South Africans are spending more on artificial intelligence subscriptions as households move away from entertainment-only services.

According to Discovery Bank’s SpendTrend26 report, cited by MyBroadband, consumers are increasingly choosing online subscriptions that offer productivity and everyday convenience.

The research, conducted by Discovery Bank and Visa, found that online subscription use has grown strongly across South African households.

The report found that 89% of South African households had a video streaming subscription.

Music services were also widely used, with 71% of households subscribed to a music platform. Gaming subscriptions were held by 38% of households.

But spending patterns have shifted sharply over the past two years.

Streaming subscriptions grew by 15%, while online media subscription payment volumes rose by 30%.

AI Beats Entertainment Growth

AI subscriptions recorded a 125% increase in payment volumes during the year.

Roughly 42% of surveyed users said they paid for an AI subscription.

ChatGPT was the most popular AI tool among survey participants, used by 67%. Gemini followed at 35%, while Copilot was used by 27%.

Around 40% of respondents said they used AI tools at least weekly when making product buying decisions.

E-commerce Leads the Boom

E-commerce subscriptions saw the biggest jump, with payment volumes climbing 695%.

Their share of total subscription payment volumes rose by 10 percentage points.

MyBroadband noted that well-known examples of these services include TakealotMore, Checkers XtraSavings Plus and Amazon Prime. However, Amazon Prime has not launched in South Africa.

These services often offer benefits such as free delivery and exclusive discounts.

Households are Cutting Back

Discovery Bank said consumers are becoming more selective with subscriptions.

The report found that 34% of surveyed households switched between services, 30% paused a subscription and did not reactivate it and 26% downgraded to a cheaper plan.

Another 23% reactivated the same subscription.

The report also found that 48% of respondents paid for at least one subscription they did not use in a given month.

Discovery Bank said food and grocery subscriptions had the highest return rate, while AI subscriptions had the lowest return rate at 15%.