AI adoption accelerates across the OECD, but major gaps persist among businesses and generations

AI adoption is expanding rapidly across OECD economies, but significant gaps among businesses and generations risk limiting the benefits of digital transformation. Large firms are more than twice as likely to use AI as the average firm, and young people almost five times as likely as older adults to use generative AI, according to a new OECD report.

The OECD Digital Economy and Society Outlook 2026 estimates that in 2025, AI was used by 20% of enterprises with 10 or more employees across the OECD, compared with 52% of large enterprises with 250 or more employees. While smaller firms are expected to narrow the gap in cloud computing adoption by 2030, the divide in AI adoption is projected to persist without targeted support. By the end of the decade, AI uptake among large firms could be nearly 80% higher than the average across all firms.

Among individuals, generative AI use reached 37% in 2025, with higher uptake among younger, highly educated and higher-income groups. Older adults are closing the Internet gap, but not the AI gap. Across the OECD, Internet use among 55- to 74-year-olds increased from 58% in 2015 to 87% in 2025, significantly narrowing differences in basic digital access. Yet only 14% of older adults reported using generative AI, compared with 68% of 16- to 24-year-olds. Among older adults, 43% reported seeing no need for AI, while others cited a lack of skills (12%) or awareness (9%).

“AI adoption among firms continues to expand. But to make the most of AI’s potential for productivity and competitiveness, we need to make sure adoption spreads to firms of every size.” OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said. “Our Outlook points to the levers to get there – wider access to cloud services, targeted support for AI and big data analytics, and stronger interoperability and open standards.”

The report finds that limited access to finance, digital infrastructure and specialised skills continues to constrain adoption among smaller businesses. Firms also face implementation costs, uncertainty about legal and data protection requirements, and difficulties integrating AI into existing systems. While more than half of enterprises across the OECD already use cloud computing, the combined use of AI, cloud computing and big data analytics remains concentrated in large firms and knowledge-intensive sectors.

Investment in AI infrastructure is meanwhile growing rapidly, with venture capital investment in AI firms specialising in IT infrastructure and hosting more than doubling from USD 54.5 billion in 2024 to USD 123.9 billion in 2025. The report highlights the importance of ensuring access to computing capacity, alongside skills and data, to support wider AI development and adoption.

As digital technologies become increasingly central to economies and societies, governments are adapting how they govern the digital transition. Based on 1 497 policy initiatives identified across 42 countries in 2025, the report finds that rapid technological change has shifted digital policymaking from technology-neutral approaches towards technology-specific policies. AI was the most frequently cited digital technology in policy initiatives in 2025. Quantum technologies, semiconductors and satellites have also become more prominent since 2023.

Digital government has remained the leading digital policy priority over the past decade, but cybersecurity rose to second place in 2025, its highest position in the decade over which these data have been collected. Responsibility for national digital strategies is also shifting to dedicated digital ministries. Among countries with a national digital strategy, 60% assigned primary responsibility for developing it to a dedicated digital ministry in 2025, up from 24% in 2016.

The ICT sector across the OECD is estimated to have grown by 5% in 2025. ICT value creation and sourcing remain highly concentrated internationally, with a small number of countries acting as key production and supply hubs, reflecting both efficiency gains and cross-border interdependencies.

Journalists are invited to contact Kim Chardon in the OECD Media Office