Study: How Can the Gender AI Gap Be Closed?

Artificial intelligence is transforming the labor market. Those who use it increase their efficiency, expand their scope of action, and improve their career prospects. It is therefore a central gender equality issue of our time whether women participate in this dynamic on an equal footing or are structurally left behind. To examine whether new inequalities are emerging in this area and how they can be effectively addressed, the IAB, in collaboration with Initiative D21, conducted the study „Digital Gender Gap – Focus 2026: Artificial Intelligence.“.

Alarm Bells for Generation Z+

An analysis of the population-representative D21 Digital Index data reveals a significant 16-percentage-point difference in AI usage between women and men. Even when differences in age, education, and household income are taken into account, the gap remains large and significant at 13 percentage points. The findings are particularly alarming for young working adults: Among Generation Z+—those born between 1996 and 2010—half of all men use AI intensively, compared to less than one-third of women in the same age group.

„The gender AI gap is greatest precisely when it comes to future career opportunities: There is an urgent need for action here,“ reports IAB researcher Carola Burkert. „Just as with the gender pay gap, these patterns risk becoming entrenched without targeted intervention,“ adds IAB researcher Katharina Diener. When appropriate training opportunities are provided, employees use AI significantly more often—and the gender AI gap becomes statistically less significant.

„AI strategies should be application-oriented
”be implemented."

Britta Matthes,
Head of the Research Division,
Institute for Labor Market and
Career Research

„AI strategies should be implemented in a way that focuses on practical applications. It is important that the introduction of AI be perceived as helpful in carrying out unpleasant work tasks,“ explains Britta Matthes, head of the IAB’s research division. Simply providing digital devices and the necessary infrastructure is therefore not enough. While the need to use the internet for work or digital requirements on the job do increase overall AI usage, they do not close the gender AI gap. In fact, men often benefit even more from such conditions.

Men benefit, but women do not

Both self-initiated and employer-funded skill development significantly increase the likelihood of AI use. It is particularly noteworthy that women benefit disproportionately from self-initiated skill acquisition—their AI usage increases by 15 percentage points, compared to 8 percentage points for men. Employer-funded training programs even reduce the gender AI gap for intensive AI usage to just 1 percentage point. Social learning, however—that is, help from colleagues, family, or friends—widen the gap: men benefit significantly from this, while women do not. Informal networks thus perpetuate existing inequalities.

„Organizations that do not tailor their continuing education programs to the diverse needs and starting points of their employees will ultimately end up unintentionally reinforcing inequalities rather than eliminating them,“ emphasizes Sandy Jahn, Strategic Insights and Analytics Specialist at Initiative D21.
(Source: Institute for Employment Research)