this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2026
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I'd like to see the data for that 49% of adults. It feels high and I wouldn't put it past some companies to report mandatory AI bots as increased use by customers. I know Amazon requires it to do returns now, and I've had more than one site bring up the chat bot if you wanted access to content.
it's here
it's "% of U.S. adults who say they ever use AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot". They didn't ask about regular use, it's the total number of people who have ever used a chatbot in any capacity. So with that framing 49% doesn't surprise me. Of course the percentage of people who have ever used a chatbot is going to go up over time.
Yes, and crucially, it never goes down.
It's like asking: "do you use a motor vehicle?" And then counting everyone who has ever been in a car, a truck, a bus, or potentially even a train as a yes. It plainly conflates active users with exploratory or incidental users.
The only reason to do such things is to inflate numbers because being honest about them makes it look bad.
Yup. I used Gemini like a year before it took off back when Google first sent out testing invites, because I wanted to see what it could do. That's very different from active use, but this survey would count me as a regular user.
Although since Google shows me an AI summary whenever I search now, maybe I count as an active one anyways... along with everyone else who uses Google.
Unfortunately A LOT of less tech-savvy people absolutely love AI chatbots. All of my girlfriend's family regularly ask ChatGPT random shit multiple times a day. Many of my friends have taken to using ChatGPT for every single online enquiry. It's a worrying world.
It sort of makes sense, though. Google Search has been a hot pile of garbage for years. Researching something simple used to be quick and easy, but now you have to sift through endless SEO trash websites to find half an answer (or use a better search engine).
People go for the path of least resistance.
my bro who ins tech, been laid off since 2023, going through a " late 30s midlife crisis) uses this all the time.
Dumb but efficient people are gonna take over the world now that they have instant access to intelligence. They were already in charge but it's gonna get boring
It isn't intelligence, though.
Number seems low to me....
People are using AI all the time without knowing it. Almost everyone is using the AI summary feature on every google search (i'm sure those summaries arent generated every time, so does it count as AI use if it's a re-used result?). There's probably a bunch of AI bullshit enabled on your phone you dont know about.
My guess would be closer to 90%... only a small minority of people are truly tech savvy enough to know what's going on under the hood, and truly dedicated 100% anti-AI to avoid using those sites/features.
Why? I'm not sure what you mean. If you re-run your search with the same terms, you get a different response.
I rarely use google, and i never tried redoing a search to see if the summary changes... i just assumed the summary was cached and re-used if you or someone else makes a similar search...
thats wild if they're burning up gpu time on EVERY query
We are fucked