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Australia Is Facing an 'AI Divide', New National Survey Shows

Science and Technology

Business Honor
11 November, 2025

A national survey shows AI use is rising fast but access gaps remain, requiring inclusion for all Australians.

The national survey reveals that while close to half of Australians have used generative AI, it is inconsistent across the country. This presents the risk of a new "AI divide" that could exacerbate existing social and economic inequalities. In 2024, over 5,500 adults from every state and territory in Australia answered questions about whether and to what extent they use generative AI. This survey included a large national sample of First Nations communities, people living in remote or regional locations, and people who had never used the internet. The survey revealed that 45.6% of Australians had used a generative AI tool recently. This is slightly higher than the use rates identified by a 2024 Australian study (39%).

Internationally, use was slightly higher than reported for adults in the United Kingdom (41%), as identified in a 2024 study by the regulator of that country. Since OpenAI's introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022, generative artificial intelligence (AI) products have progressed rapidly and become exceedingly common. These machines can now produce not just text but also photos, videos and audio, and their outputs become close to indistinguishable from human creations. They have also been embedded in everyday tools and services most of us already use, such as Google Search.

The report finds that professionals (67.9%) and managers (52.2%) are also much more likely to use these tools than machine and software operators (26.7%) or laborers (31.8%). This suggests use is strongly employment role and work context related. In addition, people who speak a language that is not English at home report significantly higher use (58.1%) compared to those who speak only English (40.5%). This may be related to vast improvements in the efficacy of these tools for translation or accessing multiple languages for information.