Around 70% of Taiwanese use AI agents on weekly basis: Survey

Taipei, Aug. 3 (CNA) Nearly 70 percent of people in Taiwan use artificial intelligence (AI) agents at least once a week, according to a survey released Monday by Mastercard Taiwan.

The "2026 Survey on Consumer AI Usage Habits in Taiwan" found that ChatGPT and Gemini were the AI tools most commonly used by respondents.

The survey found that 38 percent of respondents consulted AI when making shopping decisions, while 61 percent said they would be willing to use AI to help plan travel itineraries.

It also found that 57 percent would allow AI agents to automatically search for products based on their preferences and budgets, then complete purchases after receiving user confirmation, in the hope of improving shopping efficiency.

AI agents are software systems that use artificial intelligence to perform tasks on users' behalf with a degree of autonomy, allowing them to make decisions, learn and adapt, according to Google.

Among respondents who already use AI and are willing to authorize AI-assisted purchases, 65 percent said they would allow AI agents to compare prices and complete payments for everyday consumer goods. Meanwhile, 46 percent said they would authorize AI to book accommodation, and 42 percent would do so for airline tickets.

Eva Chen (陳懿文), general manager of Mastercard Taiwan, said the findings suggest that "agentic commerce" is "currently ongoing."

Younger adults aged 18-30 were the most frequent AI users, with more than 40 percent reporting daily use and 27 percent paying for AI subscriptions. Among respondents aged 31-40, 20 percent subscribed to paid AI services, while 42 percent said they had used AI to inform their shopping decisions.

Among respondents aged 51-65, only 6 percent paid for AI subscriptions, while 26 percent said they used AI to search for health and medical information.

Overall, 18 percent of respondents subscribed to at least one AI service. Of those, nearly half spent less than NT$600 (US$18.48) per month, while more than 40 percent paid between NT$601 and NT$1,200.

Chen added that more than half of respondents said they would authorize AI agents to make payment-related decisions only if robust security measures -- including biometric authentication, real-time transaction notifications and encryption to prevent credit card information from being exposed -- were in place.

The survey was conducted online from June 1 to June 10 among 1,000 adults aged 18-65. Respondents from northern, central and southern Taiwan were sampled in proportion to the population at a ratio of 5:2:3, with roughly equal numbers of men and women. Some questions excluded respondents who had never used AI.