LATEST
Who gets BNP’s DSCC ticket? Law, order debate heats up in JS Benazir gets bail, barred from leaving UAE Defeated forces who denied voting rights now seek return Myanmar seeks US role in rare earths Formal financial access reaches 64.5pc Tarique, Erdoğan discuss defence cooperation, trade, investment and Rohingya repatriation Dhaka moves to renew Ganges treaty Arson, bomb attacks sweep across country Madrasa fire leaves 77 hospitalised
Skip to content

Thursday | November 12, 2026 | Dhaka

Bangladesh 4th from bottom in AI use

Just 10.1pc have tried AI, Gallup-Microsoft survey finds
 Staff Reporter
 Published: 12:05 AM, 12 November 2026  Updated: 12:04 AM, 12 November 2026

Bangladesh is among the countries lagging furthest behind in public awareness and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), ranking fourth from the bottom in a survey of 37 countries.

The findings highlight a significant gap in the country’s readiness to embrace emerging digital technologies, with more than six in every 10 people still unfamiliar with AI.

According to a joint survey by Gallup and Microsoft, 64.2 per cent of Bangladeshis have never heard of artificial intelligence, while only 10.1 per cent have used the technology at least once.

Bangladesh ranked ahead of only Malawi, Afghanistan and Comoros in terms of public engagement with AI. Gallup and Microsoft are conducting the survey across 140 countries. Findings from its first phase, covering 37 countries, including Bangladesh, were published on Gallup’s website on 22 September.

In Bangladesh, 1,000 people aged 15 and above took part in the survey. Responses were gathered between April and July through face-to-face and telephone interviews, as well as online questionnaires, using random sampling.

Limited AI Exposure
The survey measured public awareness and engagement by asking respondents whether they had heard of AI, whether they had ever used it and how frequently they accessed the technology.

Among the Bangladeshi respondents, 64.2 per cent said they had never heard of AI, while 25.7 per cent were familiar with the technology but had never used it. Only 10.1 per cent reported having tried it at least once.

In terms of frequency, just 1.8 per cent said they used AI daily, 3.4 per cent accessed it at least once a week and 4.9 per cent used it once a month or less.

Bangladesh recorded the second-lowest daily AI usage rate among the 37 countries surveyed. Only Malawi performed worse, with 1 per cent of its population using AI every day.

Regional Gap
The findings also reveal a substantial gap between Bangladesh and several other developing economies in adopting AI.

Singapore topped the list for daily usage, with 46 per cent of its population reporting that they used the technology every day. Another 16.3 per cent accessed it weekly and 16.8 per cent monthly, while only 3.6 per cent had never heard of AI.

The United States and New Zealand recorded the highest levels of AI awareness, at 98 per cent each.
Several developing countries also reported considerably higher adoption rates than Bangladesh.

At least 20 per cent of people in Nigeria had used AI, while the figures stood at 22 per cent in Egypt, 23 per cent in Kenya, 26 per cent in Ghana, 29 per cent in Indonesia and 43 per cent in Vietnam.

Among the three countries placed below Bangladesh, 2.8 per cent of people in Malawi had used AI at least once. The corresponding figures were 8 per cent in Afghanistan and 8.7 per cent in Comoros.

However, the differences between Bangladesh and Afghanistan and Comoros remain within the survey’s margin of error, which ranges from 2.2 to 4.9 percentage points. This suggests that the actual adoption rates in these three countries could be broadly similar.

Microsoft’s Assessment
A separate assessment by Microsoft’s AI Economy Institute also indicates that AI adoption in Bangladesh remains limited.

Unlike the Gallup survey, which is based on public responses, the institute produces quarterly estimates of AI usage by analysing data from Microsoft’s products and adjusting the figures for population size and internet penetration.

Its latest report, published on 21 September, estimated that 8 per cent of Bangladeshis aged between 15 and 64 used generative AI during April-June this year.

The global adoption rate of generative AI stood at 18.8 per cent, with 127 of the 147 countries included in the assessment recording higher rates than Bangladesh.

Within South Asia, generative AI adoption reached 18.5 per cent in India, 14.6 per cent in Nepal and 11.9 per cent in Pakistan. Bangladesh’s rate was marginally higher than Sri Lanka’s 7.6 per cent and Afghanistan’s 6.3 per cent.

Although the Gallup survey and Microsoft’s assessment follow different methodologies and cover different age groups, both indicate that AI adoption in Bangladesh remains around the 10 per cent mark.

Digital Divide
Limited internet access remains one of the major barriers to wider engagement with AI, as access to the internet is a basic requirement for using most AI-powered services.

Data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics’ (BBS) ICT Access and Use Survey, conducted between July and September last year, show that just over 56 per cent of households had at least one internet user.

In other words, around four in every 10 households had no one using the internet. The proportion of households with at least one internet user was 64 per cent in urban areas, compared with 51.5 per cent in rural areas.

Digital literacy also remains a concern, even among those who have access to the internet. The BBS’s 2024-25 survey found that only 15 per cent of respondents knew how to transfer files. Searching for government job circulars emerged as the most common reason for using the internet.

The Gallup survey did not investigate the reasons behind the low level of AI adoption in Bangladesh. However, the country’s limited internet access and inadequate digital skills offer important context for understanding the findings.

With more than 40 per cent of households still having no internet user, widespread unfamiliarity with artificial intelligence is perhaps unsurprising. The figures point to the need to expand internet access and strengthen digital literacy if Bangladesh is to keep pace with the growing global use of AI.