拥抱人工智能：意大利和美国家庭的比较

Embracing gen AI: a comparisonof Italian and US households by David Loschiavo, Olivier Armantier, Antonio DallaZuanna, Leonardo Gambacorta, Mirko Moscatelli andIlaria Supino Monetary and Economic Department January 2026 JEL classification: O33, D10, J24 Keywords: generative artificial intelligence, technologyadoption, cross-country comparison, sociodemographicfactors, trust in technology, cultural attitudes BISWorking Papers are written by members of the Monetary and EconomicDepartment of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by othereconomists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topicalinterest and are technical in character. The views expressed in this publication arethose of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the BIS or its membercentral banks. This publication is available on the BIS website (www.bis.org). Embracing GenAI: A comparison of Italian and US households∗ David Loschiavo1, Olivier Armantier2, Antonio Dalla Zuanna1, LeonardoGambacorta3, Mirko Moscatelli1, and Ilaria Supino1 1Bank of Italy 2Economic Science Institute - Chapman University3Bank for International Settlements and CEPR Abstract This paper explores the household adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) inthe United States and Italy, leveraging survey data to compare usage patterns, demographicinfluences, and employment sectoral composition effects.Our findings reveal higher adoptionrates in the US, driven by socio-demographic differences between the two countries. Despite theirlower usage of GenAI, Italians are more confident in its potential to improve their well-beingand financial situation. Both Italian and US users tend to trust GenAI tools less than human-operated services, but Italians report greater relative trust in government and institutions whenhandling personal data with GenAI tools. JEL Classification: O33, D10, J24. Keywords: Generative Artificial Intelligence, Technology adoption, Cross-country comparison,Socio-demographic factors, Trust in technology, Cultural attitudes. 1Introduction The development of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), particularly since the introductionof ChatGPT in late 2022, has marked a turning point in technology. GenAI can perform complextasks, from generating human-like text to assisting with creative, educational, and professionalactivities.GenAI’s ability to continuously learn, adapt, and generate content has contributed toits rapid diffusion that has outpaced previous waves of technology adoption, such as electricity, thecomputer, or the internet (Bank for International Settlements, 2024). ChatGPT alone, for instance,reached one million users in less than a week.Mirroring rapid adoption by users, firms have fastintegrated GenAI in their daily operations in all sectors of economic activity (Singla et al., 2024). Several studies have documented increases in productivity associated with the adoption ofGenAI (Brynjolfsson et al., 2023, Noy and Zhang, 2023, Peng et al., 2023, Cui et al., 2024, Dell’Acquaet al., 2025).Despite its transformative potential, however, the adoption of GenAI varies signifi-cantly across countries, reflecting differences in digital infrastructures, income levels, human capital,cultural attitudes, and technological readiness (Liu et al., 2025, Calvino and Fontanelli, 2023). Un-derstanding the factors that lead to the public’s adoption of GenAI is critical for policymakers,businesses, and researchers, as they can reveal the underlying drivers of technological diffusion, aswell as the barriers that might inhibit equitable access and utilization.Comparative studies thatuse surveys are especially valuable in this context, as they can highlight “directly” such differenceswithout making particular assumptions, focusing on how diverse social and economic conditions mayinfluence the integration of GenAI into everyday life. This paper is the first to compare GenAI adoption among households in two advancedeconomies, drawing on comparable survey data from the United States and Italy.The two coun-tries provide a compelling contrast: the U.S. stands as a global leader in AI innovation and rapidtechnological adoption, while Italy experiences a more gradual digital transformation We find that GenAI usage, whether one-off or more regular over the past year, is higherin the U.S. than in Italy. The difference is entirely driven by the heterogeneous socio-demographiccomposition. Looking into factors potentially explaining current and future use of GenAI tools, wefind that Italians, despite lower usage, express more optimistic expectations about GenAI’s impact ontheir well-being and wealth, and report greater trust in government and institutional data handling.These findings highlight the influence of cultural, economic, and demographic factors on GenAIadoption patterns. The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 2 describes the data sources and method- ology used in t