A Denver Gazette editorial published July 13 argues that Colorado’s above-average use of AI tools strengthens the case for accepting new data-center development, framing the facilities as infrastructure already underpinning everyday digital services.
The opinion piece draws on Microsoft’s May 2026 “AI Diffusion in the United States” report, which estimated that 32.3% of Colorado’s working-age population used major AI services during the first quarter of 2026. That put Colorado 15th among states, above the national 31.3% estimate.
Microsoft’s figures are based on anonymized usage data and modeling for services including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude and Microsoft Copilot. They are estimates of active AI-tool use, not a count of residents, businesses, or AI workloads hosted inside Colorado.
The Gazette editorial highlights a familiar pattern in the data: AI use was concentrated in metro areas, university communities, and knowledge-economy regions.
Boulder County led Colorado with a 43.7% estimated AI user share, according to Microsoft. Broomfield and Larimer counties followed at 38.8% and 35.9%, while Douglas, Denver, Gunnison, and El Paso counties were all above 34%. At the other end, Custer and Jackson counties were below 10%.
Microsoft found that Colorado’s metropolitan counties averaged a 33.7% AI user share, compared with 22.6% for micropolitan counties and 17.1% for rural counties. The company also reported a divide in attitudes: 53% of urban respondents said AI was likely to act in the public interest, versus 38% of rural respondents.
That is a policy argument rather than a finding of Microsoft’s report. The adoption study measures where people use AI tools; it does not determine where data centers should be built, how much electricity or water they should consume, or whether local tax and employment benefits outweigh infrastructure costs.
For Windows users and IT administrators, the immediate relevance is less about a particular Colorado project than about the continued normalization of cloud-backed AI. Copilot, Azure-hosted services, Microsoft 365 features, and third-party AI integrations all depend on large-scale compute capacity, even when the interface is a local Windows desktop or smartphone.
Colorado’s AI-use numbers offer evidence of demand, but they do not settle the local questions around siting, power procurement, water use, ratepayer exposure, or community oversight that accompany new data-center proposals.
The opinion piece draws on Microsoft’s May 2026 “AI Diffusion in the United States” report, which estimated that 32.3% of Colorado’s working-age population used major AI services during the first quarter of 2026. That put Colorado 15th among states, above the national 31.3% estimate.
Microsoft’s figures are based on anonymized usage data and modeling for services including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude and Microsoft Copilot. They are estimates of active AI-tool use, not a count of residents, businesses, or AI workloads hosted inside Colorado.
A sharp geographic split
The Gazette editorial highlights a familiar pattern in the data: AI use was concentrated in metro areas, university communities, and knowledge-economy regions.Boulder County led Colorado with a 43.7% estimated AI user share, according to Microsoft. Broomfield and Larimer counties followed at 38.8% and 35.9%, while Douglas, Denver, Gunnison, and El Paso counties were all above 34%. At the other end, Custer and Jackson counties were below 10%.
Microsoft found that Colorado’s metropolitan counties averaged a 33.7% AI user share, compared with 22.6% for micropolitan counties and 17.1% for rural counties. The company also reported a divide in attitudes: 53% of urban respondents said AI was likely to act in the public interest, versus 38% of rural respondents.
Data-center argument remains an editorial position
The editorial’s central claim is that widespread AI use makes data centers an unavoidable and necessary local utility investment. It argues that residents already depend on the infrastructure through phones, cloud services, and AI assistants, whether or not they connect that use with server campuses.That is a policy argument rather than a finding of Microsoft’s report. The adoption study measures where people use AI tools; it does not determine where data centers should be built, how much electricity or water they should consume, or whether local tax and employment benefits outweigh infrastructure costs.
For Windows users and IT administrators, the immediate relevance is less about a particular Colorado project than about the continued normalization of cloud-backed AI. Copilot, Azure-hosted services, Microsoft 365 features, and third-party AI integrations all depend on large-scale compute capacity, even when the interface is a local Windows desktop or smartphone.
Colorado’s AI-use numbers offer evidence of demand, but they do not settle the local questions around siting, power procurement, water use, ratepayer exposure, or community oversight that accompany new data-center proposals.
References
- Primary source: Denver Gazette
Published: 2026-07-13T11:00:00+00:00
EDITORIAL: Coloradans embrace AI, need data centers - Denver Gazette
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