According to ZDNet, a new Comscore report on AI usage reveals a surprising shift in the chatbot landscape. While ChatGPT remains dominant with 54 million desktop visitors and 86% year-to-date growth, Google’s Gemini saw a staggering 971% YTD growth on desktop, reaching 19 million visitors. xAI’s Grok also exploded, with 472% growth on mobile and 286% on desktop. Comscore’s Smriti Sharma attributes much of Google’s surge to the popularity of its new AI image generators, while Grok’s “Think Mode” and higher-context windows drove its adoption. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Copilot, despite 30 million visitors, saw a 15% YTD decline in browser traffic.
Growth is about more than hype
Here’s the thing: these insane growth percentages for Gemini and Grok tell a very specific story. They’re not necessarily about overtaking ChatGPT in total users overnight. That’s a massive mountain to climb. What they signal is successful feature adoption. Google didn’t just release a slightly better chatbot; it dropped a whole suite of image-generation tools that people clearly wanted to try. And Grok’s “Think Mode” is a direct play for users who want more deliberate, chain-of-thought reasoning from their AI.
It’s a classic tech playbook. You can’t just be a “me too” product. You need a compelling reason for someone to switch their habit or try something new. Gemini’s integration with Google’s ecosystem and its multimodal push is that reason for many. Grok’s unique, somewhat chaotic personality and its deep integration into the X platform is its hook. They found their angles and they’re executing.
The real story is context, not competition
But the most insightful part of the report, to me, is Sharma’s point about different assistants mapping to different moments. This is where the market is actually heading. We’re moving past the idea of one chatbot to rule them all. Think about it: you might use Copilot when you’re deep in a Word doc or an Excel sheet because it’s right there. You might use ChatGPT for a broad, general query. And maybe you fire up Gemini on your phone for a quick image gen or to summarize an article.
The user decline for Copilot in the browser is a huge red flag for Microsoft. It basically confirms that outside the cozy, walled garden of its own software suite, people aren’t seeking it out. It’s become a feature, not a destination. That overreliance on OpenAI’s tech, as the report notes, might be coming back to bite them in terms of building a distinct brand identity in the AI space.
The rise of specialized AI tools
And this isn’t just about text chatbots anymore. Look at the explosive growth for audio AI tools like ElevenLabs and Suno. 147% growth on mobile? That’s huge. It shows the market is rapidly maturing and segmenting. People aren’t just asking questions; they’re using AI as a production studio for voiceovers, audiobooks, and marketing content.
This is the natural evolution. First, we get a general-purpose wonder tool that blows our minds. Then, we start wanting specific, best-in-class tools for specific jobs. The audio quality from these dedicated models is already surpassing what you’d get from a general chatbot’s text-to-speech feature. So why wouldn’t a podcaster or video editor go straight to the specialist?
What this means for the future
So what’s the takeaway? The AI platform wars are far from over. Massive growth rates for the challengers prove there’s still room to grab market share if you offer something uniquely valuable. But the endgame probably isn’t one winner. It’s a handful of major platforms—like the leaders on the LM Arena board—and a sprawling ecosystem of vertical-specific AI tools that do one thing exceptionally well.
The companies that win will be the ones that best understand the “moment” they’re built for. Is it the creative moment? The coding moment? The quick-fact-on-your-phone moment? Nailing that context is becoming more important than just having the smartest model on a benchmark. Basically, user experience and integration are starting to matter just as much as raw capability. And that makes this race a lot more interesting to watch.
