Women use AI at work less often than men, and it's not because they don't know the technology

Women use AI tools noticeably less often than men. But does that mean they are "falling behind"? Bloomberg looked into the question and found that the statistics hide a far more complicated picture.

The gap is real, but uneven

According to a number of studies from 2025–2026, men consistently outpace women in how often they use ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and other AI tools at work. Depending on profession, age and country, the gap ranges from 5 to 15 percentage points.

The narrative that "women are falling behind in the AI revolution" is eagerly repeated in the media. But Bloomberg found that among professionals with comparable education and job titles, the gap narrows considerably. What remains is a subtler phenomenon: some women deliberately do not use AI tools even though they know about them and know how to work with them. This is not ignorance. It is a choice with a specific logic behind it.

The fear of becoming "less valuable"

Bloomberg interviewed female professionals who deliberately limit their use of AI at work. Their answers are strikingly similar, regardless of field or seniority.

• Fear that colleagues will take AI use as a sign of incompetence
• Concern that their work will be devalued: "You didn't do this, ChatGPT did"
• A conviction that men are held to more lenient standards on this question
• Pressure to prove their professional worth without technological "crutches"
• Informal disapproval, in some office cultures, of those who rely too heavily on AI

The central fear goes something like this: "If they find out I use AI, they'll decide I'm not that valuable as a professional." For women, who often already have to work twice as hard for the same recognition, the extra risk seems unjustified.

Men in the same offices often boast openly about their AI assistants, and it reads as tech literacy and efficiency. When women do the same thing, they risk being perceived differently: as "can't manage on her own." Same technology, same workplace, but a different social risk.

The paradox of unequal tools

"We risk creating a new glass ceiling, one built not on prejudice but on which tools some people use and others don't,"

Bloomberg writes.

That is the central contradiction. Those who have historically faced the most pressure to prove their competence are the ones more likely to turn down tools that could level the playing field. Meanwhile, those who use AI actively boost their productivity and gain more career opportunities.

Put simply: the people who can least afford to fall behind are the ones left without tools that others use without a second thought.

If the gap is not closed, it may deepen existing professional inequality. And not because AI is technically difficult, but because the social norms around using it are unevenly distributed. The technology is neutral. The culture around it is not.

What this means

The gender gap in AI use is a social problem, not a technical one. Digital literacy programs matter, but they will not fix the core issue. The solution lies in changing the norm: making AI use accepted and encouraged for all employees equally, not only for those who are "allowed" to use it without being judged.

Until that happens, some professionals will keep deliberately holding themselves back, and that is a losing strategy for everyone.