SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Generative artificial intelligence is being used by 17.8 per cent of the world’s working-age population, but the gap between wealthy and developing nations continues to widen, according to a report published Tuesday by Microsoft.

In the first quarter of 2026, 27.5 per cent of people aged 15-64 in developed countries used a generative AI tool, compared with 15.4 per cent in the developing world — a gap that widened by 1.5 percentage points from the second half of 2025, according to the report’s estimates.

The divide stems from significant inequality in access to internet connectivity, basic digital skills and electricity, according to the Microsoft AI Economy Institute.

AI model performance — historically stronger in English as most of the major AI companies are based in the US — is also slowing the spread of such tools in non-English-speaking countries.

But progress in processing non-European languages is fueling a catch-up in adoption in some countries, particularly in Asia, the US tech giant noted.

The United Arab Emirates tops the ranking of AI usage at 70.1 per cent, followed by Singapore, Norway, Ireland and France.

The estimates were based primarily on measurements from computers running Windows and Microsoft products such as Bing and Copilot.

They only partially captured usage on Apple devices, and consolidated data was lacking for Russia, Iran and China.

The United States — home to dominant large AI models like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini — ranked only 21st, at 31.3 per cent.

AI usage in China — the world’s second-largest economy which is jostling with the US for an edge in the AI race — was 16.4 per cent, the report said.

Pushing back against fears of job losses driven by automation, Microsoft argued in the report that AI coding tools “could increase demand for developer jobs.”

The company cautioned, however, that “it is still too early to know the full impact” of AI on the labor market.

For the first time in its history, the company itself offered voluntary departures to nearly 9,000 of its US-based employees in April.

According to Layoffs.fyi, a private aggregator, nearly 99,000 people have been laid off in the tech sector since January 1, primarily in the United States.