The Teen AI Divide: Do Teen Girls and Boys Use AI Differently?

By Swetha Subramanian, Guest Contributor, Women in the AI Vanguard

I’m the kind of person who likes to watch technology grow and change over time. I notice when a new app takes over the conversations at my lunch table, or when a word like “ChatGPT” stops sounding new. For the past two years, the thing that I have watched take over is AI.

The Pew Research Center states that 54% of US teens now use different types of chatbots for all sorts of schoolwork and assignments. However, at my school it feels like more.

One thing that I noticed was most of my male counterparts treat AI like a vending machine — put the homework in, get the answers out — while girls tend to use AI for more versatile tasks, but trust it way less. So, I built an anonymous survey and sent it through social media. Fifty-five teens answered. Here’s what I found.

The gap is not in who is using it. Going into the study I expected girls to use AI less, since that is the national pattern. One Harvard Business School analysis found that women were 22% less likely to use generative AI compared to men. My data said the opposite. 63% of girls use AI on a daily basis, slightly more than the 58% of boys who said the same. Girls also reported feeling more comfortable with it: 49% called themselves comfortable versus the 37% of boys who admitted being “somewhat uncomfortable.”

Survey data collected via anonymous social media distribution.

The gap is in the way that it feels to use it. About 49% of girls said they had gotten an AI response that felt biased, off, or simply wrong about their identity. For boys it was 26% — about half as many. And here’s the part that really surprised me: it wasn’t just that fewer boys said yes, more of them said “not sure” (37%, versus 29% of girls). A lot of boys weren’t even sure whether they’d run into bias at all.

Girls were also far more likely to say that AI “never or rarely” understands their perspective: 43% of girls, versus 32% of boys.

Girls and boys use AI differently, too. The majority of boys said they use AI for one thing: homework help. Girls were spread out — studying, brainstorming, research. Girls are using AI as a thinking partner, not an answer machine.

“The difference is not in how we use AI, but in the way that AI treats girls versus boys.”

But we don’t think we use it differently. When asked whether girls and boys use AI differently, the most common answer girls chose was “similar ways.” So the gap shows up in experience, not in self-perception — which makes it even harder to talk about.

Boys were nearly twice as likely as girls to say AI will “probably not” be part of their career (32% vs 17%).

Girls and boys were equally likely to call AI “definitely” part of their future career (37% each). But boys were nearly twice as likely to say “probably not” (32%, versus 17% of girls). AI isn’t scaring girls away — if anything, they’re leaning in harder.

When asked what one thing they’d change about AI, most teens named practical fixes like “Improve accuracy” or “Stop making up information.” But the request to “Reduce Bias” came only from girls — three of them.

So where does the gender gap in AI actually start? Not where I expected. The girls who completed my survey use AI just as much as the boys, and feel just as capable. It comes down to whether AI understands them. Many girls say it doesn’t. The gap isn’t about girls. It’s about a tool that wasn’t built for them. That’s where it starts.

A note on methodology

Though this survey sample size is relatively small and self-selected, the patterns observed do align directionally with larger studies, including Pew Research Center data on teen AI use and a Harvard Business School analysis on gender and generative AI adoption. A larger, more demographically diverse sample would be needed to draw definitive conclusions. This survey is best understood as a starting point for a conversation, not a final answer.

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Swetha Subramanian is a rising senior at Robbinsville High School in New Jersey with a passion for creating meaningful change in her community. She serves as the Co-Founder and President of Girlstration, an initiative focused on improving menstrual equity through product innovation and policy advocacy. Swetha is also the President of TEDxYouth@RHS, Electrical Lead of FIRST Robotics Team 2590 Nemesis, President of the Madhatter Knits NJ Chapter, and a Varsity Cross Country Runner. Through her work in STEM, public policy, and community service, she strives to create lasting impact and empower others to take action. In her free time, she enjoys running, baking, and traveling with her family.