From asking to doing: How the world is putting ChatGPT to work

AI is moving from something people ask to something they put to work.

For the first time, OpenAI is publishing country-by-country data showing how people around the world use ChatGPT. The findings reveal a technology that is moving beyond answers and into action, spreading beyond early adopters, and becoming useful to more people in more ways:

From asking to doing: At work, people are more than twice as likely to use ChatGPT to complete a task or create something, from writing and coding to analysis, than they are outside work.

As new capabilities emerge, specific use cases command people’s attention and drive adoption. Take multimedia generation, analysis, and retrieval, for example. Since the release of ChatGPT Images 2.0 ⁠ in April 2026, the share of messages across the world focused on multimedia use increased to 7.8%. While it still lags behind the leading use cases of practical guidance, writing, and information-seeking, multimedia use has been on a consistent upswing year-to-date.

The quarter-over-quarter changes in per-capita adoption are not limited to use cases and regions alone. The data also demonstrate differences in adoption by age cohort.

AI adoption is becoming more global: Countries across Latin America, Africa, and Oceania are catching up to early adopters, narrowing the global adoption gap.

AI is moving beyond text: Multimedia is the fastest-growing use case globally, accounting for 7.8% of messages and more than one in ten in countries including Brazil and Colombia.

AI is reaching beyond early adopters: Usage among people over 35 is rising in nearly every country. In France and Czechia, their share of messages increased by more than 10 percentage points in the past year.