Generative AI is spreading across the US at a pace that outstrips the early adoption of two of the most transformative technologies in modern history.
The latest release from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis updates its Real-Time Population Survey, a quarterly tracking of how American adults use tools like ChatGPT in work and nonwork settings.
The survey finds that Americans are adopting generative AI at a blistering pace, surpassing the adoption rates of PCs and the internet.
“August 2025 is roughly three years after the release of ChatGPT, the first mass-market generative AI product. The current generative AI adoption rate of 54.6% exceeds the 19.7% adoption rate of the personal computer (PC) in 1984, three years after the first mass-market computer (the IBM PC in 1981), and the internet’s 30.1% adoption rate in 1998, three years after the internet was opened to commercial traffic.”
Zooming in, the Fed finds that adult adoption of generative AI climbed from 33.3% to 37.4% in the last 12 months. Meanwhile, the figure rose from 36.0% to 48.7% for nonwork usage over the same time period.
The Fed adds that the time spent by American adults using generative AI has increased in the last nine months.
“We can only do this in more detail starting in November 2024. For the entire U.S. workforce ages 18 to 64, the share of work hours spent using generative AI increased from 4.1% in November 2024 to 5.7% in August 2025.”
Turning to the economic impact of generative AI tools, the Fed says workers report time savings “equivalent to 1.6% of all work hours,” with model estimates suggesting labor productivity may have increased “by up to 1.3%” since the launch of ChatGPT.
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