(TNND) — A new Bank of America Institute analysis found that just around 3% of households currently pay for artificial intelligence services.
“Consumer AI use is gaining traction, but it’s still far from mainstream,” Bank of America Institute economist Taylor Bowley said Tuesday.
The analysis, based on Bank of America accounts representing nearly 70 million consumers, showed that higher-income households and younger generations make up the largest share of paying AI subscribers so far.
But Bowley said there are signs that adoption is growing and that consumers are moving up the price ladder of AI services. The share paying $21 to $40 a month for AI subscriptions has jumped 50% year to date versus 2024, Bowley said.
And the number of households making AI payments is up 38% versus the 2024 average.
“I think in some ways it looks a lot like maybe the early days of music or video streaming platforms, where you have this small base, but we’re seeing fast growth and increasing willingness to pay,” she said.
Brookings Metro senior fellow Mark Muro, an expert in the digital economy, said AI has seen a rapid rollout in the last few years, but consumer use hasn’t kept pace.
Many people see AI tools, such as paid versions of ChatGPT, as souped-up search engines, Muro said.
Companies like Anthropic are leaning into an enterprise model as opposed to a consumer model, and OpenAI appears to be pivoting in that direction, Muro said.
OpenAI recently announced it is discontinuing Sora, its app that allows consumers to generate AI videos with text prompts.
Muro said AI companies face huge capital pressures, and they’ll need to figure out the best mix of consumer and enterprise use to make money.
“The labs have got to find ways to monetize pretty quickly, given the capital investment,” Muro said.
Bowley said her Bank of America colleagues see the potential for a $75 billion annual consumer AI market, as demand rises for tools that can help people save time.
But Anton Dahbura, an AI expert and the co-director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy, said that 3% figure doesn’t need to skyrocket for AI companies to find success.
“I don’t think that the current level of consumer use or perceived consumer use matters all that much,” he said.
Some consumers will be willing to fork over money to have access to a chatbot that can give them “a Swiss Army knife” digital tool – one that can give them movie recommendations and rewrite an email all in one place.
But he said the future of AI is probably in “wrappers,” AI blended with existing applications to enhance the user experience.
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In that sense, a lot of Americans will be paying for AI, they just might not see it that way, Dahbura said.