Survey: Few private users pay for AI

The willingness among private users to pay for AI services is growing only slowly. This is suggested by figures from a survey by the digital association Bitkom. According to the survey, 13 percent of respondents currently pay for an AI application, compared to 8 percent in the previous year. Around 49 percent still reject paying for AI. However, the reluctance seems to be slowly crumbling, as according to Bitkom figures, almost two-thirds (62 percent) rejected it in the previous year. Just under 29 percent could imagine switching to a paid version in the future.

The still quite small number of payers spend an average of 20 euros per month, which is four euros more than in the previous year. Two-thirds (67 percent) cited access to more powerful AI models as the reason for payment to Bitkom. More than half also hope for better quality of results and greater technical stability. Better data protection is also among the reasons for willingness to pay. The survey, which is representative, included, according to Bitkom, 1,003 people aged 16 and over.

Unlike in the business customer sector, the question for private users is whether providers will not rely more on advertising as the primary source of income anyway. Paid models could thus become secondary. For example, OpenAI introduced ads in the USA at the beginning of the year for the free version and the cheapest paid tier, and recently changed its US privacy policy to include advertising tracking. The company cites economic necessity for this. The stable operation of the free version and the cheapest subscription tier consumes immense sums for infrastructure – the company is incurring billions in losses despite high user numbers.

(axk)