On a recent Saturday morning, Maya, a typical American consumer, faced a common dilemma. She needed to book a vacation flight, manage her household budget, and wrestled with the idea of eating healthier. A year earlier, Maya would have opened Google on her desktop, sifted through search results, and saved various articles she would likely never revisit. This time, she opted for a more efficient solution: she tapped the ChatGPT icon on her phone and sought assistance. The AI remembered her previous trip, suggested an itinerary, and even drafted a message to a hotel. Later, it transformed her grocery list into a structured meal plan.
Today, a substantial number of U.S. adults are turning to consumer AI tools for help with daily tasks. The focus is now shifting toward which AI models will become staples in their routines. For many users, AI is replacing traditional search engines as the primary resource for getting things done efficiently.
Recent data from PYMNTS Intelligence shows that the adoption of consumer AI tools has surpassed the initial phase of experimentation. As of January, 54% of adults reported using such tools, reflecting a five-point increase from December. Mainstream users, defined as individuals who regularly utilize AI for less complex tasks as a supplement to traditional search methods, now make up over one in three consumers. While ChatGPT remains the predominant choice, users are increasingly exploring other alternatives. Notably, Claude’s personal-use base surged by 22% in just one month, while Gemini saw an 8% increase. As consumers engage with AI more frequently and for more intricate tasks, reliance on AI apps is rising, while browser usage is on the decline.
These findings are highlighted in this edition of the Agentic AI Report series, titled “AI Becomes a Daily Habit: The Consumer Shift From Trying Tools to Living With Them,” which is an exclusive report from PYMNTS Intelligence. This edition delves into how consumers are utilizing AI and is based on insights gathered from a survey of 3,497 U.S. adult consumers conducted between January 6 and January 30, 2026.
Over the Halfway Mark
Adoption of consumer AI tools hit 54% of U.S. adults in January, up five percentage points month over month.
More than half of U.S. adults utilized AI for personal purposes in January, a rise from 49% in December. Mainstream users now represent 34% of the adult population. The more significant narrative revolves around who is participating in this trend and how their habits are evolving.1
Firstly, the increase in usage spans across all age groups. This widespread adoption signals that AI is not merely a niche tool for early adopters but is increasingly integrated into everyday problem-solving across various life stages, which is crucial for banks, payment firms, and digital commerce players.
Secondly, the mainstream segment is rapidly expanding. Generation Z, now with its oldest members around 29, leads this growth, boasting that 47% of Gen Z consumers are now classified as mainstream users. Their numbers of light users have decreased from 15% to 9%, indicating a transition from casual experimentation with AI to more consistent, purposeful usage.2
Thirdly, the choice of large language model (LLM) varies widely among users. While ChatGPT remains the leading entry point, consumers are trying out alternatives as technology continues to advance. For instance, Claude’s personal-use base enjoyed a 22% growth in just a month, and Gemini’s user base rose by 8%. Importantly, this report focuses on AI use for personal tasks such as shopping, finances, health, and travel, rather than professional applications.
ChatGPT dominates consumer AI use, but the field is crowded.
Currently, ChatGPT stands out as the leading choice. With 83.2% of AI users having tried it at least once, it serves as the primary entry point for most consumers, maintaining the same level as December 2025 and indicating that its reach is stable for now.
Google Gemini takes second place, with approximately 47.8% to 51.7% of users having utilized it. Although there is a considerable gap behind ChatGPT, it showcases a strong performance thanks to Google’s promotion of Gemini through its platforms like Search and Gmail. Meanwhile, Microsoft Copilot and Meta AI hover just below that, with usage rates of around 29% to 31%, primarily benefiting from their integration into Office 365 and WhatsApp/Facebook.
The middle tier consists of Perplexity, Grok, and DeepSeek, each with utilization rates between 9% and 15%. Perplexity’s search-centered approach has gained a niche audience, while Grok and DeepSeek have benefitted from extensive media coverage (with Grok linked to Elon Musk’s X platform and DeepSeek’s viral success in January 2025 due to its innovative R1 reasoning model). DeepSeek’s rapid ascent, reaching 9.3% to 11.7% so early on is noteworthy.
Consumer usage of Claude is estimated at 10.1% to 12.3%, just above DeepSeek, signifying its stronger presence among professionals and developers rather than everyday consumers. At the bottom of the rankings, Brave Leo and Poe account for less than 3.5% of users each, indicating their status as niche tools.
The main takeaway is that while most AI users experiment with multiple platforms, ChatGPT remains the dominant starting point, with everyone else vying for a secondary position.
Browser Woes
ChatGPT’s largest access point is its smartphone app, used by 38% of its users. Google Gemini follows closely at 36%.
There’s a significant distinction between a consumer who opens a browser, navigates to an AI platform, and types a query, and one who taps on an app icon they installed weeks ago, resuming a conversation. While both are utilizing AI, one has demonstrated a commitment to the tool.
Research on habit formation shows that the shorter the distance between a prompt and an action, the more likely that action becomes automatic. Apps retain conversation history in a manner that fosters a self-reinforcing loop, in contrast to a browser session.
ChatGPT and Gemini appear to be designed primarily for mobile use. ChatGPT’s most significant access point is its smartphone app, employed by 38% of its users, while Gemini follows closely at 36%. Rather than being platforms visited sporadically, they have become utility tools that consumers instinctively reach for, just like checking a weather app or sending a text. This instinctive behavior exemplifies the formation of a habit.
On the other hand, Perplexity and Claude present a more balanced distribution of access methods. Claude users are split evenly among smartphone app, smartphone browser, desktop app, and desktop browser, with each channel capturing roughly a quarter of usage. This balanced access indicates flexible usage across contexts but can also imply that the platform has yet to become a default choice for any particular moment in the user’s day, potentially relegating it to a secondary option.
Conversely, Copilot’s story is different. A significant 60% of its usage occurs on desktops or laptops, while only 23% of users access it via a smartphone app. Even in personal contexts, Copilot functions more like an occasional productivity tool rather than a daily assistant.
Downloading an AI app is the gateway to frequent consumer usage, but not to app dominance.
The platforms that become daily utilities are those residing on a consumer’s home screen. Importantly, the act of installing an app signals a behavioral commitment, a small yet deliberate action that encourages users to return.
As users transition from light experimentation to high-intensity and complex engagement with AI models, reliance on browsers tends to diminish while app and mobile usage increases. More than six in 10 power users predominantly access AI via a smartphone or tablet (ChatGPT: 69%; Gemini: 62%).
This finding challenges the common belief that mobile apps are suited primarily for lightweight tasks. In reality, the most sophisticated users are often interacting within apps, especially on smartphones. This trend suggests that the app environment may offer more than just convenience; it may signify trust, continuity in workflow, and integration into everyday habits.
Millennials Emerge as Power Users
Millennials utilize more consumer AI models—nearly three—than any other generational group.
Consumers at the demographic level are not just picking one tool; they are exploring, comparing, and switching across different AI assistants.
Demographically, the most active users are adults in their prime working years. Millennials and bridge millennials, on average, use 2.8 and 2.9 models, respectively, outpacing Gen Z (2.5) significantly. This finding is noteworthy because it contradicts the belief that younger users are the most diverse in their AI usage. Rather, it appears that prime-age consumers are embedding AI into more facets of their daily lives, encompassing productivity, financial management, planning, and organization. Older consumers engage, but their exploration is typically more limited.
The most significant divide is behavioral rather than demographic. Power users utilize an average of 3.7 models, while light users only manage 1.4. Power users create ‘AI stacks,’ switching between tools based on the task at hand and integrating AI more deeply into their daily routines. In contrast, light users typically rely on a single tool or engage only sporadically. The usage of multiple models thus becomes a key indicator of engagement intensity, not merely access.
Finally, the depth of usage correlates with a shift in behavior. Consumers who report that AI has fully or largely replaced their previous methods engage with an average of 3.0 models, compared to just 2.1 for those who rely on traditional approaches. This shift appears to be a pivotal moment: once AI takes the place of older methods, consumers expand their toolkit instead of consolidating it.
Overall, it’s evident that multi-model AI usage is becoming mainstream, with genuine diversification in model selection primarily concentrated among power users, millennials, and those who have effectively replaced older methods. The future growth of AI ecosystems will hinge less on basic adoption and more on whether mainstream users can transition toward deeper engagement and the use of multiple tools.
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Methodology
“AI Becomes a Daily Habit: The Consumer Shift From Trying Tools to Living With Them” is based on a survey of 3,497 U.S. adults conducted from January 6 to January 30, 2026. The report examines how consumers utilize LLMs for personal tasks.
Addendum
This research utilizes a consumer task framework encompassing 54 activities across nine broad categories, including shopping, finance, health, education, travel, and beyond. Each activity is assessed based on three fundamental criteria:
- How much reasoning and accuracy are required from AI
- The potential risks to the consumer if the AI provides inaccurate responses
- The sensitivity of the consumer’s personal data
The task list is also categorized by complexity and risk. Tasks at the lower end include drafting messages, making lists, and finding shopping deals. In the mid-range are travel planning and product research. Meanwhile, high-risk tasks involve health decisions and financial well-being, such as understanding credit reports, evaluating loan terms, comparing financial products, or crafting a household budget.
This framework is significant, as it allows us to monitor not only the adoption of AI but also whether users are transitioning into repeatable, higher-stakes routines.
1. PYMNTS Intelligence defines power users as individuals using AI for 27 or more distinct tasks each month, including complex tasks like personal investment management. Mainstream users perform an average of eight monthly tasks, mostly simple ones like comparison shopping. Light users average two tasks per month.↩
2. PYMNTS Intelligence classifies generational cohorts based on the following approximate birth years and age ranges in 2026: baby boomers: born in 1964 or earlier (aged 62 or older); Generation X: born between 1965 and 1980 (aged 46–61); millennials: born between 1981 and 1996 (aged 30–45); bridge millennials: born between 1978 and 1988 (aged 38–48); zillennials: born between 1991 and 1999 (aged 26–35); and Generation Z: born in 1997 or later (aged 29 or younger).↩
