More than half of Taiwanese use AI tools, survey says

Just more than half of Taiwanese adults have used generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the past six months, a Fair Trade Commission (FTC) survey released yesterday showed.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini account for more than 90 percent of the tools used and nearly 40 percent said they paid for AI services.

The survey was conducted from May 6 to 28, and collected 1,079 valid responses from Taiwanese aged 18 and older who had used generative AI tools in the previous six months.

Artificial intelligence apps on a smartphone are pictured in Riga, Latvia, on Aug. 7.

Photo: Bloomberg

The FTC identified three key trends: widespread use of multiple AI platforms, growing adoption of paid subscriptions and a tendency among users of free services to switch to competing tools when quality declines.

ChatGPT was the most widely used, accounting for 87.9 percent of respondents, followed by Gemini at 67.8 percent and Anthropic’s Claude at 8.9 percent, it found.

Asked to identify their primary AI tool, 56.6 percent chose ChatGPT and 34.6 percent went with Gemini, the survey said.

The most common reasons for using AI were learning (56.5 percent) and work-related tasks (55 percent), while 47.2 percent said they chose a platform that best met their needs, it found.

Of the 39.8 percent of respondents that used paid AI services, nearly 70 percent paid out of pocket, the survey found.

Half of the subscribers spent between NT$500 and NT$1,000 per month, and 76.3 percent said they would keep their subscriptions even if prices rose 10 percent, it added.

Among the 60.2 percent of respondents who use free AI services, 89.5 percent said they do not pay for subscription as the free version was sufficient, the survey found.

If the quality of free services declined, such as lower usage limits or slower response times, 76.7 percent said they would switch to another free platform, while 15.5 percent said they would upgrade