AI-driven tools have been evolving for decades, but when ChatGPT was released to the public on November 30 2022, it set off the fastest adoption of a technology in human history — it took just two months for 100-million users to sign up.
According to the Microsoft AI Economy Institute’s 2025 AI Diffusion Report, published three years later, more than 1.2-billion people across the globe are active monthly users of standalone AI tools.
If one in six people globally now use AI tools, what does that look like in South Africa’s middle class? WhyFive’s BrandMapp 2025 — the latest and largest dataset mapping the behaviours and sentiments of households earning R10,000 or more per month — offers a clear picture.
“What we are seeing is a rate of adoption among our digitally connected and digitally skilled consumer class that matches the global average by Microsoft,” says Brandon de Kock, BrandMapp’s director of Storytelling.
“Our latest results reveal AI use is already normalised in daily life and/or work for 79% of the South African mid to top income earners — that’s roughly 11-million people.”
A somewhat rosy outlook on AI
While there are many things that keep South Africans awake at night — crime (57%), corruption (50%) and rising prices (42%), the potential dark side of AI is not significant at this time.
De Kock notes that in the face of relentless fearmongering, only 14% of the consumer class say they worry generally about the rise of AI, a decidedly lukewarm reaction compared with global concerns around replacement, misinformation, bias, and ethics.
Only 11% don’t really trust AI answers, and while 10% worry that AI may take jobs in their fields, that is roughly balanced by the 11% who anticipate AI creating new career opportunities.
When breaking the data down by age, De Kock observes that younger middle-income students are particularly unperturbed: only 8% feel a niggle that AI might disrupt their chosen career path, while 9% are excited to work with AI in the future.
“Most young people are currently agnostic, reflecting the reality that none of us know yet what the actual impacts of AI will be,” he says.
Homegrown AI positivity and pragmatism
In the meantime though, in a time-starved world, AI is proving to be a useful helper, and in general, De Kock says BrandMapp is seeing a positive attitude in terms of productivity and practicality.
”48% of AI users say it saves time and 33% report that it increases their productivity and creativity.”
According to BrandMapp 2025, the five top uses of AI by SA’s consumer class are:
- Research — 52%
- Writing — 38%
- Studying — 27%
- Fun and experimentation — 27%
- Creative work — 20%
De Kock points out that AI use has jumped from zero to nearly 80% in just three years, an exceptionally rapid shift in behaviour likely driven by a blend of openness, optimistic expectations, and the user-friendliness of the tools.
“We are very much still in the honeymoon phase,” he says. “What will be fascinating is tracking how these sentiments and behaviours shift over the next few years, as AI’s fuller impact on our work and daily lives begins to unfold.”
Get the consumer insights you need to make informed decisions
BrandMapp 2025 insights are available directly from the BrandMapp team at WhyFive and by subscription via Telmar, Softcopy, Nielsen and Eighty20. For data access, email Julie-anne@whyfive.co.za.
This article was sponsored by WhyFive.
