Grandma Test
“Grandma Test” – A cartoon showing that while ChatGPT’s rise is faster than most past technologies, it still follows the same adoption curve.
An Adobe Express survey found that 77% of ChatGPT users rely on it only as a replacement for Google search, and a Pew study showed that two-thirds of Americans still haven’t tried it at all. Heavy usage for everyday tasks or brainstorming remains rare, especially among older age groups.
That hesitation has deep roots. When the Internet first arrived, platforms like AOL and Yahoo gave people a safe entry point, but most stuck to email and chat. Only once the benefits became obvious, with easier information access and opportunity to develop new communities or find lost friends, did mainstream adoption follow. The same psychology is shaping AI as mass adoption will only happen when people see the usefulness.
We are starting to see the first examples of this usefulness. For example, one user described their favorite ChatGPT prompt as a way to save money – “find discount codes for <store>, then go to the site, add an item to the cart, go to checkout and test the discount code.” Meanwhile, Laura Cunningham is building Ava, an AI household concierge, after realizing 95% of her communication with her husband revolved around family logistics.
Venture capital money is also shifting more towards these apps, rather than investing primarily in the infrastructure. For example, Lovable, a vibe coding app, secured $200 million in Series A funding round after reaching $100 million in ARR in just eight months, one of the fastest climbs in software history. Also, April, an embedded AI tax platform, raised $38 million in Series B funding after cutting the average time to file taxes from 13 hours to just 22 minutes.
AI’s tipping point won’t come from model supremacy in Silicon Valley, but from the moment our grandmothers use it instinctively and see the benefits.
Sources:
Jeremy Kahn (Sep 16, 2024) – What chatbot usage studies from OpenAI and Anthropic say about AI’s likely economic impacts – Fortune
Savannah Fortis (Apr 12, 2024) -Sam Altman pushes ChatGPT mass adoption among Fortune 500 companies: Report – Cointelegraph
