How people actually message their AI depends on where they are
30 days of anonymised RocketHub.ai fleet usage, by channel
By RocketHub Content Studio · 2026-10-07
Across RocketHub.ai customers over the last 30 days, people typed short messages to their AI Chief of Staff in every channel: a median of 70 to 97 characters depending on the channel. Text messages were the shortest and most consistent, with 88% under 100 characters. When people forwarded a whole email instead, the median was 2,944 characters.
The numbers (typed messages, last 30 days)
88% of text messages under 100 characters
368 messages from 3 teams, median 70 characters.
63.4% of in-app chat messages under 100 characters
372 messages from 11 teams, median 77 characters.
55.6% of WhatsApp messages under 100 characters
18 messages from 2 teams, median 97 characters.
In-app chat is the broadest sample here, from 11 customer teams. Slack (513 messages, median 77) and Microsoft Teams (31 messages, median 48) each came from a single team, so they are shown for colour only. WhatsApp comes from two teams, so read it as a hint, not a rule.
Forwarded emails are a different kind of input: 811 email bodies from 16 teams, median 2,944 characters. We do not average typed and forwarded messages together, because they are different behaviours.
What it means
- People brief their AI like a colleague, not a form. A median in the 70s is a sentence: "can you check X", "send me the Y".
- Text is the most compressed channel. 88% of text messages were under 100 characters, the highest share of any channel with more than one team.
- The long input is the forward, not the prompt. When there is real detail, people hand over the email itself rather than retype it.
Why this matters for small-business owners
If an AI tool needs a careful prompt to be useful, most owners will not use it. The evidence from real use is that people send one line, or forward the thing, and expect the work to come back finished.
This extends our 24 September post, [Nobody Writes Their AI a Careful Prompt Anymore](https://rockethub.ai/blog/nobody-writes-their-ai-a-careful-prompt-anymore-they-just-text-it), with a 30-day, per-channel view.
RocketHub.ai builds and runs AI Chief of Staff and agent teams for small-business owners. RocketHub.ai is not affiliated with RocketHub.com.