NEW YORK and TEL AVIV, Israel, April 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Israel is the most AI-intense country in the world, according to a new joint study released today by 5WPR, one of the largest independently owned public relations and digital marketing firms in the United States, and Louder, a creative and content studio based in Israel. The study, “Claude in Israel: A Study on the Startup Nation,” draws on data from Anthropic’s Economic Index and finds that Israel ranks first on the Anthropic AI Usage Index (AUI) with a score of 4.9x — meaning Israelis use Claude nearly five times more intensely than their share of the global working-age population would predict. The full study is available here in English and Hebrew: https://www.5wpr.com/research/claude-in-israel-startup-nation-study/.
Although Israel’s small population means it represents only about 0.5% of total global Claude volume, that share is drawn from just 0.11% of the world’s working-age adults. In practical terms, Israeli users generate roughly one in every 185 Claude conversations on earth — from a country that is only one in every 900 working-age adults. The ratio, not the absolute volume, is the story.
The top seven countries by AUI (Anthropic sample, November 13–20, 2025, 116 countries):
- Israel — 4.90x (world #1)
- Singapore — 4.19x
- United States — 3.69x
- Australia — 3.27x
- Canada — 3.15x
- South Korea — 3.12x
- New Zealand — 3.11x
Israel’s lead over Singapore is 17%. Its lead over the United States is 33%. The gap between the top of the index and the bottom — Tanzania (0.03x) and Angola (0.05x) — is roughly 150x.
Workforce data from inside Israel reinforces the ranking: A November 2025 survey by the Israel Innovation Authority and the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute of more than 500 Israeli tech workers found that 95% use AI tools regularly and 78% use them daily. Among workers aged 25–34, 86% report daily AI use. Approximately 70% of surveyed employees report substantial improvement in output quality, and 40% report that AI tools cut their work time by more than 50%. For comparison, Microsoft and LinkedIn’s May 2025 global Work Trend Index put worldwide high-tech AI use at 75% — Israel’s tech workforce is running 20 points above the global baseline.
“The AI survey reveals the depth of the transformation underway in Israeli high-tech. Almost all workers in the sector already use these tools, and this is not a future projection but a present reality reshaping high-tech employment.” — Dror Bin, CEO, Israel Innovation Authority
Triangulating the same picture, Microsoft’s AI Diffusion Report 2025 identifies Israel as one of only seven countries in the world with a locally developed model among the top 200 AI models globally — alongside the U.S., China, France, South Korea, the U.K., and Canada. Israel ranks 15th on Microsoft’s global Adoption Index with 33.9% of adults using AI, above the U.S. (26.3%) and China (15.4%).
“Israel is among the world’s leading countries in infrastructure, models, and implementation. Israeli high-tech continues to be the engine of growth for the economy, and the work being done here in artificial intelligence demonstrates our strategic global role.” — Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft; Managing Director, Microsoft Israel R&D Center
The study links Israel’s ranking to the structural conditions that have defined the Startup Nation for three decades: more than 6,600 active Israeli startups (14x the European per-capita concentration), the world’s highest R&D-to-GDP ratio, and universal English fluency across the technology workforce. In 2025, Israeli startups raised $15.6 billion and generated $74 billion in exits. 342 Israeli generative AI startups have collectively raised over $20 billion, and cybersecurity and GenAI together accounted for roughly 70% of all Israeli tech capital raised last year. Recent headline exits include Google’s acquisition of Wiz, Palo Alto Networks’ acquisition of CyberArk, and Nvidia’s acquisitions of Run:ai and Illumex. In January 2026, Cyera raised $400 million at a $9 billion valuation — tripling its value in a year.
“Israel is at the forefront of AI adoption alongside superpowers like the U.S. and China, and that’s a huge advantage.” — Alon Haimovich, General Manager, Microsoft Israel
“Israel builds more startups per capita than any country on earth. It now also uses AI more intensely than any country on earth. Those two facts are not independent — they are the same fact, measured twice.” — Ronn Torossian, Founder and Chairman, 5WPR
The full 13-page study includes the complete 116-country AUI leaderboard, sector-by-sector analysis of the Israeli AI ecosystem, profiles of ten category-defining Israeli AI brands, additional data from Anthropic’s March 24, 2026 Economic Index update, and five practical takeaways for founders. The study is available in English and Hebrew.
