October 8, 2025
DHAKA – At present, ChatGPT is used weekly by more than 700 million people, accounting for around 10 percent of the world’s adult population. That’s 2.5 billion messages every single day, or nearly 29,000 per second. No other technology has spread this fast—not radio, not television, not even the smartphone.
However, a September 2025 working paper from the US National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), by Aaron Chatterji and co-authors, offers a twist on how people actually use ChatGPT. It reveals that the fastest growth is not happening in Silicon Valley or London. It is taking place in lower- and middle-income countries, and Bangladesh is part of this quiet revolution. And what we do in the next five years will determine whether we surf this wave or get pulled under.
If you imagine ChatGPT as a coder’s best friend, the numbers will surprise you. Only 4.2 percent of ChatGPT messages are related to programming. Instead, the dominant use is related to writing, including drafting, editing, translating, and summarising. In June 2025, nearly 40 percent of work-related messages involved writing tasks, from polishing reports to drafting proposals.
Writing is more than words; it’s structured thinking, persuasive storytelling, and sharp decision-making. In almost every white-collar job, the ability to write well is the ability to lead. Therefore, it matters for Bangladesh as well.
Yet, over-reliance on AI dulls judgment as AI models can fabricate, flatten voice, and embed bias. Humans must remain responsible for facts, sources, and decisions. With a young, multilingual workforce, Bangladesh has a unique edge. If we invest in digital communication skills, supported by AI copilots, we will not just produce job-ready graduates, we will also nurture global contributors.
The study further shows that nearly 80 percent of ChatGPT usage involves practical guidance, seeking information, and writing across the world. These are broad building blocks. The real opportunity is not to launch yet another chatbot; it’s to embed language intelligence into the systems we already rely on.
AI potential for Bangladesh
Globally, about 10 percent of ChatGPT messages are tutoring or teaching requests. One in ten conversations is about learning. In Bangladesh, where rural schools face chronic teacher shortages, this could be a lifeline. Imagine every student in Rangpur or Barishal having access to a patient tutor who can explain algebra, translate Shakespeare into Bangla, or walk through the history of the Liberation War. It is not science fiction; it, in fact, is very much doable. But most large language models are built primarily in English and trained on Western data. Thus, if we do not act, our children will inherit tools shaped by foreign biases. We need models fine-tuned on our curriculum, history, and cultural values. Public-private partnerships must fund this now, before our future is filtered through someone else’s lens.
For Bangladesh, AI also holds a wide range of potential. For example, AI-powered SME finance portals can help small businesses prepare bankable proposals, remittance advisory tools can guide migrant workers on safe transfers and smarter savings, AI-generated CVs and cover letters can facilitate job-matching platforms better, and RTI portals with AI copilots can help citizens navigate bureaucracy, among other potential advantages.
Additionally, nearly half of ChatGPT messages from adults come from users under 26. In Bangladesh, where close to 60 percent of the population is under 30, this is a perfect demographic match. The very generation that will inherit our economy is already experimenting with AI. However, older users tend to use ChatGPT more for work, while younger users lean towards non-work uses. Bridging this gap, by channelling youth AI fluency into career-building skills, may be our most important workforce challenge this decade.
The real question is: will we remain passive consumers of global content, or will we create tools that reflect Bangladeshi humour, values, and resilience? If we lean back, we’ll import cultural defaults from elsewhere. If we lean in, we can shape them ourselves.
Instead of chasing trends, we could leapfrog, but that requires vision. The policy debate must shift from “should we adopt AI?” to “how quickly can we embed it where people need it most?”
One of the most striking findings is that non-work usage now accounts for 73 percent, up from 53 percent in 2024. In other words, ChatGPT is becoming less like Excel and more like WhatsApp—getting woven into daily habits, not limited to professional settings anymore.
For Bangladesh, this means AI will shape not only how we work, but how we live. From parenting advice to recipe tips, from fitness guidance to hobby coaching—AI is becoming a household companion.
Power users in the Global South
Here’s the bigger picture: adoption of AI has grown fastest in countries with GDP per capita between $10,000 and $40,000. That means the Global South is not lagging behind in AI; it is actually leading in this ever-evolving sector.
The next billion AI users would not resemble early adopters in San Francisco. They will be younger, multilingual, and mobile-first. They’ll come from Dhaka, Lagos, Manila, and Nairobi.
This flips the script: emerging economies are not merely adapting to AI, they are shaping its future. For Bangladesh, this means we are not only users of tomorrow’s technology; we are potential designers of it.
However, cultural defaults and technical standards get locked in quickly. Once that happens, it becomes hard to change them. Hence, Bangladesh has a narrow window to act. If we localise language models, integrate AI into classrooms and public services, and think beyond apps to platforms, AI will amplify Bangladeshi workers instead of replacing them. But if we wait, we will be stuck as downstream consumers of someone else’s design.
The NBER study’s lesson is clear here. AI is no longer a Silicon Valley experiment; it has become a global reality. For Bangladesh, and for much of the Global South, it is both a test and an opportunity. The question is not whether the wave is coming—it is whether we will ride it.
Nazmus Sadat is an activist and a former Generation Change Fellow at the USIP.
Views expressed in this article are the author’s own.