The uneven transition: AI at work in Denmark 2026
AI has arrived in Danish workplaces, but unevenly.
In a new study conducted in collaboration with Connected Women in AI and Aetheon Consulting, Ipsos maps how the AI transition is actually unfolding across the Danish workforce - and the picture is more uneven than most organisations realise.
Almost half of Danish employees say their employer has made AI tools available. One in five uses AI daily. But behind those headline figures, a structural pattern emerges: half of employees have no clear expectations for how AI should be used, half report no follow-up on their skills, only one in four has been offered any training, and more than half are never invited into decisions about AI.
The single most important factor: a manager who asks
Where a manager actively encourages AI use, two in three employees use it every day. Where that encouragement is absent, three in five never use AI at all. It is the largest single effect in the data. The mechanism is the same for women and for men, but it is not distributed evenly across the workforce.
The gap is small among the young but wide among the experienced
Among younger workers, women and men are nearly equal in AI comfort and active learning. The gap opens with age and experience. Among the most experienced workers, 37% of women describe themselves as comfortable using AI at work, against 53% of men. Women between the age of 49 and 66 score lowest on every single measure in the study: tool use, training, expectations, manager support, and participation in AI decisions. Three in four are not invited to take part in AI decisions at their workplace.
What is invisible is hard to change
Much of this unevenness is invisible to the people it affects. Among experienced women, nearly half say they simply don't know how their workplace is handling AI. The people placed furthest outside the transition are also the ones who cannot see it clearly enough to judge it.
What employees say they need
What employees say they need is neither complicated nor expensive: time to learn, concrete examples relevant to their role, reliable access to tools, and clear expectations from management.
Download the full report below.
