The gender gap in artificial intelligence (AI) use appears to be closing — and fast.
On Tuesday, the Deloitte Center for Technology, Media and Telecommunications released new predictions around gender-based AI adoption that suggest women’s use of generative AI will “equal or exceed that of men” by the end of next year in the US and within the next two years in Europe.
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Recent Deloitte research found that last year, only 11% of women said they’d experimented with or implemented gen AI, compared to 20% of men. This year, 33% of women reported using the technology, but men still outpaced them at 44%.
Earlier research from Deloitte found that women don’t trust AI companies to safeguard their data as much as men do — only 18%, compared to 31% of men — which could impact the adoption rate.
Other trust factors include implicit bias: less than a third of the AI workforce are women, and Deloitte’s research shows “most AI workers feel that AI will produce biased results as long as their field continues to be male dominated.”
However, women are on track to close the gap. The year-on-year tripling in the rate of women experimenting with gen AI exceeds the growth rate for men.
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“Although women’s use of gen AI was half that of men’s in 2023, their pace of adoption suggests they’re likely to reach parity within the next year,” the report states.
Yet women are still more hesitant to adopt gen AI into their daily workflows. Deloitte found that only 34% of women report using the tech once a day, compared to 43% of men.
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For professional use, 41% of women surveyed “currently feel that gen AI substantially boosts their productivity,” compared with 61% of men. Women tend to be more wary and skeptical of gen AI tools and are less interested than men in using them for sensitive topics like health, personal finance, and relationships.
Their concerns aren’t unfounded. Women’s personal information can be used against them in a data breach, including menstrual cycle data and images, which can be turned into nonconsensual deepfakes.
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“Women may perceive the potential consequences of a security breach or data misuse as more significant,” the report identifies. Besides, it’s unclear whether user data can be taken from an AI model’s training dataset once ingested.
“The trust gap may also contribute to less excitement among women to purchase new gen AI technologies,” the report continued — an interesting observation for the many tech companies now selling laptops, phones, and more embedded with AI. Deloitte found that women were less likely to upgrade their devices for AI features than men.
“With women controlling or influencing an estimated 85% of consumer spending, their lower enthusiasm for upgrading to devices with AI could pose an issue for tech providers,” the report concludes.
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However, the terrain looks different for tech workers. Gen AI adoption among employees is higher across the board, though the rate for women is still lower than for men (70% as opposed to 78%, respectively). Women in tech use gen AI for tasks more than men — 44% compared to 33% — and Deloitte found “no notable trust gap between tech women and men.”
To encourage gen AI adoption among women, Deloitte’s advice is general: companies should clarify and improve data security policies, hire more women into AI roles to reduce bias, and invest in workplace training.
