Originally published: Capsule NZ, 2 September 2026
Turns out New Zealanders are massive users of AI per capita (we love a per capita!) and what we’re prompting might be a little surprising… but according to ChatGPT, we’re not using it properly and the potential is HUGE. Sceptical of it? We don’t blame you. Here’s the real stats:
Ok, so AI – what a loaded subject, from the AI chat that happens on panels and in think pieces and the stuff you can’t quite wrap your head around… techy. But, then there’s the version that happens at 6pm on a Tuesday night when you’re trying to work out what to do with half a cauliflower and a packet of mince.
New data released by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, suggests most of us are very much living in the second version (me, for sure). Alongside its own platform figures, the company commissioned independent research by Pureprofile, surveying 1,007 New Zealand adults about how they use ChatGPT at home and at work.
So, if you’ve ever wondered if your AI usage is like everyone else’s, here’s how Kiwis are actually embracing and using ChatGPT, specifically:
How much we are actually using it:
So, as it turns out, New Zealanders have been enthusiastic adopters, and the growth curve has skyrocketed:
- Almost 10 million messages are sent to ChatGPT every day in New Zealand
- We’re in the top 40 in the world for ChatGPT messages per capita (God, we love a per capita)
- We’re also in the top 35 in the world for agentic use, which is the more advanced end of all this
- There’s more than 1 billion weekly active users globally
- The three most common uses in New Zealand are writing and communication, how-to guidance, and education and learning.
The time it gives back:
Here’s where things get interesting:
- 40% use ChatGPT daily for quick answers
- 45% say it saves them at least four hours a week.
I mean, if you think of four hours as most of a school holiday afternoon, or the gap between finishing work and starting dinner, reclaimed every seven days – that’s a whack of time.
‘AI is my superpower’ – a former journalist turned Open AI comms head on her own AI usage
So, if you’re like me, you use tools such as ChatGPT as a kind of Google on steroids – I ask it what to make for dinner based on three manky ingredients, ask it if it thinks my puppy actually loves me and if it’s normal for him to sneeze (yes and yes, apparently) and when the next Warriors game will be.
Which leads me to ask, are we not using it properly? Short answer, yes, according to Chloe Browne, OpenAI’s Head of Communications for New Zealand and Australia. As an example, she has a four-year-old and a seven-year-old at two different schools, which means two separate streams of newsletters, apps and notifications arriving at all hours and she says she’s making ChatGPT (of course) into her own little assistant.
Which brings her to the gap in the data. New Zealanders have adopted these tools enthusiastically and shallowly, or as Chloe puts it, “the adoption is wide, but it’s quite shallow” – e.g., we’re barely scratching the surface of how we can use it to help our lives function better.
