Marc Zao-Sanders

AI in the Wild 🌿

How People Are Really Using AI

Two Harvard Business Review articles about how people are really using generative AI have become global phenomena. The 2024 piece went viral across social media. The 2025 follow-up is HBR’s most popular publication in 2025, with half a million page views:

• Featured in HBR’s print magazine
• A viral social media hit
• Picked up globally: Forbes, Search Engine Journal, Society Magazine, academic institutions and OpenAI research.
• Recognised by Big 4 professional services firms, Big Tech and AI influencers
• Prescient –  identifying therapy/companionship as the #1 AI use case months before major headlines about AI psychosis emerged over the summer of 2025.

Clearly, there’s a huge interest in unsanitized, pragmatic information during this critical period for AI and humanity. Unlike the polished case studies and corporate announcements we typically see in AI articles, this research captures how people actually behave, in great, glorious detail.

Plans for 2025-26…

Building on the success and methodology developed over 2024 and 2025, the 2026 research will be expanded:

• Automated data collection
• Expanded data sources: additional online forums, corporate surveys, own webform collection, partnership with Mindstone.
• Corporate-specific use cases (a separate top-25 list).
• Larger sample sizes and more robust validation.
• Undertaken over 12 months rather than just the six weeks prior to publication (anticipated April 2026).

Get Involved

I’m looking for allies, ideas, data sources, and sponsors (sponsorship doc available on request) who want early access to insights and data that reveal how humans are truly adapting to AI.

Interested in collaborating, sponsoring, or getting early access to the research? Email me and we will talk!