People are using AI for personal questions almost twice as often as for work-related queries

Around 38% of people living in Spain regularly use generative artificial intelligence (AI). This is according to a survey on information and communication technologies in households, conducted by the country’s National Statistics Institute (INE). However, a closer look at how these tools are employed reveals that their primary use is domestic — specifically, for personal inquiries — with 30% of users stating that they use AI for this purpose. This figure is nearly double the percentage of those who use it regularly at work (18%, according to the INE and Eurostat), or for educational and training purposes (16.2%).

Consequently, fewer than four in 10 Spanish residents use AI in their daily lives. This has led the General Union of Workers (UGT), a major trade union, to assert that the adoption of this technology is far from widespread among the general population. In fact, the UGT recently published a report which translates into English as The Digital Divide and Artificial Intelligence: The New Inequality. It highlights the fact that 23 million people in the fourth-most-populated EU member country never use these tools… a situation that’s fostering inequality and discrimination in the workforce, undermining social cohesion.

The report’s authors begin by acknowledging the meteoric rise in AI usage. Having emerged less than four years ago, the technology has spread at an unprecedented pace. Specifically, they note that ChatGPT — the most well-known generative AI brand — reached one billion global users just three-and-a-half years after its launch. By comparison, YouTube took more than twice as long to reach that level of usage, while cellphones required 29 years (more than eight times longer).

However, the authors of the report go on to emphasize that the social divide resulting from the uneven adoption of generative AI primarily occurs along the lines of age, income level, and employment status, with older individuals and low-income earners being the most severely affected. Thus, according to data from this report, the typical AI user profile is a young male living in a big city who is employed, earns a good income, and has at least finished high school.

In fact, representatives from the UGT state that the AI gap exacerbates pre-existing demographic inequalities related to digitalization. This is reflected in the fact that more than half (55.5%) of those who don’t use this technology are women, while the average age of non-users is 56.3 years. Furthermore, there’s a 70-percentage-point difference in usage rates between young people between the ages of 16 and 24 (75% of whom use it) and those aged 65 to 74 (only 7% of whom use it). Similarly, regarding educational background, the skills gap in AI usage affects 59% of individuals with lower levels of education, while 44% of people in Spain overall have absolutely no knowledge of how to use it.

Against this backdrop, the trade union also criticizes the discrepancy between these AI usage figures and those found in numerous studies commissioned by consulting firms and various private entities. While the latter claim that between 51% and 62% of professionals use this technology in their work, the INE and Eurostat maintain that the true figure is around 18% of workers. Consequently, the union’s experts believe that there are no rigorous sources to support the claim of widespread AI adoption in the workplace.

In this regard, they add that the slow uptake of AI in the workplace isn’t due to workers explicitly rejecting the technology (as they actually use it more extensively in their personal lives), but rather due to companies failing to integrate these tools into their production processes. INE data from 2024 indicates that barely 20% of Spanish companies with more than 10 employees provided information technology training to their staff, whereas for small businesses with fewer than 10 workers — which make up 95% of the business landscape in the country — the figure drops to just 3%.

Given this situation, the UGT proposes that the Spanish government develop a National AI Skills Plan, featuring training programs open to the general public; establish a right to continuous professional development during working hours; and devise a support plan specifically for the unemployed.

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