The benefits of AI in the workplace are not equal, new research warns, with high-income workers and men getting the most out of it while others are being left behind.

After polling 4,000 knowledge workers across the UK, Germany and North America, the Adaptavist Group’s latest Digital Etiquette report discovered that disproportionate access to AI opportunities is exacerbating career, income, and gender divides, deepening inequalities on a global scale.

The findings show that those with household incomes of over £100,000 were more than twice as likely (27% versus 11%) to have received at least twenty hours of AI training in the last year, compared with those on household incomes of £30,000 or less. 

As a result, 58% of those earning over £100k feel they’ve had strong guidance on AI, compared to just 25% of those on lower incomes. The divide is even clearer when it comes to access – 78% of high earners say they’re regularly given new AI tools to use, while less than half (49%) of those earning under £30k say the same.

That disparity is shaping how AI is experienced at work, with half of top earners reporting that AI has significantly boosted their job satisfaction, compared to just 14% of lower earners. Meanwhile, 80% of those making six figures said their skills are developing due to AI, versus 49% of those earning less.

The study also uncovered that women receive less AI training than their male counterparts.

Less than half (45%) of women said they had received at least five hours of training in the last year, compared to 57% of men, with more than one in five (21%) of women having had less than an hour of training on AI in total or none at all, versus just 14% of men saying the same. 

With women being given less access to training, only 51% have been able to complete a formal AI training accreditation, compared to 61% of men. 

This problem is borne out across organisational hierarchies. The Adaptavist survey found that at the intern level, men are more than twice as likely to have received external AI training, while amongst admin staff, 35% of women received such training compared with 52% of men. 

Even at the director level, just 58% of women received structured external AI training compared to 73% of men in the same position.

That is leading to a growing gender gap in skills and AI awareness, as 72% of men believe their skills are developing because of AI, versus 63% of women.

Together, these disparities in AI training and access are undermining the very areas businesses hope to improve with AI.

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For example, almost half (47%) of those with twenty hours or more of training annually report saving at least 11 hours a week by using AI, with 14% saying they save more than 30 hours, close to the equivalent of four full working days.

According to the Adaptavist Group, unequal access to AI training could not only stymie efficiency gains but also deepen existing divides, especially problematic in a job market that’s putting more emphasis on AI skills. 

“With so much to be gained from properly implemented AI, it is critical that opportunity is not concentrated in the hands of the few,” said Jon Mort, CTO of the Adaptavist Group.

“Organisations should take steps to ensure equal access to tools and training across the workforce. Without this, we risk deepening the very inequalities technology should help to solve.”