The Digital 2027 report, published by We Are Social and Meltwater, reveals that 3.24 billion people are now actively using generative AI tools each month, equivalent to 38.9% of the global population. The 900-page report marks the 15th edition of the annual series and tracks how AI, social media, and video are reshaping online behavior worldwide.
Digital 2027 Report’s Key Findings
Active generative AI users grew by 57.2% over the past 12 months, adding 1.2 billion new users to the global total. ChatGPT remains the market leader, attracting twice as many monthly active users as its nearest rival; Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude are gaining ground, with Gemini’s mobile app user base growing fourfold in the past year and its web user base now exceeding 60% of ChatGPT’s size.
Overall, global internet users have reached 6.15 billion, placing 73.9% of the world’s population online; social media user identities now stand at 5.81 billion, equivalent to 69.9% of the global population, a 2.7% increase over the past year, driven by 151 million new user identities.
Time spent on social platforms is also on the rise – the typical internet user now spends an average of 19 hours and 18 minutes per week on social media and online video platforms, a 3.8% increase year-on-year. YouTube captured the greatest share of total global social media time, followed closely by WhatsApp and Instagram. On a per-user basis, TikTok leads with an average of 1 hour and 55 minutes per day.
As a result, social commerce is also gaining traction among younger audiences. Nearly 47% of internet users aged 16 to 24 use platforms such as Instagram and Facebook as their primary source of information when researching brands and potential purchases.
On the contrary, traditional web traffic is declining: across the world’s top 10,000 web domains, total monthly web traffic has fallen by more than 10% since the public launch of ChatGPT (which scrapes websites and effectively “steals” site visit counts), and total time spent on the web has dropped by 11.2% in the past 24 months. Despite this, online adults remain 74% more likely to turn to search engines than AI platforms when researching brands.
In Malaysia & Southeast Asia
Internet adoption across Southeast Asia sits at 82.8% of the total population, with Malaysia standing out at 98.3%; our nation also ranks 8th globally for ChatGPT usage, with 52.1% of individuals aged 16 and above reporting use in the past month, well above the global average of 34.7%. The country is also highly reliant on AI, as 65.7% of Malaysians reportedly use AI to search for information, above the global average of 60.4%.
For brand discovery, 36.9% of Malaysians use social media; online shopping is widespread, with 55.6% of Malaysians purchasing something online each week, nearly matching the global average of 55.7%. Additionally, 67.4% of Malaysians pay for some form of digital content each month, slightly below the global average of 69.3%.
The report also notes broader advertising trends: digital ad spend increased by 8.7% over the past year, with social media ad spend up 18% and influencer ad spend rising by 15%. The typical online adult now relies on an average of 5.8 different channels to discover new brands.
Pokdepinion: Turns out Malaysians love AI. Perhaps a bit too much…
