Rival AI business Humanity and Openai have released a duel study of how people use their flagship products, ChatGpt and Claude. Both studies analyzed large datasets of user conversations and examined conversations that were not related to work and work.
Although both companies used different datasets and methods, Openai's analysis suggests that the consumer version of ChatGPT is primarily used for personal and exploratory purposes, while human findings have been used primarily for work-related tasks such as coding, research and education.
According to a survey published by Openai, most ChatGpt conversations are not about work. Non-work-related messages accounted for over 70% of all uses from 53% in June 2024, while work-related queries accounted for 27% of all messages, starting from 47% of conversations a year ago.
The research suggests that ChatGpt is becoming a more common consumer product than an enterprise tool. The three most common ChatGPT conversation topics were categorized by researchers as seeking practical guidance, writing, and information. These three categories summarise almost 78% of all messages.
However, please note that OpenAI dataset uses usage with Consumer ChatGPT plans (free, Plo, Pro) and does not include non-consumer plans such as teams, businesses, education, etc.
When CHATGPT was used for work, this study found that users appear to derive most value when using chatbots like advisors and research assistants, rather than asking them to perform tasks directly. In this study, the researchers argue that ChatGpt increases productivity for workers, primarily through decision support. It also found that users of high-paying professionals and technical occupations are more likely to use ChatGpt for their jobs.
The study found that creating tasks, including editing and drafting, is the most common work use, accounting for 42% of work-related messages and more than half of all messages aimed at users in the management and business profession. About two-thirds of these requests were to modify existing text rather than creating the original text from scratch.
The number of people using ChatGpt for coding tasks is even smaller, with only 4.2% of the total messages related to computer programming being only 4.2%, compared to 36% in Claude. Technical Help, a category of umbrellas that includes computer programming, had the lowest apparent user satisfaction in the seven categories surveyed by the survey.
In contrast, studies from humanity found that Claude is frequently used in work-related productivity, particularly coding, teaching and research.
Mathematical tasks and coding were the dominant global activities of Claude.ai. Among other domains, the fastest growing sector is education, which has grown by about 35% since December 2024, and currently accounts for just 13% of use. In contrast, traditional office and business tasks have declined. Management-related tasks fell from 5% to 3%, while business and financial operations fell from 6% to 3%.
Companies that use Claude through APIs in particular use tools primarily for tasks that require a lot of automation. In many cases, “Full Task Delegation” automates 77% of API tasks compared to about 50% on Claude.ai. The research suggests that businesses use technology to automate rather than collaborate at work. These business-focused interactions are concentrated in coding, which accounts for 44% of API usage. An additional 5% of API usage is dedicated to developing or evaluating AI systems.
Dueling studies suggest that users support a particular model or product for different types of tasks.
While ChatGpt is increasingly emerging as a personal or exploratory tool used for writing, asking for information, general advice and casual interactions, Claude is a more frequently used productivity tool that is heavily used for coding, research and business automation. For example, Claude has been popular among software engineers for some time. This market split also suggests that a wide range of AI companies could open up a complementary niche rather than directly competing in all aspects.
