Americans now spend more than 13 hours daily consuming media. Generative AI is the fastest-growing activity, social platforms are defying plateau predictions, and traditional television is proving unexpectedly resilient.

EMARKETER's Time Spent with Media report carries the industry's first generative AI time spent forecast, and the number it lands on reorders assumptions about where attention is going.

"This is unique. I don't think anyone else has this other than us," said our analyst Ethan Cramer-Flood on a recent episode of "Behind the Numbers."

Emerging technologies and stubborn legacy formats are now competing for the same consumer attention, and marketers have to allocate against both.

Generative AI captures attention

The average US adult spends 16 minutes per day with native generative AI chatbots and platforms, per EMARKETER's Time Spent with Media report, placing it last among all tracked media activities. Among users who have adopted AI tools, usage climbs to over 30 minutes daily.

Despite ranking at the bottom, generative AI represents the fastest-growing screen time activity EMARKETER monitors, with massive YoY increases, per the report.

"I'm not here just to say, oh pish posh, there's nothing going on here," Cramer-Flood said. "It's by far the fastest-growing screen time activity that we track."

"This is active, engaged time with a kind of technology," said our analyst Max Willens. "This isn't just sinking into your couch watching television or having a podcast on while you are doing the dishes. This is actively conversing with or pushing this AI to help you create something, to work on something."

That focused engagement is what makes the inventory valuable: users are deeply involved and receptive to relevant messaging at decision moments. No other media category replicates it.

Computer usage rebounds

Desktop and laptop time spent is growing again after declining for 15 years, driven entirely by generative AI adoption, per the report.

Smartphones and connected TVs had pulled attention away from computers for years. That reversed two to three years ago, timed to ChatGPT's launch and the generative AI boom.

"After several years of computer time spent growth, it's like, 'Oh, we know what's happening here. This is pretty obvious,'" said Cramer-Flood. "There's this brand-new factor in screen time: generative AI, that overwhelmingly is more useful and more convenient to use on a computer."

The reversal marks the first major screen time trend favoring computers in more than a decade, as virtually all new digital activities in recent years migrated to mobile devices or streaming platforms.

Traditional TV declines slowly

Linear television is eroding far more gradually than EMARKETER projected, with broadcast networks and live sports delivering unexpected durability.

While cord-cutting persists and cable TV faces serious challenges, broadcast television maintains strength.

"There seems to be a very, very long shelf life for regular broadcast TV going forward," Cramer-Flood said, attributing resilience to the enduring appeal of broadcast networks and particularly live sports programming.

Converged TV commands over five hours daily, 40 minutes more than mobile devices this year, according to the report. While that gap will narrow, converged TV will maintain a 30-minute advantage over smartphones in two years.

"We think of smartphones as being so utterly dominant in every facet of our lives," Cramer-Flood said. "But actually, that big screen living room is more dominant, and it is solidly ahead, and it will remain ahead for a long time."

Sports viewership drives TV's staying power. Time spent with sports television has declined only marginally, and EMARKETER attributes most of that erosion to second-screening, as viewers engage with social media or messaging apps during games.

The durability of sports content will influence how aggressively streaming and connected TV players pursue media rights in coming years, including major properties like the World Cup and NFL packages.

Traditional media still takes four hours of the 13.5 hours Americans spend with media each day. Traditional radio alone accounts for nearly 80 minutes of it.

Listen to the full episode.

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