The Business Times
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AI’s path to profits is being driven by consumers

A surprisingly robust market is growing out of people finding virtual friends and playing games

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    • In less than three years, OpenAI's ChatGPT has amassed more than 700 million weekly users, 99% of whom are individual consumers using free and paid versions of the program.
    • In less than three years, OpenAI's ChatGPT has amassed more than 700 million weekly users, 99% of whom are individual consumers using free and paid versions of the program. PHOTO: AFP

    Parmy Olson

    Published Tue, Sep 9, 2025 · 08:00 PM

    MARKETS naturally see through the lens of businesses. When tech stocks took a dive last month on concerns of an “AI winter”, investors were egged on by a study showing 95 per cent of corporate artificial intelligence (AI) pilot programmes failed to deliver gains in productivity or profit, making all this expensive AI start to look a little useless.

    Consumers would beg to differ.

    While businesses grapple with how best to plug generative AI tools into their systems – as they’ve naturally done with every other tech wave in history, from personal computers to smartphones to social media – individuals have been embracing the technology.

    Artificial IntelligenceConsumer behaviourFinancial markets

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