About 63% of U.S. internet households now use AI tools, up from 51% in 2025, according to new data from Parks Associates. Paid AI adoption has reached 22% of U.S. internet households, but consumers are most willing to pay when AI delivers clear <a href="https://bitcomme.com/psychology-says-people-who-dont-like-working-from-home-and-prefer-the-office-may-be-seeking-more-than-productivity/” title=”Psychology says people who don't like working from home and prefer the office may be seeking more than productivity”>productivity or specialized value, according to the Dallas-based research firm.
Parks found that DeepSeek has the highest customer loyalty among paid users at 59, followed by Grammarly and Perplexity with scores of 55 and 51, respectively, compared to 15 and 10 among free users of these tools, respectively.
ChatGPT has a rating of 44 among paid users, while Alexa+ and Meta AI have the lowest NPS among free users at -10 and their paid-user scores are 40 and 28, respectively.
“AI adoption continues to grow, but providers still have to demonstrate why consumers should pay,” said Jennifer Kent, SVP and principal analyst at Parks. “The higher scores among paid users shows that consumers see value in premium experiences.”
Trust and safety remain important factors in the next phase of AI adoption, especially as national news continues to report growing concerns from governments, industry insiders, and consumers about the increasing capabilities of AI systems, according to Parks. In one of the most extreme examples, a recent TechCrunch article reports a researcher at Anthropic resigned out of concerns that AI could kill all humans by the end of the decade, with this strong warning: “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
Parks counters that its research found that consumers are more comfortable with AI for productivity and monitoring tasks, but show greater concern when AI is used for higher-risk decisions.
“Major consumer brands are integrating AI into products and services consumers use every day,” Kent said. “Samsung, for example, is expanding AI capabilities across smartphones, TVs, and home appliances.”
