Salesforce report shows consumers are split over whether AI is actually useful

Even as the novelty around ChatGPT wears off, a significant minority of AI-loving consumers are still engaging the loquacious bot on a daily basis to do everything from fret over work emails to ask it where to shop.

That’s according to a new Salesforce survey of around 4,000 consumers in the US, UK, Australia, and India that found that around half of those people have tried large language models (LLMs) or other generative AI applications, and about a third of those continue to do so daily.

The report also traced a generational divide in who’s using the technology, with Gen Z and millennials making up 65% of users, and 70% of Gen Z respondents saying they’ve used it.

The survey comes as signs are mounting that consumers might be getting bored with LLMs. ChatGPT’s web and mobile traffic dropped for the first time between May and June by about 10% after a period of explosive growth starting with its rollout last November, according to SimilarWeb. That’s left tech leaders with questions about how to actually turn AI into products people will use.

AI ennui: Of the 51% of people who told Salesforce they’ve never used generative AI, 88% said they were unclear on how AI will impact their daily lives, and 81% doubted that companies will ever achieve goals around improving customer service with AI.

“[It’s] really a big split, and there’s not much crossing of swim lanes here,” Salesforce Senior Director of Product Marketing Kelly Eliyahu said. “When we dove deeper into each group, we found that there was a clear divide in sentiments around the technology—how people are using it or how they’re not using it.”

Around 63% of people told Salesforce they’d use the technology more if it was more secure or safer, around half said they would if tech companies were more transparent about its use, and a similar portion said they’d engage if it was worked into technology they already use.

Zoomers and millennials leading the way: Salesforce found that the user base for generative AI tends to skew younger, with Gen Z in particular leading the way—perhaps as a side effect of ChatGPT’s popularity as a college essay writing tool.

When asked whether college schoolwork might be a factor in Gen Z’s use of the tech, Eliyahu said the surveyors didn’t look at that question but agreed that it probably was from a “non-research-based perspective.”

Beyond some of the more obvious top uses—”for fun/messing around,” “learning about topics that interest me,” and “writing personal notes or emails”—around one-fifth of users are tapping the AI for things like recipe or meal planning, 18% look to it for shopping recommendations, and 17% think of it as a career planning or job search tool. A significant portion—26%—also wants AI to automate workplace tasks.

Salesforce released the report ahead of next week’s annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, where it will no doubt reveal more about its own efforts to transform various parts of its sprawling business with AI. While the company is mostly focused on the enterprise side of the tech it also has a stake in a number of different AI applications through its sizable new AI venture arm.