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Research

AI Cooking Statistics: What the Research Shows

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5 min
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By
Alex Fahey

Pictured: Fish Pie with Cheesy Mash

Short answer

In Attest's 2026 survey, 66.8% of UK consumers had used AI tools for food-related activities, and 75.9% were comfortable with AI recipe recommendations. Only 49.1% were comfortable with automated online grocery shopping. No independent study we can find yet measures whether AI meal planning reduces household food waste or grocery spend.

Contents

Every figure below links to the organisation that published it, with the date we checked it. Nothing on this page is our own estimate.

AI cooking means using AI tools, most often large language models such as ChatGPT, for food tasks at home: generating and adapting recipes, planning the week, building shopping lists and deciding what to cook from what's in. Most statistics quoted about it are unsourced or invented. These are the ones we could trace to a named publisher, quoted exactly, with what they do and don't show.

Adoption of AI food tools

Consumer research platform Attest surveyed UK and US consumers on AI in food (Attest, updated 24 June 2026; checked 5 August 2026):

MeasureFigure
Consumers who have used AI-powered tools for food-related activities63.8%
UK consumers who have used AI food tools66.8%
US consumers who have used AI food tools60.8%
18 to 24 year olds who have used AI food tools74%

AI food-tool adoption percentages from Attest's 2026 survey

UK adoption runs ahead of the US, and the youngest adults are the heaviest users. Attest doesn't give the sample size in the article, which is worth knowing before you re-quote these figures.

What people are comfortable letting AI do

The same Attest research separates comfort by task, and the gap between tasks is the most useful finding on this page:

TaskComfortable (UK)Comfortable (US)
AI recipe recommendations75.9%71.2%
Automated online grocery shopping49.1%48.7%

Three quarters of UK respondents would take a recipe from an AI. Barely half would let one shop for them. Comfort tracks how reversible the task is: a bad recipe suggestion costs nothing, a wrong automated shop costs money. Anyone building or evaluating AI food tools should expect adoption to follow that gradient.

On intent to try tools in future: 69.3% said they were likely to try AI recipe recommendations, 58.9% smart grocery shopping, and 58.5% personalised meal planning.

The top concern was data privacy, named by 45.8% of UK respondents and 47.7% in the US.

The habits AI cooking tools land into

YouGov's research on UK cooking habits gives the baseline these tools arrive into (YouGov; checked 5 August 2026):

  • 19% of Britons say they almost always cook using basic ingredients, 23% cook from scratch most days and 21% a few times a week. Cooking from scratch remains the dominant UK habit.
  • 15% say they hardly ever or never cook from scratch.
  • 61% have never used a recipe box of pre-portioned ingredients, and 71% have never subscribed to a recipe box service.

The meal-kit figures matter for anyone comparing AI planning tools with kits: most Britons have never used one. For most people, the realistic comparison for an AI meal planner is a supermarket shop with no plan, not HelloFresh. We compare the kits' per-portion costs here.

Food waste, the problem planning attacks

WRAP, the UK's waste-reduction body, publishes the most cited household food waste figures (WRAP; checked 5 August 2026):

  • An average UK household of four wastes food worth about £1,000 a year, roughly £86 a month.
  • UK homes throw away about 6 million tonnes of food a year, of which 4.4 million tonnes could have been eaten, valued at £17 billion.
  • The average person wastes the equivalent of three meals a week.
  • Household food waste generates around 16 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Independent research hasn't yet shown whether AI planning reduces that number for a given household, and we don't claim it does. The WRAP figures show the size of the target. Our guide to reducing food waste at home is careful about that boundary.

What is not yet measured

Gaps in the public research:

  • No independent study we can find measures whether AI meal planning reduces household food waste or grocery spend in practice.
  • Attest measured comfort and adoption, not sustained use. Nobody has published retention data for AI cooking tools.
  • The YouGov and Attest samples are separate surveys and cannot be combined into a single claim about the same people.

When credible research fills these gaps, we'll add it here.

Provenance

Everything above, in one table. Where a publisher doesn't state a field, the cell says so rather than estimating.

StatisticPublisherPublishedGeographySample sizeSource
63.8% used AI food tools (66.8% UK, 60.8% US, 74% of 18 to 24s)AttestUpdated 24 June 2026UK and USNot stated in articleAttest
75.9% UK comfortable with AI recipe recommendations; 49.1% with automated shoppingAttestUpdated 24 June 2026UK and USNot stated in articleAttest
63% cook from scratch a few times a week or more; 61% never used a recipe boxYouGovNot stated in articleGreat BritainNot stated in articleYouGov
£1,000 wasted per household of four; 4.4m tonnes edible, £17bnWRAPNot stated on pageUKNational waste estimates, not a surveyWRAP

All sources checked on 5 August 2026.

Citing this page

Quote the underlying source rather than us where you can: Attest for adoption and comfort, YouGov for UK cooking habits, WRAP for food waste. If you cite this compilation, it's maintained at chop-it.com/research/ai-cooking-statistics, and the "checked" dates show when each figure was last verified.

Sources: Attest, "AI in the kitchen" (updated 24 June 2026); YouGov, UK cooking from scratch and meal kits; WRAP household food waste. All checked 5 August 2026.

Quick answers

  • Are younger people more likely to use AI for cooking?
    Yes. In Attest’s 2026 research, 74% of 18 to 24 year olds had used AI food tools, against 63.8% of all respondents across the UK and US.
  • What worries people most about AI in food?
    Data privacy. It was the top concern in Attest’s 2026 research, named by 45.8% of UK respondents and 47.7% in the US.
  • Which AI food tools are people most likely to try next?
    Recipe recommendations. In Attest’s 2026 research, 69.3% said they were likely to try AI recipe recommendations, 58.9% smart grocery shopping and 58.5% personalised meal planning.