New analysis from OpenAI and Harvard finds that “Searching for Data” messages now account for twenty-four% of ChatGPT conversations, up from 14% a 12 months earlier.
That is an NBER working paper (not peer-reviewed), based mostly on client ChatGPT plans solely, and the research used privacy-preserving strategies the place no human learn consumer messages.
The working paper analyzes a consultant pattern of about 1.1 million conversations from Might 2024 by means of June 2025.
By July, ChatGPT reached greater than 700 million weekly energetic customers, sending roughly 2.5 billion messages per day, or about 18 billion per week.
What Folks Use ChatGPT For
The three dominant subjects are Sensible Steerage, Searching for Data, and Writing, which collectively account for about 77% of utilization.
Sensible Steerage stays round 29%. Writing declined from 36% to 24% over the previous 12 months. Searching for Data grew from 14% to 24%.
The authors write that Searching for Data “seems to be a really shut substitute for net search.”
Asking vs. Doing
The paper classifies intent as Asking, Doing, or Expressing.
About 49% of messages are Asking, 40% are Doing, and 11% are Expressing.
Asking messages “are constantly rated as having larger high quality” than the opposite classes, based mostly on an automatic classifier and consumer suggestions.
Work vs. Private Use
Non-work utilization rose from 53% in June 2024 to 73% in June 2025.
At work, Writing is the highest use case, representing about 40% of work-related messages. Training is a significant use: 10% of all messages contain tutoring or instructing.
Coding And Companionship
Solely 4.2% of messages are about pc programming, and 1.9% concern relationships or private reflection.
Who’s Utilizing It
The research paperwork fast international adoption.
Early gender gaps have narrowed, with the share of customers having usually female names rising from 37% in January 2024 to 52% in July 2025.
Progress within the lowest-income nations has been greater than 4 occasions that of the highest-income nations.
Why This Issues
If 1 / 4 of conversations are information-seeking, some queries that might have gone to go looking might go towards conversational instruments.
Contemplate responding to this shift with content material that solutions questions, whereas including experience {that a} chatbot can’t replicate. Writing and modifying account for a big share of work-related use, which aligns with how groups are already folding AI into content material workflows.
Wanting Forward
ChatGPT is changing into a significant vacation spot for locating info on-line.
Along with the shift towards discovering data, it’s value highlighting that 70% of ChatGPT use is private, not skilled. This implies client habits are altering broadly.
As this expertise grows, it’ll be very important to trace how your viewers makes use of AI instruments and alter your content material technique to fulfill them the place they’re.
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