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Who Adopts AI? Evidence on Firms, Technologies and Workers

Author

Listed:
  • Pulito, Giuseppe

    (ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin)

  • Pytlikova, Mariola

    (CERGE-EI Prague)

  • Schroeder, Sarah

    (Aarhus University and Ratio Institute)

  • Lodefalk, Magnus

    (Orebro University, Ratio Institute, GLO)

Abstract

Using surveys of Danish firms and individuals linked to employer-employee administrative data, we analyze AI adoption across technologies, business functions, and workers. We show that AI adoption is driven primarily by firm capacities rather than performance. Adoption is strongly associated with firm size, digital infrastructure, and workforce composition, particularly education and STEM intensity, while productivity and capital intensity explain little of the variation. Conditional on AI adoption, larger and more digitally mature firms deploy advanced technologies more broadly. Moreover, AI technologies diffuse across multiple business functions while other advanced technologies remain function-specific. Individual-level evidence mirrors these patterns and points towards workforce readiness as a key determinant of AI adoption. Finally, commonly used occupational AI exposure measures vary substantially in their ability to predict actual adoption, with benchmark-based measures outperforming patent-based and LLM-focused alternatives. These findings show that treating AI as a monolithic category obscures economically meaningful variation in who adopts, what they deploy, and how well existing measures capture it.

Suggested Citation

  • Pulito, Giuseppe & Pytlikova, Mariola & Schroeder, Sarah & Lodefalk, Magnus, 2026. "Who Adopts AI? Evidence on Firms, Technologies and Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 18515, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18515
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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