AI statistics
Chatbot Statistics 2026
This page collects current figures on AI chatbots, from consumer tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini to the bots companies use for customer service. Each figure links to the survey, research paper or company release that published it. Most data cover 2025 and 2026, with a few earlier baselines for comparison.
By the Mojolin research desk · Updated November 2, 2026 · Next review by December 17, 2026
50 of 50 source quotes re-checked against the original pages on November 3, 2026
- Figures
- 50
- Primary sources
- 20
- Official or research
- 66%
- Charts
- 5
Key takeaways
- 49%49% of US adults said in February 2026 that they ever use AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot, up from 33% in 2024.Pew Research Center
- 700 millionChatGPT had more than 700 million weekly users by July 2025.National Bureau of Economic Research
- 38%38% of employed US adults use AI chatbots for tasks at work.Pew Research Center
- 7%Only 7% of customers used a chatbot or digital assistant in their most recent service interaction, though 49% said they would have been willing to.Gartner
- 27%Only 27% of customers would try a company's chatbot again after a negative experience.Gartner
- 24%Only 24% of service and support leaders could show positive financial returns across their AI use cases.Gartner
Research overview
What the numbers say
Chatbots have moved into the mainstream in about three years. Pew Research Center found that 49% of US adults used AI chatbots in early 2026, up from 33% in 2024, and 24% used them daily. ChatGPT leads by a wide margin: 44% of US adults use it, against 24% for Gemini and 17% for Copilot. OpenAI and NBER researchers counted more than 700 million weekly ChatGPT users sending over 2.5 billion messages a day by July 2025. Age is the sharpest divide, with 63% of adults under 50 using chatbots compared with far fewer people over 65.
Most chatbot use is personal rather than professional. More than 70% of ChatGPT messages were not related to work by mid 2025, and searching for information is the top use in Pew's survey at 42%. Smaller but notable shares use chatbots for medical advice (20%), emotional support (10%) and news (13%). Coding, often assumed to be a core use, made up only 4.2% of ChatGPT messages. Teens use chatbots widely too: 64% say they use them, mostly for information and schoolwork.
Work use is growing quickly. In late 2024, 55% of US workers said they rarely or never used chatbots at work, yet by early 2026, 38% of employed adults said they used them for work tasks. Writing is the leading work use of ChatGPT at 40% of work messages, and workers say chatbots help them work faster more often than they improve quality. As a news source chatbots remain small: 10% of people across the Reuters Institute's markets use them for news weekly, and only 20% trust their answers.
Customer service is where the gap between investment and adoption is widest. Gartner found AI spending by service leaders rose 38% while service budgets grew 2%, but only 24% of leaders could show positive financial returns. On the customer side, only 7% used a chatbot in their latest service interaction, only 27% would try one again after a bad experience, and 87% say access to a human is essential. Customers are three times more likely to use their own tools such as ChatGPT than a company's chatbot, which suggests companies will need to make their bots resolve issues, not just answer questions.
01
How many people use AI chatbots
Chart
Share of US adults who use AI chatbots, by age, 2026
Share of US adults who say they ever use AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. Survey conducted Feb. 17-23, 2026.
Source Pew Research Center, How Americans' opinions and use of AI differ by age
View data table
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| 18-29 | 66% |
| 30-49 | 61% |
| 50-64 | 42% |
| 65+ | 23% |
- 149%49%
49% of US adults said in February 2026 that they ever use AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot, up from 33% in 2024.
ResearchPew Research CenterAmericans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on ImpactJun 2026
- 224%24%
24% of US adults use AI chatbots at least once a day, including 16% who use them several times a day or more.
ResearchPew Research CenterHow Americans' opinions and use of AI differ by ageJun 2026
- 363%63%
63% of US adults under 50 use AI chatbots, compared with about four in ten adults ages 50 to 64.
ResearchPew Research CenterHow Americans' opinions and use of AI differ by ageJun 2026
- 46%6%
Only 6% of US adults ages 65 and older feel extremely or very confident using AI chatbots, against about three in ten adults under 30.
ResearchPew Research CenterHow Americans' opinions and use of AI differ by ageJun 2026
- 534%34%
Weekly use of standalone generative AI tools such as ChatGPT rose from 18% to 34% across six countries between 2024 and 2025.
ResearchReuters Institute for the Study of JournalismGenerative AI and News Report 2025Oct 2025
- 622%22%
22% of people across six countries used ChatGPT in the past week in 2025, making it the most used AI tool.
ResearchReuters Institute for the Study of JournalismGenerative AI and News Report 2025Oct 2025
- 747%47%
47% of people ages 18 to 24 used ChatGPT in the past week in 2025, compared with 9% of people 55 and older.
ResearchReuters Institute for the Study of JournalismGenerative AI and News Report 2025Oct 2025
What these figures suggest
About half of US adults now use AI chatbots, up from a third in 2024, and roughly a quarter use them every day. Use falls steeply with age: adults under 50 are far more likely to use chatbots and to feel confident with them. Surveys outside the US show the same pattern, with weekly use of generative AI nearly doubling in a year.
02
ChatGPT scale and what people ask it
Chart
Share of US adults who use each AI chatbot, 2026
Share of US adults who say they ever use each chatbot. Survey conducted Feb. 17-23, 2026.
Source Pew Research Center, Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact
View data table
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 44% |
| Gemini | 24% |
| Copilot | 17% |
| Meta AI | 14% |
| Grok | 8% |
| Claude | 6% |
| Character.ai | 3% |
- 844%44%
44% of US adults used ChatGPT in 2026, up from 34% a year earlier and more than double the 2023 share.
ResearchPew Research CenterAmericans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on ImpactJun 2026
- 9700 million700 million
ChatGPT had more than 700 million weekly users by July 2025.
ResearchNational Bureau of Economic ResearchHow People Use ChatGPT (Working Paper 34255, full text)Sep 2025
- 102.5 billion2.5 billion
ChatGPT users sent more than 2.5 billion messages per day in July 2025, about 29,000 messages every second.
ResearchNational Bureau of Economic ResearchHow People Use ChatGPT (Working Paper 34255, full text)Sep 2025
- 1170%70%
Non-work messages grew from 53% to more than 70% of all ChatGPT usage between 2024 and mid 2025.
ResearchNational Bureau of Economic ResearchHow People Use ChatGPT (Working Paper 34255)Sep 2025
- 1280%80%
Practical guidance, seeking information and writing together account for nearly 80% of ChatGPT conversations.
ResearchNational Bureau of Economic ResearchHow People Use ChatGPT (Working Paper 34255)Sep 2025
- 1349%49%
About 49% of ChatGPT messages ask for information or advice, 40% ask it to do a task, and 11% simply express something.
ResearchNational Bureau of Economic ResearchHow People Use ChatGPT (Working Paper 34255, full text)Sep 2025
- 144.2%4.2%
Only 4.2% of ChatGPT messages relate to computer programming.
ResearchNational Bureau of Economic ResearchHow People Use ChatGPT (Working Paper 34255, full text)Sep 2025
What these figures suggest
ChatGPT is the largest consumer chatbot by a wide margin, with more than 700 million weekly users by mid 2025 and 44% of US adults using it in 2026. Research by OpenAI and NBER economists found that most messages are not about work, and that practical guidance, information seeking and writing make up the bulk of use. Coding and companionship are small shares of total traffic.
03
What people use chatbots for
Chart
What US adults use AI chatbots for, 2026
Share of all US adults who say they ever use AI chatbots for each purpose; the work figure is among employed adults.
Source Pew Research Center, Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact
View data table
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Search for information | 42% |
| Tasks at work (employed adults) | 38% |
| Fun or entertainment | 25% |
| Create or edit images or videos | 24% |
| Medical advice | 20% |
| Diet and fitness information | 20% |
| News | 13% |
| Emotional support or advice | 10% |
| Companionship | 4% |
- 1542%42%
42% of US adults use AI chatbots to search for information, the most common use in Pew's 2026 survey.
ResearchPew Research CenterAmericans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on ImpactJun 2026
- 1620%20%
20% of US adults use AI chatbots to get medical advice, and another 20% use them for diet and fitness information.
ResearchPew Research CenterAmericans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on ImpactJun 2026
- 1710%10%
10% of US adults use AI chatbots for emotional support or advice, and 4% use them for companionship.
ResearchPew Research CenterAmericans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on ImpactJun 2026
- 1830%30%
30% of US adults say using AI chatbots helps their productivity, while 5% say it hurts.
ResearchPew Research CenterAmericans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on ImpactJun 2026
- 1964%64%
64% of US teens ages 13 to 17 say they use AI chatbots, while only about half of parents think their teen does.
ResearchPew Research CenterHow Teens Use and View AIFeb 2026
- 2054%54%
54% of US teens have used chatbots to get help with schoolwork, and 57% to search for information.
ResearchPew Research CenterHow Teens Use and View AIFeb 2026
- 2112%12%
12% of US teens have used AI chatbots for emotional support or advice, and 16% for casual conversation.
ResearchPew Research CenterHow Teens Use and View AIFeb 2026
What these figures suggest
Looking things up is the most common use of chatbots, followed by work tasks, entertainment and image creation. A fifth of US adults have asked a chatbot for medical advice and one in ten for emotional support. Teens use chatbots more than their parents think, mostly for information and schoolwork.
04
Chatbots at work
Chart
How US workers use AI chatbots for work, 2024
Among US workers who have used AI chatbots for work. Survey conducted in October 2024.
Source Pew Research Center, U.S. Workers Are More Worried Than Hopeful About Future AI Use in the Workplace
View data table
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Research | 57% |
| Editing written content | 52% |
| Drafting written content | 47% |
- 2238%38%
38% of employed US adults use AI chatbots for tasks at work.
ResearchPew Research CenterAmericans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on ImpactJun 2026
- 2328%28%
28% of employed US adults said in 2025 they had used ChatGPT for work, up 20 percentage points in two years.
ResearchPew Research Center34% of U.S. adults have used ChatGPT, about double the share in 2023Jun 2025
- 2455%55%
55% of US workers said in late 2024 that they rarely or never use AI chatbots at work.
ResearchPew Research CenterU.S. Workers Are More Worried Than Hopeful About Future AI Use in the WorkplaceFeb 2025
- 2557%57%
57% of US workers who have used AI chatbots for work have used them for research, 52% for editing and 47% for drafting.
ResearchPew Research CenterU.S. Workers Are More Worried Than Hopeful About Future AI Use in the WorkplaceFeb 2025
- 2644%44%
44% of workers ages 18 to 49 who use chatbots for work find them highly helpful for working faster, compared with 29% of workers 50 and older.
ResearchPew Research CenterU.S. Workers Are More Worried Than Hopeful About Future AI Use in the WorkplaceFeb 2025
- 2740%40%
Writing accounted for 40% of work-related ChatGPT messages in June 2025, the most common work use.
ResearchNational Bureau of Economic ResearchHow People Use ChatGPT (Working Paper 34255, full text)Sep 2025
What these figures suggest
Workplace chatbot use has grown fast. In late 2024 most US workers rarely or never used chatbots at work, but by early 2026, 38% of employed adults used them for work tasks. Workers mostly use them for research and writing, and say chatbots help them work faster more often than they improve quality.
05
Chatbots as a news source
- 2810%10%
10% of people across markets surveyed by the Reuters Institute used AI chatbots for news each week in 2026, up from 7% in 2025.
ResearchReuters Institute for the Study of JournalismDigital News Report 2026: Executive SummaryJun 2026
- 2916%16%
16% of people under 35 use AI chatbots for news each week.
ResearchReuters Institute for the Study of JournalismDigital News Report 2026: Executive SummaryJun 2026
- 3020%20%
Only 20% of people trust answers from AI chatbots, compared with 37% who trust news overall.
ResearchReuters Institute for the Study of JournalismDigital News Report 2026: Executive SummaryJun 2026
- 3142%42%
42% of people who use AI chatbots for news say they always or often click through to the original news source.
ResearchReuters Institute for the Study of JournalismDigital News Report 2026: Executive SummaryJun 2026
- 3252%52%
52% of people ages 18 to 24 say social media, video networks and AI chatbots are their main way of getting news.
ResearchReuters Institute for the Study of JournalismDigital News Report 2026: Executive SummaryJun 2026
- 3313%13%
13% of US adults say they use AI chatbots to get news.
ResearchPew Research CenterAmericans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on ImpactJun 2026
What these figures suggest
Chatbots are a small but growing source of news. One in ten people across the Reuters Institute's markets use them for news each week, more among younger audiences. Trust in chatbot answers is well below trust in news overall, and many users do not click through to the original sources.
06
Customer service chatbots: what customers do and want
Chart
Consumers who prefer phone for customer service, by generation
Survey of 3,000 consumers in the US, UK and Germany, published June 2026.
Source Five9, New Five9 Research: AI Adoption in CX Hits 92%, But Consumer Trust Still Depends on Human Support
View data table
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Gen Z | 23% |
| Gen X | 33% |
| Baby Boomers | 47% |
| Silent Generation | 66% |
- 347%7%
Only 7% of customers used a chatbot or digital assistant in their most recent service interaction, though 49% said they would have been willing to.
IndustryGartnerGartner Survey Finds Only 27% of Customers Would Try a Chatbot Again After a Negative ExperienceSep 2026
- 3527%27%
Only 27% of customers would try a company's chatbot again after a negative experience.
IndustryGartnerGartner Survey Finds Only 27% of Customers Would Try a Chatbot Again After a Negative ExperienceSep 2026
- 3687%87%
87% of customers say access to a human agent is essential when companies use generative AI in customer service.
IndustryGartnerGartner Survey Finds Only 27% of Customers Would Try a Chatbot Again After a Negative ExperienceSep 2026
- 373x3x
Customers are about three times more likely to use third-party generative AI tools than company-provided chatbots to resolve service issues.
IndustryGartnerGartner Survey Finds Customers Are 3x More Likely to Use Third-Party GenAI Than Company-Provided Chatbots for Customer ServiceJul 2026
- 3864%64%
64% of customers would prefer that companies did not use AI in customer service, according to a December 2023 Gartner survey.
IndustryGartnerGartner Survey Finds 64% of Customers Would Prefer That Companies Didn't Use AI For Customer ServiceJul 2024
- 3980%80%
80% of consumers in the US, UK and Germany are willing to use AI-powered customer service, but two thirds still prefer speaking with a human.
IndustryFive9New Five9 Research: AI Adoption in CX Hits 92%, But Consumer Trust Still Depends on Human SupportJun 2026
- 4071%71%
71% of consumers say it is very or extremely important to know when they are talking to an AI agent.
IndustryFive9New Five9 Research: AI Adoption in CX Hits 92%, But Consumer Trust Still Depends on Human SupportJun 2026
- 4183%83%
83% of consumers say they have to repeat themselves at least sometimes after being transferred from AI to a human.
IndustryFive9New Five9 Research: AI Adoption in CX Hits 92%, But Consumer Trust Still Depends on Human SupportJun 2026
- 42One in fiveOne in five
Nearly one in five consumers who used AI for customer service saw no benefit, a failure rate almost four times higher than AI use in general.
IndustryQualtricsAI-Powered Customer Service Fails at Four Times the Rate of Other TasksOct 2025
What these figures suggest
Customers say they are open to service chatbots, but few use them and many give up after one bad experience. Customers are three times more likely to turn to tools like ChatGPT than to a company's own chatbot. Most want a clear route to a human and want to know when they are talking to AI.
07
Business adoption and results
- 4385%85%
85% of customer service leaders planned to explore or pilot customer-facing conversational generative AI in 2025.
IndustryGartnerGartner Survey Reveals 85% of Customer Service Leaders Will Explore or Pilot Customer-Facing Conversational GenAI in 2025Dec 2024
- 4438%38%
AI spending by customer service leaders rose 38% in 2026, while overall service and support budgets grew just 2%.
IndustryGartnerGartner Survey Finds AI Spending by Customer Service Leaders Has Surged by 38%Aug 2026
- 4524%24%
Only 24% of service and support leaders could show positive financial returns across their AI use cases.
IndustryGartnerGartner Survey Finds Customers Are 3x More Likely to Use Third-Party GenAI Than Company-Provided Chatbots for Customer ServiceJul 2026
- 4680%80%
Gartner predicts that by 2029 agentic AI will resolve 80% of common customer service issues without human help, cutting operating costs by 30%.
IndustryGartnerGartner Predicts Agentic AI Will Autonomously Resolve 80% of Common Customer Service Issues Without Human Intervention by 2029Mar 2025
- 4710%10%
Only 10% of support teams say they have reached mature AI deployment, with AI fully integrated and working at scale.
IndustryIntercom2026 Customer Service Transformation ReportDec 2025
- 4830%30%
Service teams estimate that AI handles 30% of customer service cases today and expect that to reach half by 2027.
IndustrySalesforceSalesforce 2025 State of Service Report2025
- 492.3 million2.3 million
Klarna's AI assistant held 2.3 million conversations in its first month, two thirds of the company's customer service chats.
IndustryKlarnaKlarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its first monthFeb 2024
- 502 minutes2 minutes
Klarna customers resolved issues with its AI assistant in under 2 minutes, compared with 11 minutes before.
IndustryKlarnaKlarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its first monthFeb 2024
What these figures suggest
Service leaders are spending heavily on chatbots and AI agents, and AI spending is rising far faster than overall service budgets. Results lag the investment: only about a quarter of leaders can show positive financial returns, and few teams have reached mature deployment. Klarna's early figures show what a well-scoped assistant can handle.
About these figures
Figures come from Pew Research Center surveys, the Reuters Institute's international audience surveys, an NBER working paper based on OpenAI usage data, Gartner press releases and reports published by companies that ran their own surveys (Five9, Qualtrics, Intercom, Salesforce) or reported their own results (Klarna). Every quote was checked against the publisher's page. Surveys differ in country coverage, age range and question wording (for example, Pew changed its chatbot question between 2024 and 2026), and vendor surveys may favor findings that support their products, so compare direction and size rather than exact levels across sources.
Every figure was taken from the publisher's own page, together with the sentence it appears in, and that sentence is re-checked against the source before each update. Where a survey covers a specific group, the figure says so. Read the methodology. Spotted a problem? Email editorial@mojolin.com.
Frequently asked questions
+How many people use AI chatbots?
Pew Research Center found that 49% of US adults used AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot in February 2026, up from 33% in 2024. About 24% of US adults use them at least once a day.
+How many people use ChatGPT?
ChatGPT had more than 700 million weekly users by July 2025, sending over 2.5 billion messages a day, according to an NBER working paper. In the US, 44% of adults said in 2026 that they use ChatGPT, more than any other chatbot.
+What do people use AI chatbots for?
Searching for information is the most common use, reported by 42% of US adults. Other uses include work tasks (38% of employed adults), entertainment (25%), image or video creation (24%), medical advice (20%), news (13%) and emotional support (10%).
+Do customers like customer service chatbots?
Many are wary. Gartner found that only 7% of customers used a chatbot in their latest service interaction, only 27% would try one again after a negative experience, and 87% say access to a human agent is essential when companies use generative AI.
+Are companies getting returns from customer service AI?
Not yet for most. Gartner reported that AI spending by customer service leaders rose 38% in 2026, but only 24% of service and support leaders could show positive financial returns across their AI use cases.
+Do people trust AI chatbots for news?
Trust is low. The Reuters Institute's 2026 Digital News Report found that 20% of people trust answers from AI chatbots, compared with 37% who trust news overall, and 10% use chatbots for news each week.
Sources
20 primary sources, by publisher
- 01Industry Five9. New Five9 Research: AI Adoption in CX Hits 92%, But Consumer Trust Still Depends on Human Support (Jun 2026)
- 02Industry Gartner. Gartner Predicts Agentic AI Will Autonomously Resolve 80% of Common Customer Service Issues Without Human Intervention by 2029 (Mar 2025)
- 03Industry Gartner. Gartner Survey Finds 64% of Customers Would Prefer That Companies Didn't Use AI For Customer Service (Jul 2024)
- 04Industry Gartner. Gartner Survey Finds AI Spending by Customer Service Leaders Has Surged by 38% (Aug 2026)
- 05Industry Gartner. Gartner Survey Finds Customers Are 3x More Likely to Use Third-Party GenAI Than Company-Provided Chatbots for Customer Service (Jul 2026)
- 06Industry Gartner. Gartner Survey Finds Only 27% of Customers Would Try a Chatbot Again After a Negative Experience (Sep 2026)
- 07Industry Gartner. Gartner Survey Reveals 85% of Customer Service Leaders Will Explore or Pilot Customer-Facing Conversational GenAI in 2025 (Dec 2024)
- 08Industry Intercom. 2026 Customer Service Transformation Report (Dec 2025)
- 09Industry Klarna. Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its first month (Feb 2024)
- 10Research National Bureau of Economic Research. How People Use ChatGPT (Working Paper 34255, full text) (Sep 2025)
- 11Research National Bureau of Economic Research. How People Use ChatGPT (Working Paper 34255) (Sep 2025)
- 12Research Pew Research Center. 34% of U.S. adults have used ChatGPT, about double the share in 2023 (Jun 2025)
- 13Research Pew Research Center. Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact (Jun 2026)
- 14Research Pew Research Center. How Americans' opinions and use of AI differ by age (Jun 2026)
- 15Research Pew Research Center. How Teens Use and View AI (Feb 2026)
- 16Research Pew Research Center. U.S. Workers Are More Worried Than Hopeful About Future AI Use in the Workplace (Feb 2025)
- 17Industry Qualtrics. AI-Powered Customer Service Fails at Four Times the Rate of Other Tasks (Oct 2025)
- 18Research Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Digital News Report 2026: Executive Summary (Jun 2026)
- 19Research Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Generative AI and News Report 2025 (Oct 2025)
- 20Industry Salesforce. Salesforce 2025 State of Service Report (2025)