Pew Research: Gender Gap in US AI Chatbot Usage Has Closed, Though Men Use Them More Daily

According to a new analysis published by the Pew Research Center on October 16, 2026, the gender gap in AI chatbot usage among U.S. adults has largely disappeared. The survey found that 50% of men and 47% of women reported ever using AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot in 2026. This marks a significant shift from 2024, when men were 11 percentage points more likely than women to report such usage.

While overall adoption rates have equalized, differences remain in frequency and specific use cases. Men are more likely to use these tools on a daily basis (27% vs. 20%) and for work tasks or information search. Women, conversely, are slightly more likely to use chatbots for emotional support or advice. Notably, ChatGPT, the most widely used single platform in the survey, shows identical usage rates between men and women at 44%.

The data comes from a survey of 5,119 U.S. adults conducted by Pew Research Center to track the rise of artificial intelligence in society. These findings suggest that generative AI tools have transitioned from early-stage tech products appealing to specific demographics to widely accepted general-purpose tools across genders, although high-frequency integration into daily workflows still exhibits some gender-specific patterns.