OpenAI releases first-of-kind study revealing how people use ChatGPT

Despite fast adoption of huge language fashions like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, few complete research have delved into precisely how the know-how is being utilized in on a regular basis life — that’s, till now. 

On Tuesday, researchers, together with these from OpenAI, launched a first-of-its-kind study that examines who was utilizing ChatGPT and for what functions based mostly on inner messages despatched to ChatGPT on shopper plans.

Amongst the important thing findings from the National Bureau of Economic Research working paper was the surge in non-work associated messages, leaping to 73% in June 2025 from 53% a yr in the past.

In a publish on LinkedIn, OpenAI Chief Economist Aaron Chatterji stated that the shift was a sign that ChatGPT is turning into a part of many features of people’s lives. 

“We’re still learning how people use AI in the wild, but this trend gives us a glimpse into where the value is and how it’s shifting,” he added. 

The study, which has not been formally scrutinized by different researchers, or peer reviewed, was authored by OpenAI’s Economic Research crew and Harvard economist David Deming, and stated to have drawn on “a large-scale, privacy-preserving analysis of 1.5 million conversations.”

Here is a top level view of a few of the most notable revelations: 

While ChatGPT can theoretically be used for advanced work duties like coding, the study discovered that shopper utilization of the chatbot has been largely about “getting everyday tasks done,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post asserting the study.

Three-quarters of conversations with ChatGPT monitored by the researchers had been decided to have fallen into the three broad classes of “practical guidance, seeking information and writing.”

Practical steering was discovered to be the commonest use case, with such makes use of encompassing requests for tutoring and educating, how-to recommendation and inventive ideation. 

However, use instances various relying on whether or not the chatbot was getting used within the office or for private profit. For instance, writing actions had been discovered to be the commonest use case at work, accounting for 40% of work-related messages on common in June.

Meanwhile, fairly than simply utilizing ChatGPT to write down issues from scratch, about two-thirds of all writing messages requested the chatbot to carry out enhancing, critiquing and translating for present textual content. 

The study additionally checked out ChatGPT utilization patterns within the context of “Asking, Doing, and Expressing.”

As of July, about half of all messages fell into the “Asking” class, which researchers stated means that people worth ChatGPT most as an advisor fairly than just for job completion. 

However, for work-related messages, about 56% had been labeled as “Doing,” which suggests the chatbot was used to carry out sure job duties, akin to writing.

“Writing is a task that is common to nearly all white-collar jobs, and good written communication skills are among the top ‘soft’ skills demanded by employers,” the paper famous.

The affect that AI fashions can have on the office has been a scorching subject since ChatGPT was launched for customers in November 2022, with rising fears that the know-how will probably be used to interchange staff.

However, researchers argued their findings confirmed that, not less than within the case of shopper ChatGPT, it was largely used to assist enhance judgment and productiveness of staff, fairly than substitute all their duties, particularly in knowledge-intensive jobs. 

Just this week, Gemini took the top spot amongst free apps on Apple’s App Store, leapfrogging ChatGPT, following the August launch of its “Nano Banana” picture editor mannequin.