A third of Germans use artificial intelligence (AI) at least once a week, a survey found on Tuesday.
A study by digital industry association Bitkom found that 15% of respondents use AI applications every day, and a further 19% report using them at least once a week.
In contrast, 22% of respondents said they do not use or plan to use AI, and 18% said they are open to using it but are not currently using it.
“Artificial intelligence has become a part of everyday life faster than any previous innovation,” said Bitkom President Ralph Wintergarst. “Germany must not only use AI, but also help shape it and bring skeptics into line with it.”
The study surveyed 1,003 people aged 16 and over in Germany between March and April.
Contributing to user skepticism is the fact that the AI scene is clearly dominated by US providers.
The market leader is OpenAI’s ChatGPT (used by 71% of respondents who have adopted AI), followed by Google’s Gemini (50%) and Microsoft’s Copilot (43%).
In contrast, other US services such as Elon Musk’s Grok (6%) and Anthropic’s Claude (5%) play a small role, as does Mistral’s European alternative Le Chat, with a usage rate of 4%.
Almost three-quarters (72%) of respondents think Germany is too dependent on the US when it comes to AI.
Wintergarst warned against accepting this dependency, arguing that Europe needs to invest heavily in its own technology to avoid becoming a “digital colony”.
