How Everyday Consumers Are Using Cutting Edge AI

What Are Consumers Really Doing with AI

Ever wondered what people are actually doing with the most advanced artificial intelligence? While AI has the potential to fuel major scientific and medical breakthroughs, its current popular uses are more down-to-earth. According to a recent ranking of popular apps by venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz, consumers are primarily using AI to talk with chatbots, create virtual characters, and spruce up their photos. Tracking these user trends is key to understanding the real-world rise of AI.

The Dominance of AI Assistants

One of the clearest takeaways from the report is the high demand for general AI assistants. Chatbots from major players like OpenAI, Google, xAI, and Anthropic are among the most popular AI tools on the market today as users seek help with a wide range of tasks.

Top AI Tools by the Numbers

The report breaks down the most popular consumer AI products by web traffic and mobile app usage.

Top 5 Generative AI Web Products

1. ChatGPT
2. Gemini
3. Deepseek
4. Grok
5. Character.ai

Top 5 Generative AI Mobile Apps

1. ChatGPT
2. Gemini
3. AI Gallery
4. Doubao
5. Microsoft Edge

Source: The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps, Andreessen Horowitz

A Crowded and Competitive Market

The biggest companies in AI need to monetize their consumer products to justify the mountain of capital investment fueling the industry. After ChatGPT's launch, there was concern that Google was falling behind, but the tech giant has swiftly gained ground with its popular AI tools, including Gemini, Google AI Studio, and NotebookLM.

However, the rankings also show that there is plenty of room for upstarts to succeed. Character.ai, for instance, has become a popular app for building virtual companions, highlighting a strong user desire for roleplaying and creative interaction.

Beyond Chatbots Creative and Niche Applications

Creativity and productivity are major drivers of AI adoption. Users are touching up selfies with tools like Hypic and Peachy, while top apps for creating and editing art, photos, and videos include AI Gallery, Wink, YouCut, PixVerse, and BeautyCam.

Other popular uses include writing assistance from QuillBot, coding help from Lovable, language translation via Papago, and enhanced web searching with Perplexity. Even creating slideshows has been simplified by tools like Gamma.

The Global Race and Future Outlook

The report also highlights that China is becoming a major player in the consumer AI space. Popular tools like Quark (owned by Alibaba), Doubao, Kimi, and DeepSeek are all ranking highly.

Investors will continue to watch these consumer trends closely to see which apps can break through the noise. More importantly, they'll be looking for which of these tools can successfully turn a massive user base into a sustainable source of revenue.