OpenAI's new work data shows people are using ChatGPT for more kinds of jobs, not just the same ten party tricks
By Brett Gavaghan, Founder of Adaptd ·
OpenAI published Signals data on 26 October showing how people use ChatGPT for work across 165 activities and nearly 100 countries. Use is spreading beyond the most common tasks.
The short version
- OpenAI Signals data maps how people use ChatGPT for work across 165 work activities in nearly 100 countries.
- OpenAI released it on 26 October 2026, covering Q1 2025 to Q3 2026 on individual ChatGPT plans only.
- Use it to find work tasks you haven't tried with AI yet, rather than repeating the same few.
Ask most people what they use ChatGPT for at work and you'll hear the same answers: emails, summaries, the odd awkward reply. OpenAI's latest data suggests the world is slowly getting more adventurous.
What is OpenAI Signals data?
OpenAI Signals data is a research dataset showing what work people bring to ChatGPT, sorted into 165 standard work activity categories across nearly 100 countries. OpenAI released it on 26 October 2026.
The activities range from preparing instructional materials and developing marketing content to programming and analysing business data. The data runs quarterly from the first quarter of 2025 to the third quarter of 2026, and anyone can explore it by country in an interactive chart.
What does the data show?
OpenAI's data shows ChatGPT work use is spreading across more types of tasks. Across 74 countries tracked every quarter, the ten most common activities made up 51.1% of work messages in Q3 2026, down from 56.0% in Q1 2025.
Countries also specialised in different kinds of work over time. The data only covers individual ChatGPT plans, not enterprise accounts or Codex, and OpenAI says messages are classified automatically after identifying details are removed.
What should your business do with it?
Your business should use the Signals data as a list of ideas for tasks you haven't handed to AI yet. If your team only uses ChatGPT for emails, you're using a Swiss Army knife as a bottle opener.
My advice: pick one activity from the list that eats your team's time, like training material or data analysis, and try it on a real job.
The emails will still be there. They always are.
Sources
Wondering what this means for your business?
That's exactly what the discovery call is for.