Quote:Why are women 25% less likely to use artificial intelligence tools than men? New research debunks the notion that the gender gap is primarily due to women’s lack of AI skills, interest or access. Women’s hesitancy to use AI is instead a rational response to a competency penalty that women face when using AI in the workplace.

The latest evidence of the competence penalty that women workers incur when using AI comes from a 2026 study by Zehra Chatoo, founder of Code For Good Now and former strategist at Meta. The study found that women who submit resumes created with AI assistance are evaluated as less competent and less trustworthy than men who submit identical AI-assisted resumes. To the evaluators, women’s AI use signaled inability, while men’s AI use signaled initiative.