What happened
Microsoft's AI Economy Institute published its quarterly Global AI Diffusion Report on 21 September 2026, reporting that 18.8% of the world's working-age population used generative AI in June 2026, roughly a one-point rise from Q1. The UAE (73.3%) and Singapore (64.3%) continue to top the leaderboard, while the Global North–South gap widened: usage now stands at 28.8% in the North versus 16.2% in the South. The metric measures the share of people aged 15–64 who used a generative-AI product during the period, derived from aggregated, anonymized Microsoft telemetry and adjusted for OS/device market share, internet penetration and population. The edition adds a substantive discussion of open-weight models, which now capture a growing share of API token volume and could lower access costs in the Global South.
Why it matters
Gives executives and policy leads a telemetry-based, recurring benchmark on who actually uses generative AI and how the adoption gap is evolving — directly relevant to global go-to-market, skills and digital-infrastructure decisions.
Action needed
Benchmark your target markets against the diffusion rankings and factor the widening North–South usage gap into emerging-market strategy.