Generative AI has gone from boardroom talking point to everyday habit at an astonishing speed.
OpenAI’s own numbers, flagged by ING, show ChatGPT now has around 700 million weekly users, roughly one in ten people on the planet. What began as an office productivity aid is now just as likely to be tapped for dinner recipes or travel tips.
In mid-2024, nearly half of all messages were work-related; today, only 27% are, with the rest drifting into personal use.
How people use it matters. Around a third of prompts fall into the “doing” camp, writing, coding, and analysing data, which directly automates tasks.
More than half are “asking” messages, seeking information to support decisions. The remainder are more expressive or conversational, contributing little to measurable productivity.
ING argues this split highlights ChatGPT’s dual role as both co-worker and co-pilot: sometimes it does the job for you, sometimes it just helps you think it through.
The breakdown by demographics is more revealing. Early adoption skewed heavily male, but usage is now roughly balanced between men and women.
Still, the pattern differs: women tend to use AI for writing and practical guidance, men lean towards technical queries and multimedia. Age, income and education also matter.
Professionals in high-paid roles are using ChatGPT more intensively for work tasks, while younger and less experienced workers appear to be deriving fewer productivity gains.