85 percent of ChatGPT’s mobile users are men.
As AI use proliferates both in our personal and professional lives, one thing is becoming clear: women are skeptical of AI and appear to be less inclined to use the technology than men.
Studies show many women are dubious about AI.
A 2022 Pew Research study found that women in the United States are more skeptical than men about some uses of artificial intelligence. The study found that women in the U.S. are less likely than men to say that technology overall has had a mostly positive effect on society (42 percent vs. 54 percent). In addition, women are less likely than men to say they feel more excited than concerned about the increased use of AI computer programs in daily life (13 percent vs. 22 percent).
“Gender remains a factor in views about AI and technology’s impact when accounting for other variables, such as respondents’ political partisanship, education and race and ethnicity,” the study’s authors wrote. “Gender gaps also appear in the amount of concern Americans express about AI programs being able to perform repetitive workplace tasks, make important life decisions for people and know people’s thoughts and behaviors.”
Pew’s research dovetails with other analysis. For example, research firm Appfigures found that men make up 85 percent of ChatGPT’s mobile users. A study from Axios says that almost half of the females they surveyed said “it’s not even possible” to regulate AI, compared to just 23 percent of men. The study also found that 31 percent of men said they would or do let their kids use AI products like chatbots “for any purpose,” but just 4 percent of women agreed. In fact, 53 percent of women would not let their kids use AI at all, compared to 26 percent of men.
Harvard Business School Associate Professor Rembrandts Koning, who has authored a research paper on this phenomenon, says he has noticed that fewer women use the generative AI tools that he and his colleagues at the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard have created for entrepreneurs around the world. His research reveals that women are adopting AI tools at a 25 percent lower rate than men on average “despite the fact that it seems the benefits of AI would apply equally to men and women,” he says.
Why are women dubious about AI?
Anecdotally I don’t see this. The women in my life – my wife, daughter, work colleagues and clients – seem to use AI tools as frequently as the men do. But you can’t deny the research and maybe something’s there.
I’m not a psychologist, I’m not a woman, and I’d be out of my depth trying to understand why this is so. So I really shouldn’t be giving reasons why women are dubious about AI. But that’s never stopped me before!
Women, in my experience, tend to be more practical and less skeptical than men which means that newer technologies like AI may need some more time to truly be proven before they buy into their value. Women, I feel, are generally more risk-averse than their male counterparts and by being so would rather not share or rely on information from AI chatbots. Women are surely more nurturing than men – it’s why so there are so many more females in professions like healthcare, veterinary science and education – and many may be wary of chatbots due to their robotic and insensitive nature.
I do believe that many women can see the writing on the wall. Using OpenAI’s deep research tool, one X tech enthusiast asked it to list the 20 jobs that will be replaced by AI and many of these jobs – proofreaders, bookkeepers, social media marketers, content providers, customer service representatives – are performed primarily by females. If my livelihood relied on any of these occupations, I’d be very wary of AI chatbots as well.
Employers need to wake up to their female employees’ concerns
All of these things are important for employers to know. Why? Because according recent studies almost half of our nation’s workforce is female. If our female employees tend to be more dubious – or even suspicious – of AI this has an impact on our businesses. AI will be replacing many jobs in the not-too-distant future. We’re already seeing this at companies like Klarna, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Over the next few years, AI will be a growing part of our business. Already some reports say that as many as 57 percent of small businesses are using GenAI. Big software companies like Microsoft are introducing agents to do a lot of back office work that will replace the tasks being performed by our staff. Robots are creeping their way onto the retail and factory floor, threatening the jobs of our workers.
Our workers – especially our female workers – are seeing this too and it may be having a deeper impact on their psyche then we realize. As business owners, our employees perceive us as eager to implement these technologies as a cost saving tool. They’re not wrong. They do have a right to be concerned. Their jobs are at stake.
But not as much as some think. Business owners and managers do want more automation. We want AI. But most of us don’t want to use this technology to replace our employees. We can’t find enough good people! We just want more productivity out of our existing workforce and if AI can help then that’s an answer. But clearly our employees – particularly our female employees – are skeptical. And rightfully so. So what should we be doing? Communicating and training.
We should be leaning heavily into the AI features provided by our existing software vendors and we should do this by investing more in training. We should involve our employees – especially key female workers – in the rollout, training and adoption of these tools. The more comfortable our people become with these tools, the less hesitant they’ll feel about using them. They’ll realize that they can be better, more productive and happier employees. Many will overcome their fears that the technology will replace them and accept it as a tonic to their stresses. Others will allow the technology to do their work and embrace the opportunity to learn more skills and contribute in other ways.
There could be good news on the horizon. Although women’s adoption of GenAI has been historically half of their male counterparts, a 2023 Deloitte study predicts that the experimentation with and use of generative AI by women will equal or exceed that of men in the United States by the end of this year.
Maybe that will happen. Maybe not. But to the men who run business – and according to another report from Pew, approximately 76 percent of small businesses are still owned by men – I say this: pay attention. Our critical female employees are telling us something important. Women are skeptical of AI. It’s our job to respond to, and allay these concerns.
