Consumer AI Products and Assistants

Consumer AI is the fastest-adopted technology product category on record and one of the hardest to make pay. ChatGPT went from launch on 30 November 2022 to an estimated 100 million monthly users in about two months (UBS estimate, February 2023), to 800 million weekly users by October 2025 (OpenAI) and to about 900 million weekly users in early 2026 (reported). Google's Gemini app reported more than 750 million monthly users in February 2026 and 950 million in July 2026 (Alphabet earnings calls), and Meta said Meta AI had about a billion monthly users across its apps in May 2025. But only a few per cent of these users pay, every free answer costs compute, switching between assistants costs nothing, and the platforms that own distribution (Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft) can put their own assistant in front of users by default. Consumer AI therefore comes in five shapes: general assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, Claude, Grok, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek), answer engines and AI search (Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, AI browsers), creative tools (Midjourney, Sora, Runway, Suno, ElevenLabs, Canva, Adobe Firefly), companions (Character.AI, Replika, Grok's companions), and devices (smart glasses, phones with on-device AI, and failed standalone gadgets such as the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1). A consumer AI business is an answer to four questions: how does it reach users without paying a platform toll, why do users come back, what does each free user cost to serve, and who pays — subscribers, advertisers, merchants or a partner? This section covers the product categories, the assistant race and its metrics, search and the publisher problem, subscriptions, advertising and commerce, retention, creative tools, companions and child safety, devices, landmark cases, pitfalls and how experts read the category.