors wrote, noting that men also claimed to recognize the names of all the “influential people in AI” listed in the study — even though two of the names were made up.²⁰

For women in leadership, Noble-Tolla says women’s skepticism and ethical concerns actually make them more qualified to spearhead a company’s AI usage guidelines. “Women often have a better perception of the risks [of AI],” she says. “This is a field where so many big, consequential ethical decisions are happening. We know from other research that women are more likely to be more ethically thoughtful in the business world.” Having more women at the forefront of those decisions “would benefit all of us.”

What can I do this week to explore AI usage?

If you are interested in using AI more, these are four simple ways you can add it into your day.

1. Start with one, recurring task. You can ask a chatbot to summarize the notes from your weekly team meeting, recap your Slack or Teams messages from the day, or send reminders about items on your to-do list. “AI gets more useful the more you use it,” Noble-Tolla wrote.²¹
2. Set a clear personal standard for AI use. Setting your own clear usage boundaries from the jump could help you feel more comfortable using these tools. Perhaps you’re OK with using it to summarize existing documents, but you don’t want it to generate any new ideas. Maybe there’s one AI company you feel is more ethical than another, so you use that one in your workday. “It’s like a junior colleague who can fact check, who can brainstorm with me,” Noble-Tolla says of her own AI usage. “I can go back and forth with it, but ultimately I need to make the creative decisions.”
3. Share useful prompts with peers. “Share what’s working with the women around you,” Noble-Tolla advises. This type of knowledge sharing can help close the usage gap.
4. Track time saved with AI tools. Using these tools should be contingent on them actually being useful. As previously mentioned, one Pew Research study found that the vast majority of women did not find chatbots helpful for their productivity. Another Pew Research study found that adults under 30 are just as likely to think chatbots hurt their creativity than help it, even if they use the tools regularly.²² If you try adding AI to your workday and it ultimately doesn’t seem to be creating any benefit, there’s no reason to force it.

What can managers and companies do to close the AI usage gap?

Women and men are not treated equally for using AI at work, and this helps drive the usage gap. Women tend to be penalized for using AI, while men are praised for their knowledge. AI hesitation (or outright hostility) also comes from a valid fear that companies will use employees to train these models to do the work, then eliminate the human roles entirely. Changing these perceptions comes down to creating clear, equitable company policies and best practices around AI, including setting disclosure norms and offering company-wide training.

Noble-Tolla says she’s seen some consulting firms do this well. “They mandated the use of AI and incentivized its use … but they’re trying to do it in a way that won’t spark resistance,” she says. This means asking employees for input on how AI is (and isn’t) useful for their day to day. “You want to always be thinking, ‘which part of the workflow do I want to spend on AI tokens and compute and which parts of the workflow do I want to have human judgement involved in?’” Noble-Tolla recommends. “You’ll get the best thinking from your teams.”

FAQs

Do women trust AI less?

Yes. Studies have shown that women are more likely to feel worried or fearful of AI than men, which can lead to lower rates of usage.

Is AI biased against women?

It can be. A recent study from the United Nations found that, of 133 AI systems tested, 44% demonstrated gender bias.

Will the AI usage gap close on its own?

Recent Pew Research has found that the AI gender gap is already getting smaller, but closing it completely would require buy-in from more women.

Should I tell my manager I use AI?

Yes, clear disclosure is generally considered a best AI usage practice. Managers and company leadership should also set clear AI usage policies for employees that outline what is and isn’t encouraged.

Notes

1. “Women use AI less often at work and get less credit,” LeanIn.Org, June 2026, https://leanin.org/articles/findings/ai-women-gender-gap-data/
2. Colleen McLain and Eugenie Park, “Young adults in the US are increasingly wary of AI, concerned it will take jobs,” Pew Research Center, August 2026, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/08/18/young-adults-in-the-us-are-increasingly-wary-of-ai-concerned-it-will-take-jobs/
3. “Men are twice as likely to use AI in job interviews,” LeanIn.Org, July 2026, https://leanin.org/articles/findings/ai-job-search-data-women/
4. Katelyn Cranney, Solène Delecourt, and Rembrand Koning, “Global Evidence on Gender Gaps and Generative AI Over Time,” Harvard Business School, May 2026, https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/25-023_be8fb517-3dd5-40aa-97f9-4e42e1c8e6ff.pdf
5. Monica Anderson and Eugenie Park, “The Gender Gap in AI,” Pew Research Center, October 2026, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/10/16/the-gender-gap-in-ai/
6. Laura Manley, Allison Wan, Brian Friedberg, Nancy Gibbs, and Matthew A. Baum, “Are Women Being Left Out of AI?” Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, October 2026, https://shorensteincenter.org/resource/women-ai/
7. Fabian Stephany and Jedrzej Duszynski, “Women Worry, Men Adopt? Gendered Risk Perceptions and Generative AI Adoption,” Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK, July 2026, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.03880
8. “Energy and AI,” International Energy Agency, April 2025, https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai/executive-summary
9. Nicole Greenfield, “AI Data Centers: Big Tech’s Impact on Electric Bills, Water, and More,” Consumer Reports, March 2026, https://www.consumerreports.org/data-centers/ai-data-centers-impact-on-electric-bills-water-and-more-a1040338678/
10. “Women use AI less often at work and get less credit,” LeanIn.Org, June 2026, https://leanin.org/articles/findings/ai-women-gender-gap-data/
11. Laura Silver, Richard Wike, Moira Fagan, and Jordan Lippert, “Globally, More People Expect AI to Cause Job Loss Than Growth,” Pew Research Center, September 2026, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/09/17/globally-more-people-expect-ai-to-cause-job-loss-than-growth/
12. Chantal Kapani, “AI widens the gender gap,” Lead Dev, September 2026, https://leaddev.com/ai/ai-widens-the-gender-gap
13. “The Lean In Lexicon,” https://leanin.org/the-lean-in-lexicon/
14. “Women in the Workplace 2025,” Lean In, December 2025, https://leanin.org/report/women-in-the-workplace/
15. Laura Manley, Allison Wan, Brian Friedberg, Nancy Gibbs, and Matthew A. Baum, “Are Women Being Left Out of AI?” Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, October 2026, https://shorensteincenter.org/resource/women-ai/
16. Monica Anderson and Eugenie Park, “The Gender Gap in AI,” Pew Research Center, October 2026, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/10/16/the-gender-gap-in-ai/
17. Chantal Kapani, “64% of female developers say AI is accelerating their careers,” LeadDev, March 2026, https://leaddev.com/ai/64-of-female-developers-say-ai-is-accelerating-their-careers
18. Kevin Schaul and Shira Ovide, “See which jobs are most threatened by AI and who may be able to adapt,” The Washington Post, March 2026, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2026/jobs-most-affected-ai-automation/
19. “Men are twice as likely to use AI in job interviews,” LeanIn.Org, July 2026, https://leanin.org/articles/findings/ai-job-search-data-women/
20. Laura Manley, Allison Wan, Brian Friedberg, Nancy Gibbs, and Matthew A. Baum, “Are Women Being Left Out of AI?” Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, October 2026, https://shorensteincenter.org/resource/women-ai/
21. Mary Noble-Tolla, “How the AI Gender Gap Will Compound the Leadership Gap,” LeanIn.Org, July 2026, https://leanin.org/articles/findings/the-ai-gender-gap/
22. “Unlike older Americans, adults under 30 are just as likely to think chatbots hurt their creativity as help it,” Pew Research Center, June 2026, https://www.pewresearch.org/chart/unlike-older-americans-adults-under-30-are-just-as-likely-to-think-chatbots-hurt-their-creativity-as-help-it/