DeepSeek and Anthropic have a long way to go to catch ChatGPT: OpenAI's flagship chatbot is still far and away the most popular AI tool in offices globally

ChatGPT remains the most popular AI tool among office workers globally, research shows, despite a rising number of competitor options available to users.

Recent analysis from DeskTime found OpenAI’s flagship chatbot was used in 76% of offices worldwide at the end of 2024, maintaining a hefty lead over alternatives.

Individual AI usage saw significant growth across 2024, according to DeskTime, with the firm noting that 34.9% of employees globally used ChatGPT. This marked a significant increase from the year prior, in which 19.1% were found to use the chatbot.

Notably, DeskTime found 75.9% of offices had also integrated ChatGPT into their workflows at the end of 2024. Enterprises in India are leading the way in this regard, with 92% of workplaces surveyed by the company using the tool in their daily workflows.

DeskTime chief executive Artis Rozentals said the study highlights both the rapid AI adoption rates globally as enterprises race to drive productivity and workforce efficiency, as well as ChatGPT's continued popularity.

“Today, every third office worker is using ChatGPT — and using it more than ever before,” he said.

“Generative AI adoption is happening at break-neck speeds, reshaping the nature of work, employment, and business operations.

ChatGPT is still growing in the US

In the US specifically, adoption rates for ChatGPT are also rising, albeit at a slower rate compared to global counterparts.

Workplace adoption of ChatGPT increased from 68% in 2023 to 72% in late 2024, the study found.

While this marked a slower rate than workplaces elsewhere worldwide, the actual time spent using the AI tool increased markedly, with around 42% of employees reporting higher levels of use.

Individual adoption rates also jumped in the US, DeskTime found, reaching 28.3% compared to the 17% recorded in 2023.

Shaking off the competition

ChatGPT took the world by storm in late 2022, prompting an industry-wide pivot to driving generative AI adoption. In the years following, a myriad of competitor tools have emerged, including those from Anthropic, for example.

In January, another major competitor arrived on the scene in the form of DeepSeek, offering enterprises competitive options at a far cheaper price.

But general user numbers pale in comparison to ChatGPT. In December 2024, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed more than 300 million people use the chatbot each week. This has since increased, passing the 400 million mark.

User numbers for Claude, Anthropic’s flagship chatbot, aren’t quite so readily available, but are believed to stand in the region of around 18 million monthly active users.

With this in mind, ChatGPT’s continued popularity highlights both the early mover advantage achieved by OpenAI in 2022, but the scale of integration across the enterprise and consumer markets.

Similar research into AI adoption rates from Zscaler pointed to a 3,000% year-on-year increase in enterprise AI adoption, and ChatGPT was once again highlighted as the leading tool.

Based on analysis of over 536 billion AI transactions processed on its cloud platform between February and December 2024, ChatGPT accounted for 45.2% of all transactions.

Zscaler’s analysis also mirrored DeskTime’s findings, noting that the US and India were found to be leading the world in terms of usage rates.

The US and India were found to be leading the world in terms of AI/ML transaction volumes, with businesses in the UK, Germany, and Japan also showing significant uptake of AI tools.

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