Artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life for 17.4 million Australians (77 per cent of the 16 plus population), as the national user base grew by more than 6 million from June 2025 to May 2026, according to new research from technology analyst firm Telsyte.
The Telsyte Australian Artificial Intelligence Study 2026 found engagement has deepened sharply alongside adoption. Of the AI user base, four in five (14.3 million) engaged with AI at least monthly, up 61 per cent year-on-year – including 5.2 million who now use it every day, a 160 per cent surge from approximately 2 million in June 2025.
More than a third (35 per cent) of users said they are using AI significantly more than a year ago, and nearly half (48 per cent) report improved proficiency with AI tools over the same period.
ChatGPT retains dominant market position with 13.8 million users in the last 12 months, followed by Google Gemini (9.1 million), Meta AI (5.6 million) and Microsoft Copilot (5.4 million). The top 10 is completed by Apple Intelligence (3.9 million), Samsung Galaxy AI (3.1 million), Claude (2.9 million), Canva AI (2.8 million), Grok (2.5 million) and CapCut (2.4 million).
Typing remains the dominant mode of AI interaction at 80 per cent compared with 20 per cent using voice, a gap Telsyte believes points to potentially significant runway for voice-driven AI experiences in smart home and in-vehicle environments (e.g. Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Grok on newer Tesla models).
More than one in five AI users now use five or more services, a figure that nearly doubles among daily users. Telsyte believes service rotation is increasingly driven by use cases and free-tier limits, with standalone AI services facing more loyalty risk than those anchored within established platform ecosystems.
While AI is growing rapidly, it is doing so against a backdrop of consumer anxiety about pace and a foundational trust deficit that the industry has yet to resolve. The study finds 62 per cent of Australians feel technology is changing faster than they can keep up with, while just 35 per cent trust technology companies to use their data responsibly. These are foundational constraints that now directly bear on how AI providers monetise their growth.
This is supported by Open AI deteriorating seven places to enter the top 20 most distrusted brands according to Roy Morgan.
The majority of AI users remain on free tiers and advertising is emerging as a way for AI service providers to generate revenue, with OpenAI already testing ads within ChatGPT in Australia and the United States.
Australians are broadly open to the concept, as 70 per cent would opt for a free, ad-supported service over a paid, ad-free alternative – yet only 27 per cent are comfortable seeing ads within AI-generated answers, and more than half (52 per cent) believe sponsored AI answers are less trustworthy than organic responses.
AI has reached the majority of Australians faster than almost any consumer technology before it, yet trust in the technology has not kept pace. Telsyte Principal Analyst Foad Fadaghi said advertising as a revenue model only sharpens that tension.
“If it erodes confidence in AI-generated answers, it cuts against the fundamental value proposition. That is a difficult trade-off to walk back.”
The study also finds 12 per cent of Australians now identify AI tools as their primary means of finding information online, up from 5 per cent a year ago. Majority (81 per cent) are aware of AI summaries in search results, with half indicating they would often rely on the summary without clicking through to the source.
Telsyte anticipates these shifts will pressure search, publishing and digital marketing models as AI summaries and agentic search experiences become more common.
For a market where Google remains the dominant search entry point, the implications for advertisers and publishers are immediate. E-commerce and retail sites are primed to retool content for machine consumption as AI agents increasingly guide product discovery and purchasing.
