OpenAI Study Shows 70% of ChatGPT Use Is for Personal, Not Work Tasks — Global Adoption Surges

A new study from OpenAI has revealed that the vast majority of ChatGPT users are relying on the AI tool for personal purposes rather than office work. The report shows that about 70% of all interactions with ChatGPT are unrelated to work, underscoring how deeply the chatbot has become part of everyday life worldwide.

Published as a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper by OpenAI’s Economic Research team and Harvard economist David Deming, the study analyzed 1.5 million anonymized conversations. It found that users most frequently turn to ChatGPT for practical guidance, writing assistance, and quick information rather than programming or workplace-related projects.

By July 2025, ChatGPT had reached more than 700 million weekly active users exchanging about 2.5 billion messages daily, roughly 29,000 per second. Of these interactions, only 30% were tied to professional tasks, while the majority involved personal needs such as drafting messages, improving writing, and decision-making support. Writing remains the most common professional use case, accounting for 42% of work-related activity, particularly among managers and business professionals.

The research also shows that personal use overwhelmingly dominates three categories, practical guidance, writing, and information seeking, which together make up nearly 78% of all queries. Niche activities like coding (4.2%) and self-reflection (1.9%) were far less common. At the same time, adoption is expanding globally, with growth rates in low- and middle-income countries outpacing wealthier nations by more than four times. Female participation has also surged, with the share of users with traditionally feminine names rising from 37% in early 2024 to 52% by mid-2025.

OpenAI said these findings demonstrate how AI is evolving from a niche workplace tool into a mainstream resource for personal productivity and everyday decision-making. “This widening adoption underscores our belief that access to AI should be treated as a basic right — a technology that people can use to unlock their potential and shape their own future,” the company stated. The report comes just weeks after OpenAI launched GPT-5, its most advanced AI model to date, which it describes as “smarter, faster, and more useful,” already gaining traction among major organizations across sectors.

source: nairametrics