What exactly does the source say?
We deliberately use a single source here: the Adformatie article on the GfK DAM figures — the same source our homepage cites. The article is in Dutch, and the figures are about the Netherlands: for NorthAnswer that is precisely the relevant market, since we measure for Dutch businesses. We reopened the page on 1 September 2026 and copied the facts below literally. If something is not in the article, it is not here either.
| Item | What the article states |
|---|---|
| Title | “Sterke groei AI-bereik in Nederland: bijna 9 miljoen gebruikers” (strong growth of AI reach in the Netherlands: almost 9 million users) |
| Publication date and author | 24 June 2026, Maarten Hafkamp (Adformatie, Media section) |
| Research agency | GfK DAM (Digital Audience Measurement): “Dat blijkt uit data van GfK DAM.” (this is shown by GfK DAM data) |
| Measurement moment of the key figure | May 2026 |
| Country and population | the Netherlands, “users aged 13 and over” |
| Key figure | “almost 9 million users aged 13 and over”, which according to GfK is “almost half of the population aged 13 and over” |
| What was measured | “the reach of AI services” — the article does not define what counts as use, or over what period the reach was calculated |
| Services named | ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Claude, Perplexity, DeepSeek and Grok; in May 2026 Dutch people used 1.5 AI services on average |
| Reopened by us | 1 September 2026 |
How fast has this grown?
| Moment | Reach | Literally in the article (Dutch) |
|---|---|---|
| March 2023 | 597,000 | „minder dan 1 miljoen gebruikers (597.000 in maart 2023)” |
| end of 2024 | 3.6 million | „groeide dit gestaag door naar 3,6 miljoen eind 2024” |
| February 2025 | 3.6 million | „van 3,6 miljoen in februari 2025” |
| June 2025 | over 6.9 million | „naar ruim 6,9 miljoen in juni 2025” |
| May 2026 | almost 9 million | „bijna 9 miljoen gebruikers van 13 jaar en ouder” |
The article calls March to April 2025 “a clear turning point”. From the end of 2024 to May 2026 the reach roughly multiplied by two and a half. Note: the growth from 3.6 to 9 million on our homepage comes from exactly this series.
Who are these users?
According to the article, AI use has “long stopped being driven by young people alone”: the 35–49 group counts over 2.1 million users, 50–64 follows with almost 2 million, and the over-65s number 1.1 million. At the same time, young people remain the largest group: 40 percent of AI users are 35 or younger. Among ChatGPT users the article notes a 29 percent overlap with Google AI (about 1.9 million people) and a “slight decline” among 13-to-24-year-olds.
What do we NOT know from this source?
- What “use” or “reach” means exactly: one visit per month, daily use, or something in between. The article does not say, so neither do we.
- What people use AI for. Whether they use it to look for businesses or services is not in it. Figures about that which you may see elsewhere (for instance about American adults) concern a different country and a different question.
- How often an AI answer contains a business name, and which ones. GfK DAM does not measure that; it is exactly the gap our own measurement is meant to fill.
- Panel size, margin of error and the exact methodology. The article is a journalistic summary, not a research report.
What does this mean for your customers?
Put carefully: if AI services reach almost half of the Dutch population aged 13 and over, there is a real chance that some of your customers and prospects occasionally put a question to an AI assistant that concerns your kind of service. How large that share is, and whether the assistant names businesses when they do, does not follow from this source. It is a reason to go and look — not proof that something is going wrong.
Want a first impression yourself? Ask an AI assistant three to five questions in customer language and repeat them; how to do that and what you may conclude is in “How to check it yourself”. What we mean by AI visibility is briefly explained in the FAQ. And if it turns out you are not named: what you can and cannot do about that is in “AI doesn't mention you — what to do?”.