Korea ranks 12th in the world with 40.6% of generative AI users... 3.5%p increase from the previous quarter

MS report, 2nd quarter share increased by 3.5% points compared to the previous quarter

World average 18.8%… The gap in usage between regions is widening

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Sang-yong Han = A survey showed that the proportion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) users in Korea exceeded 40%, ranking 12th in the world.

According to the '2026 Second Quarter Global AI Expansion Report' released by Microsoft AI Economy Institute on the 28th, the proportion of generative AI users in Korea was 40.6% as of June this year, up 3.5 percentage points from the first quarter.

Korea's ranking rose four places from 16th to 12th.

Microsoft explained that Korea recorded the largest increase in the share of users among major economies for three consecutive times. The increase over the past 12 months is about 15 percentage points.

During the same period, the proportion of generative AI users worldwide increased by 1.0 percentage points from 17.8% to 18.8%.

By country, the United Arab Emirates had the highest rate at 73.3%, followed by Singapore (64.3%), Ireland (49.9%), and France (49.6%).

The gap in AI use around the world has also widened depending on region.

The proportion of users in the second quarter of this year was 28.8% in the 'Global North' centered on developed countries, and 16.2% in the 'Global South' centered on emerging countries, with a gap of 12.6 percentage points.

It increased from 10.6 percentage points in the second half of last year and 12.1 percentage points in the first quarter of this year.

This figure is an estimate of the percentage of the population aged 15 to 64 who used generative AI products during the period based on Microsoft's aggregated and de-identified usage data.

The market share of operating systems and devices, Internet penetration rate, and differences in population size by country were also reflected.

Microsoft cited infrastructure such as power and internet, digital capabilities, and local language support as major factors affecting AI accessibility.

In addition, it was evaluated that the 'open weight' model, which discloses the learned weights, can contribute to the spread of AI by lowering the cost of use and localization burden.