Some people have become billionaires because of AI, including more than a dozen AI-powered newcomers to Forbes’ 2025 World’s Billionaires list. Some have embraced it in more unusual ways: LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman went as far as to make an AI twin of himself and conduct a Q&A with it—titled “Me, Myself and (A)I.” Some remain skeptical, like the almost-retired Warren Buffett, who compared AI to a “genie out of the bottle” that “scares the hell out of me.”
Where on the spectrum do most billionaires fall? To find out, Forbes surveyed the world’s richest people (average age: 66) on how they use AI in their personal and professional lives; most submitted responses in late February or early March. Our findings: 65% of billionaires surveyed say they use AI in their personal life, while 77% report using AI in their businesses.
“I can’t get through the day without talking to ChatGPT five times,” says billionaire Eric Lefkofsky, who cofounded Groupon and now runs healthtech company Tempus AI. Regarding Tempus. “We made a decision a few years ago to reorient our entire company to be ‘generative AI first.’ It’s been a catalyst not only for the growth of our business, but more importantly our ability to help patients live longer and healthier lives.”
Of the 45 billionaires who responded to Forbes’ survey, 43 answered a question about AI use in their personal life, and 40 answered a question about how they use AI in their businesses (all questions were optional and could be anonymous). Twenty-seven respondents say they use AI chatbots, with 23 of them specifying that they use ChatGPT in particular. (The billionaire behind it, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, either didn’t fill out Forbes’ survey or did so anonymously.)
Twelve billionaires employ an AI virtual assistant, evidence that Bill Gates may have been right in 2023 when he predicted that in five years everyone would be using one. Gates, now worth an estimated $117 billion, wrote on his blog that “the most exciting impact of AI agents is the way they will democratize services that today are too expensive for most people.” The flip side: while the rich can afford the real-life versions of personal assistants, trainers, chefs and therapists, the less advantaged may have to settle for AI replacements, billed as widely accessible better-than-nothings.
Along with five anonymous billionaires, telecom titan Rob Hale, Indian auto parts billionaire Anurang Jain, French logistics mogul Eric Hemar, Florida real estate developer David Hoffmann and Koch Inc. co-CEO Charles Koch all reported using robotics in their businesses. There are plenty of other billionaires who didn’t respond to the survey certainly but would’ve answered similarly—robots have roamed the warehouses of Jeff Bezos’ Amazon for years, Jensen Huang’s Nvidia is helping train humanoid robots and Figure AI’s Brett Adcock landed on Forbes’ billionaires list because of his five-foot-plus, faceless robots.
While several common themes emerged, there were some notable standout uses for AI. For instance, ousted medtech billionaire Joe Kiani wrote that he uses AI for “food imaging.” Anonymous respondents said they used AI for deal analysis, drafting investment memos and summarizing articles.
Still, like Buffett, not all billionaires are ready for AI or yet embracing the change. Nine of them said they do not use AI in their businesses at all. This group includes finance mogul Stephen Smith, car dealership billionaire Norman Braman, industrial business magnate Harsh Goenka, homebuilder Patrick Neal and five anonymous respondents. Neal, who says his only hobby is reading, is more concerned about what he leaves behind in the “built environment,” as he told Forbes last month: “A home is tangible.”
