OpenAI Releases Global ChatGPT Usage Data: AI Shifts from Asking to Doing

From Asking to Doing

OpenAI has released the most detailed picture yet of how the world uses ChatGPT, publishing country-by-country data covering more than 1 billion users across 144 countries. The headline finding: AI is no longer primarily a question-answering tool. It has become a production tool.

In professional settings, users are now more than twice as likely to use ChatGPT to complete a task or create something — writing, coding, data analysis, editing — than they are outside of work. The "doing" use case dominates workplace usage, while outside work, behavior remains more exploratory, with information-seeking still the largest category.

This shift has significant implications for ecommerce. As ChatGPT evolves from an information tool into a task-completion engine, features like shopping, order management, and product research become natural extensions of the "doing" workflow. OpenAI's recent rollout of product carousels and shopping features in ChatGPT aligns directly with this trend.

The Global Adoption Gap Is Closing

The data shows that countries which started with lower per-capita ChatGPT adoption are catching up to early leaders in North America and Northern Europe. For Q2 2026, the biggest movers were in Latin America, Africa, and Oceania.

Peru, Uruguay, and Costa Rica rose the most among all countries in global per-capita rankings. North America and Europe continue to show adoption growth, but parts of the Southern Hemisphere are closing the gap at an accelerating pace.

This geographic expansion matters for global ecommerce. As AI adoption spreads beyond English-speaking and developed markets, the potential customer base that discovers products through AI interfaces grows substantially. Brands targeting international markets — particularly in Latin America — should pay attention to how consumers in these regions are adopting AI tools.

Multimedia Is the Fastest-Growing Use Case

Among specific use case categories, multimedia generation, analysis, and retrieval is the fastest-growing globally, now accounting for 7.8% of all messages sent to ChatGPT. While it still trails behind practical guidance, writing, and information-seeking, the trajectory is steep.

The trend is especially pronounced in Latin America. In Brazil and Colombia, more than one in ten messages to ChatGPT falls into the multimedia category. The April 2026 release of ChatGPT Images 2.0 appears to have been a catalyst, driving a sustained uptick in visual content creation and analysis.

For ecommerce merchants, this signals growing consumer comfort with AI-generated visual content — product imagery, lifestyle photos, design mockups — and suggests that AI-powered visual merchandising tools will gain traction alongside text-based shopping features.

Older Users Are Adopting AI Rapidly

Perhaps the most surprising demographic finding: users aged 35 and older are the fastest-growing age cohort in nearly every country tracked. Year over year, these users account for a 5% higher share of messages than they did 12 months ago.

The trend is particularly strong in Europe. In France and Czechia, the share of messages from users 35 and older increased by more than 10 percentage points over the past year. Almost three-quarters of European countries saw above-average increases in this demographic.

For online retailers, this demographic shift is commercially significant. The 35+ age group typically has higher purchasing power and different product preferences than younger users. As this cohort increasingly uses AI for product research and purchasing decisions, brands need to ensure their product data and content resonate with how these users interact with AI platforms.

What This Means for Ecommerce

OpenAI's data paints a clear picture: AI is maturing from a novelty into a daily productivity tool used by over a billion people worldwide. Three takeaways are particularly relevant for online merchants:

1. AI is a transaction engine, not just an information tool. As users shift from asking questions to completing tasks, shopping via AI becomes a natural behavior. Brands that have optimized their product data for AI platforms will capture this traffic.
2. The global AI customer base is expanding rapidly. Markets in Latin America, Africa, and Oceania represent new audiences who are discovering products through AI interfaces for the first time.
3. The demographic is broadening. AI commerce is no longer limited to tech-savvy early adopters. The growing 35+ user base means mainstream consumers are now comfortable enough with AI to use it for purchasing decisions.

The data is available to explore on OpenAI Signals, the company's data and research hub.