Microsoft AI Economy Institute has published a new report showing that global AI adoption reached 16.3% by the end of 2025, while simultaneously highlighting the growing gap between developed and developing countries and the silent growth of DeepSeek usage.
The UAE leads with 64% adoption among the working population, while the US fell to 24th place despite its leading position in AI development and infrastructure. Countries in the Global North have adopted AI almost twice as fast as developing nations, creating a 10.6% gap in adoption rates.
DeepSeek has made significant inroads in underserved markets, with 2–4 times higher usage in Africa, supported by partnerships with Huawei and a free open-source model. These findings indicate that accessibility, as much as capability, plays a key role in global AI adoption.
In Brief: Tech World Highlights
- Abu Dhabi’s TII released Falcon H1R 7B, a small hybrid reasoning model that outperforms competitors up to seven times larger in mathematics and programming, with double the inference speed.
- Microsoft renamed its Office 365 productivity suite to Microsoft 365 Copilot app, using the same branding as its AI assistant.
- According to Wall Street Journal, Anthropic is reportedly raising $10 billion at a valuation of $350 billion, doubling its value compared to the last $13 billion round in September.
- China, according to The Information, has requested tech companies to temporarily halt Nvidia H200 orders, as authorities consider a stronger focus on domestic AI chips.
- JPMorgan launched Proxy IQ, an internal AI platform replacing the shareholder voting system in the US within its $7 trillion asset management division.
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