Google's terms now say that an AI agent can act against its instructions. Google's contract makes the company that runs the agent responsible for every action the agent takes. So an agent is only as good as the people who run it and know where it fails.
Better results start before you open the chat. Five minutes spent writing down what you need gets you further than a conversation spent working it out. The rest comes down to a few habits for asking well, checking answers and protecting what you share.
AI saves time, though less than it promises. When it should save an hour, it saves about 25 minutes. The rest goes on tasks AI gets wrong and on checking its work.
Automating legal compliance, statutory financial calculations, and data distribution for a multi-location retail network through a centralized platform with strict line-item validation.
Automating the full operational lifecycle of a 6,000-point retail network. Onboarding time reduced from days to hours through fully digital workflows and real-time system integration.
Replacing a high-overhead, manual industry event tracking process with an autonomous, AI-driven aggregation and instant email-validated publication system.
What AI actually does
breinz Charts
AI True Cost Index
For every hour AI is expected to save, it actually saves about 25 minutes
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. AI True Cost Index, average of the February 2026 and November 2025 results, rounded to whole minutes. An average conversation is expected to save about 2.9 hours, here scaled to one hour. Expected saving: time a task takes a person alone minus time with AI, from the Anthropic Economic Index; checking rate from Workday.
Where the hour goes
Of every promised hour, 24 to 26 minutes come back
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. AI True Cost Index, computed from the Anthropic Economic Index, releases of November 2025 and February 2026.
What people use AI for
Over half of all conversations are work, spread across three uses, and a third are personal advice
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Share of conversations by segment; segments are breinz's grouping of the Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026.
Return by use
Writing returns the most of its promised time, software the least
November 2025February 2026
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. AI True Cost Index by segment; segments are breinz's grouping of the Anthropic Economic Index, November 2025 and February 2026.
Success vs time
Office work succeeds less often than writing but returns the most hours
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Success as judged by Claude and hours returned before checking, by segment. Anthropic Economic Index, February 2026.
Age
Messages from 18 to 24 year olds fell from 41% to 30% in two years
18 to 2425 to 4445 and over
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. OpenAI Signals, data files version 3.0. Share of messages by age group, world, averages of July to September 2024, 2025 and 2026.
What each age asks
Seeking information rises with age, practical guidance falls
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. OpenAI Signals, data files version 3.0. Topic mix of each age group derived from age by topic and topic shares, world, average of July to September 2026; Multimedia and Other not shown.
Markets
The US leans on personal advice, the EU and the rest of the world on software
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Segment mix by market; segments are breinz's grouping of the Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026.
Language
The UK and Ireland ask like Americans and work like Europeans
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Four measures from the Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026. UK stands for the UK and Ireland; Europe for continental Europe without them.
Poland: software
Poland gives software a bigger share than the world in every release
WorldPoland
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Software segment share, Poland and world; breinz's grouping of the Anthropic Economic Index, November 2025, February 2026, April and May 2026.
Poland: age
Polish messages come mostly from people aged 25 to 44
WorldPoland, higherPoland, lower
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. OpenAI Signals, data files version 3.0. Share of messages by age group, Poland and world, average of July to September 2026.
AI adoption
In 2025, two in three Europeans had not started using AI, and those who had were mostly still learning to use it
Source: breinz Two years to first AI agent. Eurostat 2025, people aged 16 to 74 who used generative AI. Inner spheres: breinz keyword dataset, new questions recorded in 2025 by stage, excluding those that fit no stage; each question counts in one stage only.
AI adoption
In 2026, people moved on from images and detection to agents and money, while beginners kept asking what AI is
Source: breinz Two years to first AI agent. Google Trends, worldwide, yearly average of monthly interest, each phrase scaled to its own peak month (100); 2026 covers January to September. Phrases: ai video generator, ai replace jobs, what is ai, ai agent, how to use chatgpt, ai stocks, ai detector, humanize ai, ai image generator. "Asked more often" and "Asked less often" compare 2026 with 2025. First asked: the first of three months in a row at 5 or more. Yearly averages below 10 are not shown.
AI adoption
The first users ask about a new AI tool within weeks, and most people follow months or years later
Tool launchedFirst users askingMost people asking
Source: breinz Two years to first AI agent. Google Trends, worldwide, each phrase scaled to its own peak month (100). First users asking: the first of three months in a row at 5 or more. Most people asking: the first of three months in a row at 25 or more. Phrases: chatgpt cover letter, how to use chatgpt, ai detector, humanize ai, how to build an ai agent, prompt engineering. Launch dates: ChatGPT, GPTZero, Turnitin AI detection, GPTs.
AI adoption
Once AI text started getting caught, people began asking how to disguise it
Source: breinz Two years to first AI agent. Google Trends, worldwide, both phrases compared together (ai detector, humanize ai); 100 = the peak month for ai detector. Lines show three-month averages. Events: GPTZero and Turnitin launch detectors (2023); Meta, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google label or demote AI content (2024); Pinterest and YouTube cut its reach or pay (2025).
AI adoption
AI has moved beyond its young first users, and the people starting now are older
Source: breinz Two years to first AI agent. OpenAI Signals, consumer ChatGPT, share of messages by age group, average for July to September of each year; calculated from each topic's age split and that topic's share of all messages.
Languages of AI
English and dozens of other languages share AI conversations almost evenly
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Share of conversations by language, April 2023 to June 2025. The area of each piece is proportional to the share. All other languages cover more than 50 smaller ones and include Yoruba and Indonesian, likely detection errors. breinz analysis of WildChat-4.8M, 30,000 conversations.
English over time
English swung up to two thirds of conversations and back to half within two years
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Share of conversations in English by half-year. breinz analysis of WildChat-4.8M, 30,000 conversations.
Languages of the web
English stays below half of the web pages AI learns from
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Share of web pages whose primary language is English, yearly average of Common Crawl crawls, August 2018 to October 2026. breinz analysis of Common Crawl language statistics.
Language and answers
In almost every language, the AI agrees and reassures more than in English
Agrees with the person's ideas and work,reassures them without being asked, jokes and plays more, and keeps to polite language.
Corrects details nobody asked about,challenges wrong assumptions, asks for evidence, and gives frank criticism of the person's work.
English
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Each bar shows how far Claude's answers in one language differ from its answers in English. English is the line in the middle, and the longer the bar, the bigger the difference. All 20 languages in the study. Calculated by breinz from Anthropic, Claude's values across models and languages, 2026, based on 309,815 conversations from May 2026.
Language and answers
In most languages, the AI sticks to the task more than in English
Admits its own mistakes,says when it is unsure, and is upfront about what it can't do.
Stays within what was askedand aims for a result, giving a polished, confident answer.
English
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Each bar shows how far Claude's answers in one language differ from its answers in English. English is the line in the middle, and the longer the bar, the bigger the difference. All 20 languages in the study. Calculated by breinz from Anthropic, Claude's values across models and languages, 2026, based on 309,815 conversations from May 2026.
Language by country
Each country's conversations mix several languages
EnglishFrench, German or SpanishOther languages, led by Russian and Chinese
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Share of conversations by language, April 2023 to June 2025. The country comes from the internet address of each conversation. breinz analysis of WildChat-4.8M.
AI at work
AI is used almost entirely for desk work
Share of all job tasksShare of AI use
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Share of the 18,800 O*NET job tasks and share of Claude conversations matched to them, April and May 2026. Desk work: writing, analysing, planning, calculating and communicating. Partly desk work: physical or in-person work with a real share of desk work. Physical work: no desk work. 0.8% of use could not be matched. breinz classification of 332 O*NET work activities; breinz analysis of the Anthropic Economic Index.
Use by country
A country's AI ranking depends on what is counted
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Left: Claude use per working-age person, May 2026, as a multiple of the world average. Right: share of firms with ten or more people using at least one AI technology, 2025, for which the US has no comparable figure. France and Denmark highlighted. Anthropic Economic Index; Eurostat.
Task size
Almost half of AI use goes to tasks that take a person under four hours
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Share of Claude conversations matched to O*NET tasks, grouped by the time a person would need for the task working without AI, as the model estimates it: 594, 700, 804 and 710 tasks. April and May 2026. breinz analysis of the Anthropic Economic Index.
Use per worker
Office work draws the least AI of all desk jobs
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Share of US Claude conversations matched to each occupation group divided by its share of US employment, April and May 2026. Office and administrative support: two thirds of its tasks are desk work. breinz analysis of the Anthropic Economic Index and US Bureau of Labor Statistics employment, May 2025.
Job ads and AI
AI did not start the fall in job ads for the jobs that use it most: it began before ChatGPT
Before ChatGPT, 2020 to 2022After ChatGPT, 2022 to 2026
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?How job ads for the quarter of job types with the most AI use changed, compared with the quarter with the least. Before ChatGPT: February 2020 to November 2022. After: November 2022 to September and October 2026. Each group measured against all job ads in its country. Job types: 47 in the US, 41 in Germany, 31 in France; AI use per worker from US data. Indeed Hiring Lab; Anthropic Economic Index; breinz analysis.
Jobs and AI
The jobs AI is used in are not disappearing: in Europe they grew by 5% since 2022
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Change in the number of people employed in the EU, 2022 to 2025, people aged 15 to 64. Occupations that use AI: 19 occupation groups with AI use per worker at least a quarter of the average, 121 million people in 2022, such as ICT professionals, business professionals and clerks. AI use per worker from US data. Eurostat; Anthropic Economic Index; breinz analysis.
Out of view
The EU count of AI in firms leaves out four in ten jobs in Italy and a third in Spain
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Share of jobs in the business economy in firms with fewer than ten people, 2023. The EU survey of AI use in firms covers only firms with ten or more people. Eurostat; breinz analysis.
Firms using AI
Half of large EU firms use AI, against one in six small firms
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Share of EU firms using at least one AI technology, 2025, by number of people employed. Firms with fewer than ten people, farming, mining and finance are not covered. Large firms are 0.16% of all EU firms. Eurostat.
AI True Cost Index
For every hour AI is expected to save, it actually saves about 25 minutes
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. AI True Cost Index, average of the February 2026 and November 2025 results, rounded to whole minutes. An average conversation is expected to save about 2.9 hours, here scaled to one hour. Expected saving: time a task takes a person alone minus time with AI, from the Anthropic Economic Index; checking rate from Workday.
Where the hour goes
Of every promised hour, 24 to 26 minutes come back
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. AI True Cost Index, computed from the Anthropic Economic Index, releases of November 2025 and February 2026.
What people use AI for
Over half of all conversations are work, spread across three uses, and a third are personal advice
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Share of conversations by segment; segments are breinz's grouping of the Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026.
Return by use
Writing returns the most of its promised time, software the least
November 2025February 2026
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. AI True Cost Index by segment; segments are breinz's grouping of the Anthropic Economic Index, November 2025 and February 2026.
Success vs time
Office work succeeds less often than writing but returns the most hours
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Success as judged by Claude and hours returned before checking, by segment. Anthropic Economic Index, February 2026.
Age
Messages from 18 to 24 year olds fell from 41% to 30% in two years
18 to 2425 to 4445 and over
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. OpenAI Signals, data files version 3.0. Share of messages by age group, world, averages of July to September 2024, 2025 and 2026.
What each age asks
Seeking information rises with age, practical guidance falls
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. OpenAI Signals, data files version 3.0. Topic mix of each age group derived from age by topic and topic shares, world, average of July to September 2026; Multimedia and Other not shown.
Markets
The US leans on personal advice, the EU and the rest of the world on software
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Segment mix by market; segments are breinz's grouping of the Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026.
Language
The UK and Ireland ask like Americans and work like Europeans
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Four measures from the Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026. UK stands for the UK and Ireland; Europe for continental Europe without them.
Poland: software
Poland gives software a bigger share than the world in every release
WorldPoland
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Software segment share, Poland and world; breinz's grouping of the Anthropic Economic Index, November 2025, February 2026, April and May 2026.
Poland: age
Polish messages come mostly from people aged 25 to 44
WorldPoland, higherPoland, lower
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. OpenAI Signals, data files version 3.0. Share of messages by age group, Poland and world, average of July to September 2026.
AI adoption
In 2025, two in three Europeans had not started using AI, and those who had were mostly still learning to use it
Source: breinz Two years to first AI agent. Eurostat 2025, people aged 16 to 74 who used generative AI. Inner spheres: breinz keyword dataset, new questions recorded in 2025 by stage, excluding those that fit no stage; each question counts in one stage only.
AI adoption
In 2026, people moved on from images and detection to agents and money, while beginners kept asking what AI is
Source: breinz Two years to first AI agent. Google Trends, worldwide, yearly average of monthly interest, each phrase scaled to its own peak month (100); 2026 covers January to September. Phrases: ai video generator, ai replace jobs, what is ai, ai agent, how to use chatgpt, ai stocks, ai detector, humanize ai, ai image generator. "Asked more often" and "Asked less often" compare 2026 with 2025. First asked: the first of three months in a row at 5 or more. Yearly averages below 10 are not shown.
AI adoption
The first users ask about a new AI tool within weeks, and most people follow months or years later
Tool launchedFirst users askingMost people asking
Source: breinz Two years to first AI agent. Google Trends, worldwide, each phrase scaled to its own peak month (100). First users asking: the first of three months in a row at 5 or more. Most people asking: the first of three months in a row at 25 or more. Phrases: chatgpt cover letter, how to use chatgpt, ai detector, humanize ai, how to build an ai agent, prompt engineering. Launch dates: ChatGPT, GPTZero, Turnitin AI detection, GPTs.
AI adoption
Once AI text started getting caught, people began asking how to disguise it
Source: breinz Two years to first AI agent. Google Trends, worldwide, both phrases compared together (ai detector, humanize ai); 100 = the peak month for ai detector. Lines show three-month averages. Events: GPTZero and Turnitin launch detectors (2023); Meta, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google label or demote AI content (2024); Pinterest and YouTube cut its reach or pay (2025).
AI adoption
AI has moved beyond its young first users, and the people starting now are older
Source: breinz Two years to first AI agent. OpenAI Signals, consumer ChatGPT, share of messages by age group, average for July to September of each year; calculated from each topic's age split and that topic's share of all messages.
What people use AI for
Over half of all conversations are work, spread across three uses, and a third are personal advice
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Share of conversations by segment; segments are breinz's grouping of the Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026.
AI at work
AI is used almost entirely for desk work
Share of all job tasksShare of AI use
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Share of the 18,800 O*NET job tasks and share of Claude conversations matched to them, April and May 2026. Desk work: writing, analysing, planning, calculating and communicating. Partly desk work: physical or in-person work with a real share of desk work. Physical work: no desk work. 0.8% of use could not be matched. breinz classification of 332 O*NET work activities; breinz analysis of the Anthropic Economic Index.
Languages of AI
English and dozens of other languages share AI conversations almost evenly
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Share of conversations by language, April 2023 to June 2025. The area of each piece is proportional to the share. All other languages cover more than 50 smaller ones and include Yoruba and Indonesian, likely detection errors. breinz analysis of WildChat-4.8M, 30,000 conversations.
English over time
English swung up to two thirds of conversations and back to half within two years
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Share of conversations in English by half-year. breinz analysis of WildChat-4.8M, 30,000 conversations.
Languages of the web
English stays below half of the web pages AI learns from
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Share of web pages whose primary language is English, yearly average of Common Crawl crawls, August 2018 to October 2026. breinz analysis of Common Crawl language statistics.
Language and answers
In almost every language, the AI agrees and reassures more than in English
Agrees with the person's ideas and work,reassures them without being asked, jokes and plays more, and keeps to polite language.
Corrects details nobody asked about,challenges wrong assumptions, asks for evidence, and gives frank criticism of the person's work.
English
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Each bar shows how far Claude's answers in one language differ from its answers in English. English is the line in the middle, and the longer the bar, the bigger the difference. All 20 languages in the study. Calculated by breinz from Anthropic, Claude's values across models and languages, 2026, based on 309,815 conversations from May 2026.
Language and answers
In most languages, the AI sticks to the task more than in English
Admits its own mistakes,says when it is unsure, and is upfront about what it can't do.
Stays within what was askedand aims for a result, giving a polished, confident answer.
English
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Each bar shows how far Claude's answers in one language differ from its answers in English. English is the line in the middle, and the longer the bar, the bigger the difference. All 20 languages in the study. Calculated by breinz from Anthropic, Claude's values across models and languages, 2026, based on 309,815 conversations from May 2026.
Language by country
Each country's conversations mix several languages
EnglishFrench, German or SpanishOther languages, led by Russian and Chinese
Source: breinz English is only half of AI use. Share of conversations by language, April 2023 to June 2025. The country comes from the internet address of each conversation. breinz analysis of WildChat-4.8M.
Language
The UK and Ireland ask like Americans and work like Europeans
Source: breinz AI True Cost Index. Four measures from the Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026. UK stands for the UK and Ireland; Europe for continental Europe without them.
AI at work
AI is used almost entirely for desk work
Share of all job tasksShare of AI use
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Share of the 18,800 O*NET job tasks and share of Claude conversations matched to them, April and May 2026. Desk work: writing, analysing, planning, calculating and communicating. Partly desk work: physical or in-person work with a real share of desk work. Physical work: no desk work. 0.8% of use could not be matched. breinz classification of 332 O*NET work activities; breinz analysis of the Anthropic Economic Index.
Use by country
A country's AI ranking depends on what is counted
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Left: Claude use per working-age person, May 2026, as a multiple of the world average. Right: share of firms with ten or more people using at least one AI technology, 2025, for which the US has no comparable figure. France and Denmark highlighted. Anthropic Economic Index; Eurostat.
Task size
Almost half of AI use goes to tasks that take a person under four hours
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Share of Claude conversations matched to O*NET tasks, grouped by the time a person would need for the task working without AI, as the model estimates it: 594, 700, 804 and 710 tasks. April and May 2026. breinz analysis of the Anthropic Economic Index.
Use per worker
Office work draws the least AI of all desk jobs
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Share of US Claude conversations matched to each occupation group divided by its share of US employment, April and May 2026. Office and administrative support: two thirds of its tasks are desk work. breinz analysis of the Anthropic Economic Index and US Bureau of Labor Statistics employment, May 2025.
Job ads and AI
AI did not start the fall in job ads for the jobs that use it most: it began before ChatGPT
Before ChatGPT, 2020 to 2022After ChatGPT, 2022 to 2026
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?How job ads for the quarter of job types with the most AI use changed, compared with the quarter with the least. Before ChatGPT: February 2020 to November 2022. After: November 2022 to September and October 2026. Each group measured against all job ads in its country. Job types: 47 in the US, 41 in Germany, 31 in France; AI use per worker from US data. Indeed Hiring Lab; Anthropic Economic Index; breinz analysis.
Jobs and AI
The jobs AI is used in are not disappearing: in Europe they grew by 5% since 2022
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Change in the number of people employed in the EU, 2022 to 2025, people aged 15 to 64. Occupations that use AI: 19 occupation groups with AI use per worker at least a quarter of the average, 121 million people in 2022, such as ICT professionals, business professionals and clerks. AI use per worker from US data. Eurostat; Anthropic Economic Index; breinz analysis.
Out of view
The EU count of AI in firms leaves out four in ten jobs in Italy and a third in Spain
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Share of jobs in the business economy in firms with fewer than ten people, 2023. The EU survey of AI use in firms covers only firms with ten or more people. Eurostat; breinz analysis.
Firms using AI
Half of large EU firms use AI, against one in six small firms
Source: breinz Is AI taking jobs?Share of EU firms using at least one AI technology, 2025, by number of people employed. Firms with fewer than ten people, farming, mining and finance are not covered. Large firms are 0.16% of all EU firms. Eurostat.
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