Executive summary and key findings
Our survey in six countries (Argentina, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK, and the US) explored how people use generative AI in their everyday lives, what they think its impact will be on different areas of society, and what they think about its use in news and journalism specifically. It is a follow-up to the survey that we conducted in the same six countries in 2024 (Fletcher and Nielsen 2024). Based on the results of this survey, and the previous one, we find the following.
Findings on the awareness and use of generative AI
The public’s use of generative AI has increased substantially in the last year. The proportion who say they have ever used a standalone generative AI system such as ChatGPT jumped from 40% to 61%, and weekly usage nearly doubled from 18% to 34%. ChatGPT is the single most popular AI system with 22% weekly usage, though adoption varies significantly by age. Information-seeking has become the primary use-case for AI, more than doubling to 24% weekly usage and surpassing media creation, while specialised uses like news consumption remain limited at 6%. Trust is concentrated among major brands, with ChatGPT leading the field again, though most users remain occasional rather than regular adopters.
Simon, Felix, Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis, and Richard Fletcher. Generative AI and News Report 2025: How People Think about AI’s Role in Journalism and Society. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, 2025. https://doi.org/10.60625/risj-5bjv-yt69.
Read the full report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism here.