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Economy

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

2026-11-15

Abstract light lines on a dark background; illustration for digital technology, not a physical AI system.

Artificial intelligence adoption is expanding rapidly across OECD economies, but significant gaps among businesses and generations risk limiting the benefits of digital transformation, according to the organisation's Digital Economy and Society Outlook 2026. In 2025, AI was used by 20 percent of enterprises with ten or more employees across the OECD, compared with 52 percent of large enterprises with 250 or more employees; by the end of the decade, uptake among large firms could be nearly 80 percent higher than the average across all firms without targeted support. Investment in AI infrastructure is growing rapidly: venture capital investment in AI firms specialising in information technology infrastructure and hosting more than doubled, from 54.5 billion dollars in 2024 to 123.9 billion dollars in 2025.

A generational divide

Among individuals, generative AI use reached 37 percent 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: internet use among 55- to 74-year-olds rose from 58 percent in 2015 to 87 percent in 2025, yet only 14 percent of older adults reported using generative AI, compared with 68 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds. Among older adults, 43 percent said they saw no need for AI, while others cited a lack of skills, 12 percent, or awareness, 9 percent.

The report finds that limited access to finance, digital infrastructure and specialised skills continues to constrain adoption among smaller businesses, alongside implementation costs, legal uncertainty and difficulties integrating AI into existing systems; while more than half of enterprises already use cloud computing, the combined use of AI, cloud and big-data analytics remains concentrated in large firms and knowledge-intensive sectors. Based on 1,497 policy initiatives identified across 42 countries in 2025, the report finds digital policymaking has shifted from technology-neutral approaches towards technology-specific policies, with AI the most frequently cited technology; cybersecurity rose to become the second-ranked digital policy priority, its highest position in a decade, and 60 percent of countries with a national digital strategy assigned primary responsibility to a dedicated digital ministry in 2025, up from 24 percent in 2016. The ICT sector across the OECD is estimated to have grown by 5 percent in 2025. '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.

Cloud adoption gaps between smaller and larger firms are expected to narrow by 2030, unlike the persistent AI divide without targeted support. The report calls for wider cloud access, support for AI and big-data analytics, stronger interoperability and open standards, alongside computing capacity, skills and data. Quantum technologies, semiconductors and satellites have become more prominent in policy since 2023. Digital government remains the leading policy priority. ICT production and sourcing are concentrated in a small number of international hubs, creating efficiency gains and cross-border dependencies.

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