The Israel Internet Association (ISOC-IL) has completed its annual survey examining the use of social media platforms, digital services, and generative AI tools across Israeli society. Conducted in May 2026 by the Geocartography Research Institute on behalf of ISOC-IL among a representative sample of 1,040 respondents, the survey marks the second consecutive year in which generative AI platforms have been included in the analysis, enabling comparisons of adoption and usage patterns over time.
The survey is the latest installment in ISOC-IL’s ongoing monitoring of digital trends in Israel. Since 2021, ISOC-IL has continuously tracked patterns of use across social media platforms and digital services among the adult population in Israel, examining differences by frequency of use and demographic characteristics including age, gender, area of residence and education. The data reflect the state of social media and digital platform usage among the adult population in Israel as of the second quarter of 2026, and present a comparison of this year’s data to last year’s.
This year’s findings underscore the extraordinary reach of generative AI across Israeli society. ChatGPT reached an overall usage rate of 88%, exceeding Instagram’s 82% and ranking among the country’s most widely used digital services. Google’s Gemini also saw substantial growth, increasing from 49% usage in 2025 to 73% in 2026. Meanwhile, WhatsApp continues to dominate with a 99% usage rate, followed by YouTube (98%) and Facebook (90%).
Penetration and Usage Frequency of Digital Platforms in Israel (2026)
The data also points to changing patterns of engagement. While the number of people using ChatGPT continues to grow, daily use declined to 35% of users (11 percentage points lower than last year), suggesting that users are integrating AI tools more and more into specific tasks and routines, while using them less often experimentally. TikTok maintained broad reach at 59% overall usage, but daily use fell from 55% in 2025 to 34% in 2026. The survey further found that 25% of Israelis are considering using AI tools or other online services to help inform their voting decisions ahead of the upcoming elections, raising broader questions about political bias, source transparency, and users’ ability to discern factual information from persuasive recommendations.
The release of the survey findings attracted significant public and media attention, generating coverage across a wide range of news, technology, and business outlets nationwide. Reporting focused in particular on the rapid adoption of generative AI tools, ChatGPT’s emergence as one of Israel’s most widely used digital services, and the survey’s findings regarding the growing role of AI in civic and political decision-making. Coverage appeared in major publications including Calcalist, Maariv, mako, Walla!, Israel Hayom, Arutz 7, Haaretz and other major media outlets, underscoring the survey’s value as a widely cited source of data on digital trends in Israeli society.
ISOC-IL will publish the full results and detailed analysis of the 2026 survey in the coming months, making the complete findings available to researchers, policymakers, journalists, and the public.
Explore data and analysis from previous years here:
Annual Survey of Social Media, Digital Services, and AI Use in Israel