The AI Daily Brief: Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

What People Are Actually Using AI For Right Now

640 snips
Dec 8, 2025
A massive new study reveals what's driving AI usage today, with coding tasks consuming over 50% of the action. Reasoning models are surging, while creative roleplay is unexpectedly dominating open-source systems. The hybrid approach of using both closed and open models is reshaping development strategies. Exciting rumors about GPT-5.2 and shifts at Apple and Meta add to the intrigue, highlighting an evolving landscape as we look toward 2026.
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INSIGHT

Reasoning Models Took Over 2025

  • Reasoning models shifted from negligible to over half of token usage in 2025.
  • This change enabled more agentic capabilities and tool invocation across apps.
ANECDOTE

A Massive 100T Token Study

  • OpenRouter and A16Z analyzed over 100 trillion real-world tokens to map developer usage.
  • The dataset mainly reflects power users and app builders rather than general consumer chat usage.
INSIGHT

AI Coding Dominates Token Consumption

  • Programming became the dominant real-world AI use case, rising to over 50% of usage.
  • Average prompt length ballooned as developers submitted entire codebases, docs, and logs for analysis.
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