{
  "id": "F-15",
  "url": "https://evy.so/facts/what-workers-use-ai-for/",
  "chapter": "Who Uses AI at Work",
  "question": "What do people use AI for at work?",
  "answer": "Mostly for writing and finding information: about half of AI-using workers use it for writing or editing, and about half for research or search. Coding is a minority use outside tech, named by 13 to 27 percent of AI users in surveys.",
  "range": {
    "low": 40,
    "high": 52,
    "unit": "% of AI-using workers who use it for writing or editing, or share of work ChatGPT messages that are writing",
    "display": "40–52% of AI users use it for writing or editing, the most common use"
  },
  "confidence": "high",
  "confidence_reason": "Three US surveys and two usage-log studies, using different methods, agree that writing and finding information are the top work uses of general AI chatbots. Claude's logs lean toward coding, which reflects its user base and is shown separately.",
  "last_checked": "2026-10-14",
  "how_to_read": "Surveys ask workers what they use AI for, and the answers depend on the list offered and on whether the question asks about any use or the most helpful use. Usage logs classify real conversations, but each covers one product, counts messages instead of people, mixes work and personal use, and comes from the vendor. On general chatbots both kinds agree: writing and finding information lead. About two thirds of ChatGPT writing requests ask it to change text the user wrote.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "creator": "Gallup",
      "title": "Organizational AI Adoption Jumps Six Points (Q2 2026 workforce study)",
      "year": 2026,
      "sample": "US employees who use AI, from 22,573 surveyed in May 2026",
      "method": "Self-reported uses, several answers allowed",
      "figure": "Writing and editing 51%, search or research 49%, general help or problem-solving 39%, data analysis 18%, coding 16%",
      "url": "https://www.gallup.com/workplace/712736/organizational-adoption-jumps-six-points.aspx",
      "quote": "the most common uses of AI are writing and editing (51%), search or research (49%)"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Pew Research Center",
      "title": "U.S. Workers Are More Worried Than Hopeful About Future AI Use in the Workplace",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "Workers who have used AI chatbots at work, from 5,273 employed US adults, October 2024",
      "method": "Self-reported uses ever, several answers allowed",
      "figure": "Research or finding information 57%, editing written content 52%, drafting 47%, summarizing 40%, analyzing data or writing code 27%",
      "url": "https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2025/02/25/workers-experience-with-ai-chatbots-in-their-jobs/",
      "quote": "Most common uses for AI chatbots at work are doing research and editing written content"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Alexander Bick, Adam Blandin and David Deming",
      "title": "The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI (NBER Working Paper 32966)",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "4,698 employed generative AI users, August and November 2024",
      "method": "Users ranked the tasks AI helped with most last week (top two)",
      "figure": "Writing 39.5%, administrative tasks 25.6%, translating or summarizing 22.7%, searching for facts 18.0%, coding 12.9%",
      "url": "https://www.nber.org/papers/w32966",
      "quote": "The highest ranked tasks at work were writing (39.5 percent), administrative tasks"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Aaron Chatterji, David Deming and colleagues (OpenAI, Duke, Harvard)",
      "title": "How People Use ChatGPT (NBER Working Paper 34255)",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "Random samples of consumer ChatGPT messages, May 2024 to June 2025; business plans excluded",
      "method": "Automated classification of messages. Counts messages, not people. Authors include OpenAI staff.",
      "figure": "Writing is 40% of work-related messages; 27% of all consumer messages were work-related in June 2025; programming is 4.2% of all messages",
      "url": "https://www.nber.org/papers/w34255",
      "quote": "Writing is the most common use case at work, accounting for 40% of work-related messages"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Kiran Tomlinson, Sonia Jaffe, Will Wang, Scott Counts and Siddharth Suri (Microsoft Research)",
      "title": "Working with AI: Measuring the Applicability of Generative AI to Occupations",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "About 200,000 anonymized US Bing Copilot conversations, January to September 2024",
      "method": "Conversations matched to work activities by an AI classifier. Authors are Microsoft employees.",
      "figure": "Most common user goals: learning, communicating, explaining and writing",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07935",
      "quote": "the most common and successful AI-assisted work activities involve information work"
    }
  ],
  "related_findings": [
    {
      "question": "Why do some studies say a third of AI use is coding?",
      "answer": "That comes from Claude's usage logs, where tasks tied to computer and mathematical jobs were 35% of Claude.ai conversations in February 2026, because Claude's users lean toward software work. In ChatGPT, programming is 4.2% of messages, and in worker surveys 13 to 27% of AI users name coding. In November 2025, Claude.ai chats were 52% augmentation (learning, iterating, checking) and 45% automation, while API traffic was about three quarters automation.",
      "sources": [
        {
          "creator": "Anthropic",
          "title": "Anthropic Economic Index reports (January and March 2026)",
          "year": 2026,
          "sample": "1 million sampled conversations each from Claude.ai and the API, February 2026; a one-week sample in November 2025",
          "method": "Privacy-preserving classification of conversations, mapped to occupational tasks. Anthropic sells Claude.",
          "figure": "Computer and mathematical tasks 35% of Claude.ai conversations (February 2026); Claude.ai 52% augmentation and 45% automation (November 2025)",
          "url": "https://www.anthropic.com/research/anthropic-economic-index-january-2026-report",
          "quote": "The share of conversations classified as augmented jumped 5pp to 52%"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "question": "Is most chatbot use for work?",
      "answer": "No. In June 2025, 73% of consumer ChatGPT messages were not about work, up from 53% a year earlier. Business and enterprise plans were not in that sample, so work use is understated. On Claude.ai, 46% of conversations were work in November 2025.",
      "sources": []
    }
  ],
  "numbers_you_may_have_seen": [
    {
      "claim": "Most ChatGPT use is for work.",
      "what_the_source_says": "73% of consumer ChatGPT messages were not about work in June 2025."
    },
    {
      "claim": "A third or more of AI use is coding.",
      "what_the_source_says": "True for Claude only. Programming is 4.2% of ChatGPT messages, and 13 to 27% of AI-using workers name coding in surveys."
    },
    {
      "claim": "57% of AI use is augmentation, 43% automation (Anthropic).",
      "what_the_source_says": "That described Claude.ai in January 2025. By November 2025 it was 52% augmentation and 45% automation on Claude.ai, and API traffic was about three quarters automation."
    },
    {
      "claim": "Therapy and companionship is the top use of generative AI.",
      "what_the_source_says": "OpenAI's study of ChatGPT messages found relationships and personal reflection at 1.9% of messages."
    }
  ],
  "citation": "EVY (2026). What do people use AI for at work? The AI at Work Fact Book, F-15. https://evy.so/facts/what-workers-use-ai-for/ (last checked October 14, 2026). CC BY 4.0.",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0"
}