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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Gemini and Grok lead AI chatbots in growth, Comscore found.
- The key appears to be high-value upgrades.
- But AI tools ultimately “map to different moments.”
When you think of the dominant AI tools, market-leading chatbots from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are usually top of mind. However, a new report highlights some dark horses racing to the top that may be worth your attention.
Also: The best AI chatbots: I tested ChatGPT, Copilot, and others to find the top tools now
Comscore’s inaugural report on AI usage and trends offers an in-depth examination of who’s using AI tools, how these tools are being utilized, and for what purposes. Reviewing the report, ZDNET found that a standout metric was the exponential growth rate of certain tools compared to others.
Gemini and Grok lead chatbots in growth
While ChatGPT remains the dominant tool in the space with 54 million visitors on desktop, reflecting an 86% year-to-date (YTD) growth, Gemini grew at 971% YTD on desktop, with 19 million total visitors. Grok also saw high growth, with 472% YTD growth on mobile, coming in at 4 million visitors, and 286% growth on desktop, with 1 million visitors.
The rate of adoption is a good indicator of which tools can keep up with what people want as the market continues to evolve. Both Gemini and Grok have released significant upgrades to their models that may be contributing to the increase in visitors. For example, Smriti Sharma, SVP of Consumer Solutions at Comscore, attributed some of Google’s growth to the popularity of its recently launched AI image generators.
Google also recently released its Gemini 3 family of models, which quickly rose to the top of the LMArena leaderboard and even prompted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to declare a ‘code red’ to catch up. Meanwhile, xAI helped Grok expand its capabilities by introducing “Think Mode” and higher-context windows.
Yet, while Copilot remains one of the most used tools with 30 million visitors — likely due to its infusion throughout the Microsoft suite of productivity tools and Windows products — it has declined YTD on browser visitors by 15%, highlighting that it hasn’t done enough to capture an audience. This can be attributed to an overreliance on OpenAI’s tools and models rather than in-house models.
Also: I tested 3 text-to-speech AI models to see which is best – hear my results
“The big story is how different assistants map to different moments. ChatGPT for everywhere, Copilot for desktop work, while Gemini seems to be shifting from the On The Go Mobile Task to a more everywhere approach,” said Sharma.
AI tools that experienced a large increase in user base also expanded beyond the AI chatbot realm, with AI audio tools witnessing significant growth. ElevenLabs saw 147% YTD growth on mobile and 142% YTD growth on desktop, while Suno saw 73% YTD growth on mobile and 135% YTD growth on desktop.
These types of AI audio tools are beneficial for both creatives and businesses, enabling them to produce content such as audiobooks, text-to-speech features, marketing materials, social content, voiceovers, and more. ZDNET’s Webb Wright tested some of the most popular text-to-speech AI models and was overall left impressed with the quality and realistic-sounding nature of the audio.