Less Than Half of Women Use It... ChatGPT Dominated by Men Raises Concerns Over Stereotypes

Men Lead in Global AI Usage
"Balanced Participation Needed to Prevent Bias in AI Development"

A study has found that globally, men tend to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT more frequently than women. This gap was observed in most countries regardless of income level, and there are concerns that such a disparity could introduce gender bias into technological development.

A study has found that globally, men tend to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT more frequently than women.

The Wall Street Journal reported on August 30 (local time) that Professor Rembrand Koning of Harvard Business School and Professor Solene Delecourt of UC Berkeley Haas School of Business revealed these findings in their recently published paper, "Gender Gaps and Global Evidence on Generative AI." The researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis of 18 empirical and academic studies carried out in various countries, with a total of approximately 133,000 participants.

For ChatGPT, the most popular generative AI, men accounted for 58% and women 42% of the average 200 million monthly users from November 2022 to May 2024. Similar trends were found on other generative AI platforms. For example, women made up only 42.4% of Perplexity users and just 31.2% of Claude users.

The difference was even more pronounced in smartphone-based app usage. During the same period, women accounted for only 27.2% of ChatGPT app downloads, with similar proportions observed for Perplexity and Claude. Professor Koning explained, "This pattern was evident not only in advanced economies like the United States and Japan, but also in lower- and middle-income countries such as India, Brazil, and Kenya."

Men were also the majority of users for AI tools specialized for specific purposes. An analysis of approximately 3,800 AI tools from August 2022 to July 2025 found that women accounted for only 34.3% of average visits.

According to the meta-analysis included in the paper, overall, women were about 20% less likely than men to use generative AI. Among doctoral students, the gender gap reached 21 percentage points, and among university students and entrepreneurs, the gap widened to as much as 31 percentage points.

Some female respondents expressed concerns that using generative AI could cast doubt on their professional competence. The paper noted that such perceptions are among the factors discouraging women from utilizing AI.

Professor Koning warned, "Only if both men and women use generative AI can it learn from everyone and develop in a gender-neutral way. If men remain the primary users, generative AI may reinforce gender bias or stereotypes."