{
  "id": "F-17",
  "url": "https://evy.so/facts/ai-use-by-age-education-income/",
  "chapter": "Who Uses AI at Work",
  "question": "Who uses AI at work more, by age, education and income?",
  "answer": "College graduates use AI at work 12 to 24 percentage points more than workers without a degree, and workers 50 and older trail younger colleagues by 4 to 20 points in the US. The income gap is the widest: across 47 countries, 83 percent of high-income employees use AI at work against 34 percent of low-income employees.",
  "range": {
    "low": 12,
    "high": 24,
    "unit": "percentage-point gap in AI use at work, college graduates against workers without a degree",
    "display": "12–24 pts more AI use at work among college graduates than among workers without a degree"
  },
  "confidence": "high",
  "confidence_reason": "Four independent creators with different methods agree on the direction and roughly the size of the education gap. The exact size depends on how use is defined, and the income gap rests mainly on one survey.",
  "last_checked": "2026-10-14",
  "how_to_read": "The sources define use differently: Pew's main question asks whether some of your work is done with AI (strict), the St. Louis Fed survey asks whether you ever used generative AI for work, and the KPMG study counts any use, even every few months, across 47 countries. Stricter measures give smaller gaps. In the US the age gap is mostly between workers under 50 and those 50 and older. Part of the education gap is about jobs: it shrinks by about a third when comparing people in the same occupation.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "creator": "Pew Research Center",
      "title": "About 1 in 5 U.S. workers now use AI in their job, up since last year",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "5,010 US workers, September 2025",
      "method": "Strict question: at least some of one's work is done with AI",
      "figure": "Bachelor's degree or more 28%, some college or less 16%",
      "url": "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/10/06/about-1-in-5-us-workers-now-use-ai-in-their-job-up-since-last-year/"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Alexander Bick (St. Louis Fed), Adam Blandin (Vanderbilt) and David Deming (Harvard)",
      "title": "The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI (St. Louis Fed Working Paper 2024-027F, revised October 2025)",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "6,935 employed US adults aged 18 to 64, August and November 2024",
      "method": "Nationally representative online survey; ever used generative AI for work",
      "figure": "Less than college 23.7%, bachelor's 41.1%, graduate degree 47.5%; ages 50 to 64 at 22.6% against about 35% for younger workers",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.20955/wp.2024.027",
      "quote": "use genAI at roughly twice the rate of non-college educated workers"
    },
    {
      "creator": "University of Melbourne and KPMG International",
      "title": "Trust, attitudes and use of artificial intelligence: A global study 2025",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "32,352 employed people in 47 countries, November 2024 to January 2025",
      "method": "Online survey; any intentional AI use at work, even every few months. Income tiers are set within each country.",
      "figure": "University educated 68% against 44% without; ages 18 to 34 at 72% against 40% at 55+; high income 83% against low income 34%",
      "url": "https://mbs.edu/-/media/PDF/Research/Trust_in_AI_Report.pdf",
      "quote": "Employees who are younger, AI trained, university-educated, higher-income earners and managers are more likely"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Pew Research Center",
      "title": "34% of U.S. adults have used ChatGPT, about double the share in 2023",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "Employed adults in a survey of 5,123 US adults, February to March 2025",
      "method": "Ever used ChatGPT specifically for work",
      "figure": "Ages 18 to 29 at 38% against 18% at 50+; postgraduates 45% against 17% with high school or less",
      "url": "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/25/34-of-us-adults-have-used-chatgpt-about-double-the-share-in-2023/",
      "quote": "38% of employed adults ages 18 to 29 say they have used ChatGPT"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Anders Humlum (Chicago Booth) and Emilie Vestergaard (University of Copenhagen)",
      "title": "The unequal adoption of ChatGPT exacerbates existing inequalities among workers (PNAS)",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "About 18,000 workers in 11 AI-exposed occupations in Denmark, late 2023",
      "method": "Survey linked to government records; comparisons within each occupation",
      "figure": "Each extra year of age lowers the chance of having used ChatGPT for work by 0.7 points; higher earners use it more",
      "url": "https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2414972121",
      "quote": "we find younger and less experienced workers are more likely to use ChatGPT"
    }
  ],
  "related_findings": [
    {
      "question": "Do older workers use AI less?",
      "answer": "Yes. In the US, workers 50 and older trail younger colleagues by 4 to 20 points depending on the measure: 13% against 17% on Pew's strict question (October 2024), 22.6% against about 35% in the St. Louis Fed survey (2024), and 18% against 38% for ChatGPT among the youngest (Pew, 2025). Across 47 countries the gap is 32 points (72% of ages 18 to 34 against 40% at 55 and older).",
      "sources": []
    },
    {
      "question": "Do higher earners and managers use AI more?",
      "answer": "Yes. Across 47 countries, 83% of high-income employees use AI at work against 34% of low-income employees, and 77% of managers against 34% of manual workers (KPMG and University of Melbourne). In the US, use rises with earnings up to about the top fifth, then falls slightly (St. Louis Fed survey). Gallup found leaders twice as likely as individual contributors to use AI frequently (33% against 16%, 2025).",
      "sources": [
        {
          "creator": "Gallup",
          "title": "AI Use at Work Has Nearly Doubled in Two Years",
          "year": 2025,
          "sample": "US employees, Gallup Panel, May 2025",
          "method": "Self-reported frequency of AI use, by job level and job type",
          "figure": "Frequent AI use: leaders 33%, individual contributors 16%; white-collar 27%, production and front-line 9%",
          "url": "https://www.gallup.com/workplace/691643/work-nearly-doubled-two-years.aspx",
          "quote": "They are twice as likely as individual contributors (16%) to say they use AI"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "numbers_you_may_have_seen": [
    {
      "claim": "40% of college graduates use AI at work against 20% of others (St. Louis Fed).",
      "what_the_source_says": "That was the February 2025 draft. After reweighting, the October 2025 revision reports 41.1% (bachelor's) and 47.5% (graduate) against 23.7%."
    },
    {
      "claim": "83% of high-income US workers use AI.",
      "what_the_source_says": "The 83% pools 47 countries, sets income tiers within each country, and counts use every few months."
    },
    {
      "claim": "85% of Gen Z use AI at work, against 73% of Boomers (Microsoft).",
      "what_the_source_says": "Those are the shares of AI users in each generation who bring their own AI tools. They say nothing about how many people use AI."
    }
  ],
  "citation": "EVY (2026). Who uses AI at work more, by age, education and income? The AI at Work Fact Book, F-17. https://evy.so/facts/ai-use-by-age-education-income/ (last checked October 14, 2026). CC BY 4.0.",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0"
}