Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Claude by Anthropic, Perplexity, and Bing app logos appear on a smartphone screen on November 21, 2024 in Reno, USA.
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The artificial intelligence trend faces a significant gender disparity, with men expressing more enthusiasm for the technology, while women express more skepticism. That’s according to CNBC’s 5th annual SurveyMonkey Women at Work survey.
Some 69% of men surveyed said AI is a “valuable assistant and collaborator,” while only 61% of women agreed with that statement. Half of the women surveyed view AI with suspicion, saying that “using AI at work feels like cheating.” Only 43% of men agree.
The study was conducted from February 10th to February 16th with 6,330 participants, and was conducted just over three years after the generative AI boom began with the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Since then, chatbots have proliferated, followed by services such as AI-generated photo and video services, coding agents, and all sorts of tools that now make it easy to create apps with just a few text prompts and a few mouse clicks.
Wall Street is betting that much of the enterprise software stack will be replaced by AI, which explains why software stocks have soared over the past year.
Within the workplace, men use AI more frequently than women. Almost two-thirds (64%) of women say they have never used AI at work, compared to 55% of men. Men are also more likely to be AI power users, with 14% saying they use AI “more than once a day,” compared to 9% of women.
It’s now a constant topic of conversation for corporate executives. JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called AI “critical to our future success,” and said at the bank’s 2026 investor day that nearly two-thirds of the company now uses in-house large-scale language models. Dimon said companies would be better off retraining their workforce because AI will eliminate jobs.
Notably, men say more needs to be done about AI, even though they are more likely to use it. Some 59% of men surveyed said they needed more training on how to use AI in the workplace, compared to 35% of women, and 39% expressed fear of missing out if they didn’t embrace AI (FOMO). Additionally, 42% of women “strongly disagree” that they will lose their jobs if they don’t implement AI, compared to 36% of men who agree.
What happens if women don’t engage in AI training at the same pace as men? Founder and former LeanIn.Org Meta Executive Director Sheryl Sandberg answered this question in a December interview.
“We know that AI will make jobs difficult, but it will be most difficult for people who don’t know how to use AI tools,” Sandberg said.
If men use AI more than women, especially early in their careers, the gender gap could widen as women miss out on initial promotions to manager-level positions. It has a ripple effect on the rest of their careers.
“We’re going to see a disproportionate impact. It’s going to be really embarrassing for our businesses and it’s going to be bad for our economy,” Sandberg said.
—CNBC’s Nick Wells contributed to this report.
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