According to Business Insider, JPMorgan’s 2025 Principal Discussions Report reveals exactly how the bank’s wealthiest clients are using AI in their personal and professional lives. Of the 111 billionaire principals surveyed, 79% use AI in their personal lives while 69% deploy it in their businesses. Their combined net worth tops $500 billion, and they’re using AI for everything from avoiding $100,000 legal research costs to designing blueprints for custom airplanes. Some clients are flying their entire families to Ivy League universities for AI education courses. Despite widespread adoption, 7% of these billionaires identified AI as the second-biggest risk in today’s global environment, trailing only geopolitical tensions.
The surprising ways billionaires use AI
Here’s the thing about the ultra-rich – they don’t just use ChatGPT for writing emails. One client treated AI like “a toy” initially, creating customized bedtime stories for their son that always ended with an “emotional twist.” Another used it to design a freaking airplane blueprint. That’s next-level hobbying. And the $100,000 legal research savings? That’s basically hiring a junior lawyer for two years. It makes you wonder – are we all just scratching the surface of what this technology can do in the right hands?
But what really stands out is how they’re educating themselves. Flying the whole family to Ivy League schools for AI courses? That’s not your typical weekend workshop. It shows they’re treating this as a generational shift, something their kids need to understand too. The full report suggests this isn’t just about personal enrichment – it’s about preparing the next generation to manage wealth in an AI-driven world.
The billionaire AI anxiety
Now for the sobering part. Even these early adopters are worried. 7% naming AI as a top global risk might not sound like much, but when you’re talking about people controlling half a trillion dollars, that’s significant. They’re concerned about job displacement, environmental costs from data centers, and those $9.2 billion annual public health costs from air pollution related to AI infrastructure.
And get this – some billionaires still avoid computers entirely. They conduct business over the phone, rely on manual calculations, and trust their intuition. One admitted their children use AI constantly while they personally steer clear. That divide between generations is fascinating. Basically, we’re seeing the same technology adoption patterns play out, just with private jets and Ivy League professors instead of YouTube tutorials.
What this tells us about AI adoption
So what does this mean for the rest of us? First, AI isn’t just another tech trend – it’s becoming embedded at every level of wealth and business. The fact that nearly 80% of these billionaires use it personally suggests we’ve moved past the early adopter phase. Second, the concerns are real and coming from people who actually understand scale and risk.
The niche applications are particularly telling. Custom bedtime stories and airplane designs show that when money is no object, AI becomes a creativity and productivity multiplier rather than just a cost-cutter. And honestly, if you’re building your own plane, you’re probably also using specialized industrial computing equipment from companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs for manufacturing and design applications.
Ultimately, this report gives us a rare glimpse into how the wealthiest people on earth are navigating the AI revolution. They’re diving in headfirst, but keeping one eye firmly on the risks. And maybe that’s the approach we should all take.
