Platform Choice, Trust, and Privacy in the Consumer AI Assistant Market

Jennifer Zou

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: We study how a representative sample of United States adult AI-assistant users (n=1,999; June 2026) choose among platforms, allocate tasks across them, evaluate provider trustworthiness, and value data-handling features. Estimates are weighted to the AI-user population using external adoption benchmarks. Four patterns emerge. The market is concentrated but internally differentiated: ChatGPT is the primary assistant for 58% of users and Gemini for 25%, yet smaller platforms hold defensible task niches--Claude captures a third of coding tasks despite a 7% overall share. Task allocation is thus organized by platform far more than by user, and technical use falls steeply with age. Trust is earned through use rather than reputation: Claude is ranked most trustworthy in every head-to-head among users of both platforms, and shows by far the largest gap between how its users and non-users rate it. Finally, privacy concern is near-universal but action is gated by knowledge, not concern; in a choice experiment users pay most to keep humans--not models--out of their conversations ($11.20/month), with valuations rising in task sensitivity.

Date: 2026-07
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