New market data reveals fast-moving shifts in AI assistant adoption. Brand trust and ecosystem ties are changing who users choose to rely on.

More than three and a half years after ChatGPT’s initial release, the global audience continues to grow, but the competitive landscape among AI assistants is changing rapidly. OpenAI remains the most popular solution worldwide, but its market share has fallen below the 50% mark for the first time as users switch between options such as Gemini from Google, Claude from Anthropic, and Grok from xAI, according to the 2026 State of AI Market report.

ChatGPT’s growth is remarkable: the service became the fastest app in the world to reach 1 billion monthly users. It currently has over 1.1 billion active users per month, while Gemini has 662 million and Claude 245 million.

As of January, ChatGPT held more than 50% of the market, but by the end of May its share had fallen to 46.4% due to increases in Gemini’s 27.7% and Claude’s 10.3%. Other assistants have shares under 5%.

The report also indicates that users are increasingly switching between assistants. Events such as OpenAI’s February deal with the U.S. Department of Defense triggered a noticeable churn effect – this shows that brand trust and alignment with values can matter at least as much as functionality. Gemini’s momentum is largely explained by its integration with Google’s broader ecosystem of tools, while Claude from Anthropic has earned a reputation for performance in workplace scenarios and maintains strong user retention alongside ChatGPT.

First Half of 2026 and Regional Trends

In the first half of 2026, global users downloaded about 2.3 billion AI apps and spent over $4.2 billion on them. This growth, compared with $1.83 billion in the first half of 2025, signals a shift in the industry from pure growth to monetization; however, the pace of downloads and spending is slowing, which may indicate the market is approaching maturity.

In Asia, the first decline in downloads was recorded, down 3.3% in Q1 2026 due to waning interest in China and India. Despite leading in total downloads, the region lags behind North America and Europe in app spending, which matters for monetization strategies.

In the United States, users are increasingly focusing on productive tasks with AI assistants and spending more on premium features. Average revenue per user is rising in the industry, but Claude stands out: 13% of Anthropic users pay for a subscription – this figure leads the market and could become a meaningful benchmark for investors evaluating AI business prospects.

It is also forecast that hours of AI-app usage will grow from 17.2 billion hours in H1 2025 to around 36 billion hours in H1 2026. The top-3 assistants already account for about 89% of usage time. Other categories, such as AI companions or content generation, remain fragmented and open to competition, creating both risks and opportunities for new players in the market.

OpenAI began testing advertising in ChatGPT as early as February. Estimates indicate that ad impressions rose: in May, on average about 17% of daily users saw an ad – a signal that monetization could expand beyond subscriptions. The most active advertisers in chat assistants are shopping apps and purchases, followed by media and entertainment, and the food industry.

With expanding integrations for shopping, ChatGPT increasingly redirects traffic to retailers Target, Walmart, and Costco. Amazon, which blocked the ChatGPT web crawler, shows stagnation in referrals from the platform. This creates opportunities for other players: Walmart has launched its own AI assistants to help shoppers find products; Amazon’s Rufus shows steady growth, but Walmart’s Spark is gaining momentum. Such data indicate that embedded AI can significantly influence purchasing behavior when users actively interact with it.

In summary, the modern AI assistant market is transitioning from rapid growth to active monetization with a greater emphasis on meeting user needs and brand values.