Industry report · October 2026

AI assistants and consumer health shopping in the US, October 2026

Who in the US asks AI assistants about health, what they ask, what happens to the click, and which brands the answers name. Every figure carries its source, its date and what it measures.

  • 51% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use an AI chatbot like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. Pew Research Center, survey of 3,488 US adults, June 22-28, 2026.
  • 34% of US adults in each group. Measured: ever use AI chatbots for at least one of eight health reasons Pew asked about. Pew Research Center, survey of 3,488 US adults, June 22-28, 2026.

Source: Pew Research Center, survey of 3,488 US adults, June 22-28, 2026. Measured: say they ever use an AI chatbot like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot.

Published October 18, 2026, sources re-read the same day. 6,000+ data points measured by the Supracited AI engine.

Summary

  1. About half of US adults use an AI chatbot (51%, against 49% in February), and about a third use one for at least one of eight health reasons (34%).

    51% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use an AI chatbot like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. Pew Research Center, survey of 3,488 US adults, June 22-28, 2026.

    Source: Pew Research Center, survey of 3,488 US adults, June 22-28, 2026 (Wave 195 topline; health report).

  2. Regular use for health has nearly doubled in two years: 29% of adults use AI tools or chatbots for health information at least monthly, against 17% in June 2024.

    Cited in prose

    Source: KFF, survey of 2,480 US adults, May 7-31, 2026.

  3. ChatGPT leads and Gemini is second in both national surveys: 44% and 24% of adults ever use them, and 31% and 21% used them in the past week.

    44% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026.

    Source: Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.

  4. The biggest single health intent is plain explanation, such as how a medication works: 40.8% of Copilot health conversations in a global study.

    40.8% of health conversations. Measured: share of Copilot health conversations in each intent. Nature Health, 617,827 Copilot health conversations, about 22% from the US, January 2026.

    Source: Nature Health (Costa-Gomes et al.), 617,827 Copilot health conversations, about 22% from the US, January 2026. Global figure. Licensed CC BY 4.0. The authors are researchers at Microsoft AI; Microsoft makes Copilot.

  5. Google users clicked a search result on 8% of visits to pages with an AI summary, against 15% on pages without one.

    8% of visits to Google search pages. Measured: share of Google search visits on which the user clicked a traditional result, clicked a link inside the AI summary, or ended the browsing session, by whether the page showed an AI summary. Pew Research Center, browsing data from 900 US adults, March 2025.

    Source: Pew Research Center, browsing data from 900 US adults, March 2025.

  6. Among US shoppers, 45% use AI chatbots or assistants for at least some of their beauty and personal care purchases.

    Cited in prose

    Source: Criteo, survey of 6,307 shoppers in six countries, US figures, June 2026. Criteo sells retail advertising.

  7. In our own counts, how concentrated the answers are depends on the category: every pain, headache and allergy answer named a brand, while 43% of sleep supplement answers stopped at an ingredient.

    100% named a brand or store. a leading AI assistant with web search, 120 answers, collected 2026-10-17. Counts mentions, including cautions; not recommendations.

    Source: Supracited census of a leading AI assistant with web search, 240 answers across three categories, collected October 17, 2026. One assistant, wide ranges; the full edition adds the per-category tables.

Read the full report

The full edition adds why people ask, what happens to the click, our brand counts in detail, and every figure we kept off the charts.

Behind ChatGPT and Gemini, Copilot is third in both surveys

Pew asked whether people ever use each chatbot; Ipsos asked about the past week, in early March. Both put the assistants in the same order.

Share of US adults who use each AI assistant

Survey

  1. 44% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026. 31% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  2. 24% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026. 21% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  3. 17% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026. 11% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  4. 14% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026. 8% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  5. 8% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026. 5% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  6. 6% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026. 3% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  7. 2% of US adults, used in the past week. Pew’s February survey did not list Perplexity; Ipsos’s March survey did. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  • Ever use (Pew, February 2026)
  • Used in the past week (Ipsos, March 2026)

Pew’s list did not include Perplexity; see the Ipsos view.

  1. 44% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026.
  2. 24% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026.
  3. 17% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026.
  4. 14% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026.
  5. 8% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026.
  6. 6% of US adults. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot. Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026.
  • Ever use (Pew, February 2026)
  1. 31% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  2. 21% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  3. 11% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  4. 8% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  5. 5% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  6. 3% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  7. 2% of US adults. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults, March 3-6, 2026.
  • Used in the past week (Ipsos, March 2026)
See the numbers as a table
Share of US adults who use each assistant
ItemEver use (Pew, February 2026)Used in the past week (Ipsos, March 2026)
ChatGPT44%31%
Gemini24%21%
Copilot17%11%
Meta AI14%8%
Grok8%5%
Claude6%3%
Perplexitynot on Pew’s list2%

Source: Pew Research Center, survey of 5,119 US adults, February 17-23, 2026. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot.

Source: Epoch AI / Ipsos, survey of 2,021 US adults 18 and over, Ipsos KnowledgePanel, March 3-6, 2026. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week. Drawn by Supracited from the published numbers. Two surveys, two time windows: compare the order, not the gap between bars. Left off this chart: Character.ai (Pew 3%, Ipsos 1%); DeepSeek (Ipsos 1%).

Part of what surveys count as Gemini is Google Search: of adults who used Gemini in the past week, 47% counted an AI summary at the top of Google Search results, more than the 39% who opened the Gemini app or site.

Source: Epoch AI / Ipsos, March 3-6, 2026, the same survey as the chart. Measured: how past-week Gemini users used it, several answers allowed; base 264 past-week Gemini users, unweighted.

Panels counting desktop visitors (Comscore) or app users (Apptopia), and a share StatCounter does not explain for chatbots, also put ChatGPT first; its lead varies with what each counts, so those numbers stay off this chart.

Younger adults ask most, and many ask for someone else

Use falls with age, though even among adults 65 and over about one in six has used a chatbot for a health reason.

Share who use AI chatbots for health, by age

  1. 34% of US adults in each group. Measured: ever use AI chatbots for at least one of eight health reasons Pew asked about. Pew Research Center, survey of 3,488 US adults, June 22-28, 2026.
  2. 44% of US adults in each group. Measured: ever use AI chatbots for at least one of eight health reasons Pew asked about. Pew Research Center, survey of 3,488 US adults, June 22-28, 2026.
  3. 40% of US adults in each group. Measured: ever use AI chatbots for at least one of eight health reasons Pew asked about. Pew Research Center, survey of 3,488 US adults, June 22-28, 2026.
  4. 32% of US adults in each group. Measured: ever use AI chatbots for at least one of eight health reasons Pew asked about. Pew Research Center, survey of 3,488 US adults, June 22-28, 2026.
  5. 17% of US adults in each group. Measured: ever use AI chatbots for at least one of eight health reasons Pew asked about. Pew Research Center, survey of 3,488 US adults, June 22-28, 2026.
  • All US adults
  • By age
See the numbers as a table
Chatbot health users by age, % of US adults in each group
ItemShare
All US adults34%
Ages 18-2944%
Ages 30-4940%
Ages 50-6432%
Ages 65 and over17%

Source: Pew Research Center, survey of 3,488 US adults, June 22-28, 2026. Measured: ever use AI chatbots for at least one of eight health reasons Pew asked about. Drawn by Supracited from the published numbers.

1 in 7

Symptom and condition conversations about someone else

A child, an aging parent or a partner: 14.5% of symptom conversations and 14.9% of condition conversations.

Source: Nature Health (Costa-Gomes et al.), annotated subsample of 2,165 personal-health conversations from the study's 617,827 Copilot health conversations, about 22% from the US, January 2026. Global figure. Measured: share of symptom conversations and of condition conversations that are about someone else (a child, an aging parent or a partner). Licensed CC BY 4.0. The authors are researchers at Microsoft AI; Microsoft makes Copilot.

For a brand, the person asking is not always the person who will take the product.

The full report

Five more sections: why US adults ask AI about health, what happens to the click on a page with an AI summary, our brand counts for three categories in detail, every figure we kept off the charts and why, and the licence behind each source.

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Method and sources

Every outside figure on this page was re-read at its live source on 2026-10-18; figures we could not re-read are left out, and charts appear only where a source’s terms allow a commercial redraw. None of the sources endorses Supracited. Pew Research Center bears no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations of the data presented here. The opinions expressed herein, including any implications for policy, are those of the author and not of Pew Research Center.

Every figure, with its full citationlicence, how it is used and when it was re-read

We chart Pew Research Center, Epoch AI / Ipsos and the open-access Nature Health article; KFF and Criteo appear in prose. Each chart is our own drawing of published numbers. Company statements that disclose no sample are left out too. Survey figures describe US adults unless marked global. Our own counts follow the rules on the method page.

  1. Chatbot use, US adultsShown as a figure

    “American Trends Panel Wave 195: AI and health, topline.” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (August 25, 2026) https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/PS_2026.8.25_AI-chatbots-health_topline.pdf Survey of 3,488 U.S. adults conducted June 22-28, 2026 (accessed October 18, 2026)

    US figure. Measured: say they ever use an AI chatbot like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot (% of US adults). Licence: Pew Research Center terms of use: reuse and redrawing allowed with attribution; no use implying that Pew endorses a product or business. Re-read on the live topline PDF, 2026-10-18 (question CHATUSEMOD).

  2. Ever use of each AI chatbotCharted

    “Americans report using ChatGPT far more than other chatbots.” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (June 11, 2026) https://www.pewresearch.org/chart/americans-report-using-chatgpt-far-more-than-other-chatbots/ From “Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact.” Survey of 5,119 U.S. adults conducted Feb. 17-23, 2026 (accessed October 18, 2026)

    US figure. Measured: say they ever use each AI chatbot (% of US adults). Licence: Pew Research Center terms of use: reuse and redrawing allowed with attribution; no use implying that Pew endorses a product or business. Re-read on the live chart page and its data table, 2026-10-18.

  3. AI assistants used in the past weekCharted

    Epoch AI / Ipsos National AI Usage Survey, conducted by Ipsos using KnowledgePanel, March 3-6, 2026, 2,021 U.S. adults ages 18+, margin of error plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. Released June 2026. https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2026-06/Topline_Epoch%20AI%20-%20Ipsos%20National%20AI%20Usage%20Survey.pdf (accessed October 18, 2026)

    US figure. Measured: say they used each AI service in the past week (% of US adults). Licence: Ipsos: published polls may be used in whole or in part with attribution; chart drawn by Supracited from the topline numbers, no Ipsos graphics reused. Re-read on the live topline PDF, 2026-10-18 (questions BZS1 and BZS2a).

  4. Chatbot health users, by ageCharted

    “Asian Americans and younger adults are among the most likely to be chatbot health users.” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (August 25, 2026) https://www.pewresearch.org/chart/asian-americans-and-younger-adults-are-among-the-most-likely-to-be-chatbot-health-users/ From “From Diagnoses to Treatments, Why Americans Use AI Chatbots for Health.” Survey of 3,488 U.S. adults conducted June 22-28, 2026 (accessed October 18, 2026)

    US figure. Measured: ever use AI chatbots for at least one of eight health reasons Pew asked about (% of US adults in each group). Licence: Pew Research Center terms of use: reuse and redrawing allowed with attribution; no use implying that Pew endorses a product or business. Re-read on the live chart page and its data table, 2026-10-18.

  5. Monthly use of AI for health informationCited in prose

    KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: Use of Social Media and AI For Health Information and Advice, (KFF, June 17, 2026) https://www.kff.org/public-opinion/kff-tracking-poll-on-health-information-and-trust-use-of-social-media-and-ai-for-health-information-and-advice/ (accessed October 18, 2026)

    US figure. Measured: use AI tools or chatbots for health information and advice at least monthly (% of US adults). Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: restated in prose with KFF's citation format, not charted or reproduced. Re-read on the live KFF page, 2026-10-18.

  6. Health reasons for using chatbotsCharted

    “Reasons for using chatbots for health span convenience, cost and medical advice.” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (August 25, 2026) https://www.pewresearch.org/chart/reasons-for-using-chatbots-for-health-span-convenience-cost-and-medical-advice/ From “From Diagnoses to Treatments, Why Americans Use AI Chatbots for Health.” Survey of 3,488 U.S. adults conducted June 22-28, 2026 (accessed October 18, 2026)

    US figure. Measured: say they ever use AI chatbots for each health reason (% of all US adults). Licence: Pew Research Center terms of use: reuse and redrawing allowed with attribution; no use implying that Pew endorses a product or business. All eight values re-read on the live chart page and its data table, 2026-10-18.

  7. Health intents in Copilot conversationsShown as a figure

    Costa-Gomes B, Tolmachev P, Taysom E, et al. "Public use of a generalist LLM chatbot for health queries." Nature Health, published April 16, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.nature.com/articles/s44360-026-00117-x (accessed October 18, 2026)

    Global figure. Measured: share of Copilot health conversations in each intent (% of health conversations). Licence: CC BY 4.0: restated with credit; Supracited shortened the category names. Re-read on the live article, 2026-10-18 (Results, Figure 1 text).

  8. Copilot conversations about someone elseShown as a figure

    Costa-Gomes B, Tolmachev P, Taysom E, et al. "Public use of a generalist LLM chatbot for health queries." Nature Health, published April 16, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.nature.com/articles/s44360-026-00117-x (accessed October 18, 2026)

    Global figure. Measured: share of symptom conversations and of condition conversations that are about someone else (a child, an aging parent or a partner) (% of conversations in each intent). Licence: CC BY 4.0: restated with credit; Supracited shortened the category names. Re-read on the live article, 2026-10-18 (Figure 5 text: subsample of n = 2,165 annotated conversations).

  9. Clicks on Google pages with AI summariesCharted

    “Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results.” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (July 22, 2025) https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/ Browsing data from 900 U.S. adults in Ipsos KnowledgePanel Digital, March 2025 (accessed October 18, 2026)

    US figure. Measured: share of Google search visits on which the user clicked a traditional result, clicked a link inside the AI summary, or ended the browsing session, by whether the page showed an AI summary (% of visits to Google search pages). Licence: Pew Research Center terms of use: reuse and redrawing allowed with attribution; this study may not be republished in its entirety or in principal part. All five values re-read on the live page, 2026-10-18.

  10. AI use in beauty and personal care shoppingCited in prose

    Criteo, "2026 Global Health & Beauty Pulse," Criteo Shopper Survey, June 2026, N=6,307 shoppers in the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea. https://www.criteo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-Global-Health-Beauty-Pulse.pdf (accessed October 18, 2026)

    US figure. Measured: use AI chatbots or assistants for all, most or some of their beauty and personal care purchases (% of US shoppers). Licence: All rights reserved: restated in prose with attribution, not charted; Criteo sells retail advertising. Re-read on the live PDF, 2026-10-18 (page 21: N=6,307, US column).

  11. Expected influence of AI answers on beauty purchasesCited in prose

    Criteo, "2026 Global Health & Beauty Pulse," Criteo Shopper Survey, June 2026, page 22: N=5,125 respondents in the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea who interact with AI chatbots when shopping the selected category at least occasionally. https://www.criteo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-Global-Health-Beauty-Pulse.pdf (accessed October 18, 2026)

    US figure. Measured: say recommendations or featured products in an AI assistant’s answer would be highly or moderately influential on their beauty and personal care purchases (a hypothetical question) (% of US respondents in that base). Licence: All rights reserved: restated in prose with attribution, not charted; Criteo sells retail advertising. Re-read on the live PDF, 2026-10-18 (page 22: base N=5,125, question “How influential would ...”).

The full report goes further

It adds every source we read, the panel and company figures we kept off the charts, the licence terms behind each one, and our category counts in detail.

Get the full report