Artificial intelligence, Italians bringing up the rear of the EU. 5% are unaware of its existence

Italy is in the last places in Europa for the use ofArtificial intelligence. It is noted by theState in the report ICT relating to 2025. In 2025 the survey detected for the first time the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) by the population. The goal is to measure the conscious and intentional use of these tools, with reference to all types of content created by AI, such as texts, images, programming codes, video, audio and music.

At the European level the 32,7% of the population aged 16-74 has used AI tools while in Italy the share is equal to 19,9%placing the country in penultimate place in the European ranking, ahead of only Romania (17.8%). Extending the analysis to the entire population aged 14 and over, for which a European comparison is not possible, the share of those who have used AI in Italy is 17.8%.

Diffusion among young people and gender differences

The use of AI tools is particularly widespread among young: in Italy it is used 51.2% of 14-19 year olds and 43.1% of 20-24 year olds. Overall, AI use is higher among men (19.6%) than women (16.1%). However, this difference is not found in the younger age groups: between 14 and 19 years old, 53.3% of girls used AI tools compared to 49.1% of their male peers. Only from the age of 25 does the gender difference change sign, with greater use among men.

Education, territory and reasons for non-use

The adoption of AI tools is positively associated with level of education: the share of users aged 25 and over reaches 32% among people with a high level of education, is reduced to 14.6% among those with a high school diploma and stands at 3.6% among those with a maximum middle school diploma. From a territorial point of view, use is more widespread in Nord (19.7%) and in Center (18.8%) compared to Noon (14,6%).

Among those who have not used AI tools, 59.9% said the reason lies in lack of necessityfollowed by 21.6% who indicated not knowing how to use them; 5.5% raised concerns related to safety or to the protection of personal data, 4.8% were not aware of the existence of such tools and 5.3% indicated other reasons for non-use.