Digital 2027 Report: 3.24 Billion Now Use Generative AI
The Digital 2027 report, published by We Are Social and Meltwater, says that 3.24 billion people around the world now use generative AI tools every month. That is 38.9% of the world's population. The report is 900 pages long and is the 15th report in a series published every year. It looks at how AI, social media, and videos are changing the way people use the internet around the world.
Digital 2027 Report's Main Findings
The number of people actively using generative AI grew by 57.2% over the past 12 months. This means 1.2 billion more people started using these tools, adding to the worldwide total. ChatGPT is still the most popular generative AI tool. It has twice as many active users each month as its closest competitor. However, Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude are becoming more popular. Gemini's mobile app now has four times as many users as it did a year ago. The number of people using Gemini on the web is now more than 60% of the number using ChatGPT on the web.
There are now 6.15 billion internet users around the world. That means 73.9% of the world's population uses the internet. The number of social media user identities has also reached 5.81 billion, equal to 69.9% of the world's population. This number grew by 2.7% over the past year, with 151 million new user identities added.
People are also spending more time on social media. The average internet user now spends 19 hours and 18 minutes each week on social media and online video platforms. That is 3.8% more time than a year ago. YouTube takes up the largest share of all the time people around the world spend on social media, with WhatsApp and Instagram close behind. But when looking at the average time spent by each user, TikTok comes first. Its users spend an average of 1 hour and 55 minutes on the platform each day.
Shopping through social media is also becoming more popular among young people. Nearly 47% of internet users aged 16 to 24 say platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are their main places to find information about brands and products they might buy.
Meanwhile, visits to traditional websites are falling. Across the world's 10,000 most popular website domains, the total number of visits each month has dropped by more than 10% since ChatGPT became available to the public. The article suggests this is partly because ChatGPT collects information from websites and gives people answers without requiring them to visit those sites, effectively taking away website visits. The total amount of time people spend browsing the web has also fallen by 11.2% over the past 24 months. Even so, adults who use the internet are still 74% more likely to use search engines than AI platforms when looking for information about brands.
In Malaysia & Southeast Asia
Across Southeast Asia, 82.8% of the population uses the internet. Malaysia has an even higher rate, at 98.3%. Malaysia also ranks 8th in the world for ChatGPT use. In Malaysia, 52.1% of people aged 16 and older say they used ChatGPT in the past month. This is much higher than the worldwide average of 34.7%. Malaysians also use AI heavily to find information. According to the report, 65.7% of Malaysians use AI to search for information, compared with the global average of 60.4%.
When looking for new brands, 36.9% of Malaysians use social media. Online shopping is also very common. Each week, 55.6% of Malaysians buy something online. This is almost the same as the worldwide average of 55.7%. Also, 67.4% of Malaysians pay for some kind of digital content every month. That is slightly lower than the global average of 69.3%.
The report also looks at changes in advertising. Money spent on digital advertising grew by 8.7% over the past year. Spending on social media ads increased by 18%, while spending on advertising through influencers rose by 15%. The average adult internet user now uses 5.8 different ways or channels to find out about new brands.
Pokdepinion: It looks like Malaysians really love AI. Maybe even a little too much...