A Harvard team analyzed ~13,000 real cases: what people do with AI
Dynamics over 3 years: 2024 — idea generation, 2025 — therapy and emotional support took the lead, 2026 — it holds #1, share grew from 5% to 11%. Next — everyday problems and entertainment; autonomous agents and vibe coding appear in the top for the first time.
At work: according to Microsoft (100,000+ Copilot chats) 28% of activity is decision-making, but most implementations yield incremental gains, not breakthroughs.
Source: <a href="https://hbr.org/2026/06/how-people-are-really-using-ai-in-2026">HBR</a>, “How People Are Really Using AI in 2026”
