Halloween Post Mortem: How Many People Used ChatGPT for Halloween Ideas?
Remember when picking a Halloween costume meant going to a store like Spirit Halloween and browsing the aisles to find the one that speaks to you? That process may be heading for its grave. For the first time, AI has become a mainstream tool for Halloween planning.
More Than Half of Americans Are Using AI for Halloween
Whether you’ve planned for this all year, or are one of those last minute toss something together-ers, coming up with a Halloween costume used to take some serious brainstorming. Now, 55% of Americans ask AI for help with Halloween planning in some capacity, according to a recent survey of U.S. adults. Notably, only 20% of respondents said they start their Halloween search online…
People are using AI in new and creative ways for everything from figuring out costume ideas to creating elaborate yard decorations. Here are just a few examples:
The Spookiest House on the Block: Iowa resident Aaron Warner programmed AI to bring his yard to life. He created a Halloween display with characters that can talk to and heckle visitors.
From AI to Reality: TikTok creators are going viral showing how they turned AI-generated Halloween concepts into elaborate costumes.
Dressing as AI: Maybe the most telling sign of AI’s cultural significance is chatbot costumes themselves. Google searches for “ChatGPT costume” have spiked recently, according to Google Trends data.
Big Tech Infiltrates Halloween
When it comes to actually purchasing Halloween goods, industry experts estimate that consumers will have spent over $13 billion on candy, costumes, and decorations this year. Most consumers shop for these products on Amazon.
Beyond e-commerce, Halloween just might be the perfect opportunity for Big Tech to demonstrate AI’s creative capabilities. For example, Reddit users are posting their digital art on Gemini AI’s thread, showcasing themselves in famous Halloween movie scenes.
Though ChatGPT won’t share exactly how many people asked it for Halloween ideas (hey OpenAI, here’s a free thought leadership idea…), this is what ChatGPT says are the best low-effort, culturally-relevant costumes for 2025.
It’s not a bad response, but misses the real culture winners that we saw on the streets last night: K-Pop DemonHunters, Wicked characters, and Wednesday Adamses. This suggests that human creativity is still a step ahead of AI’s, at least for the moment.
So what does this mean for marketers? If you want to influence culture, the first step is making sure your brand shows up in AI responses.
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