OpenAI's Lead Is Contracting (www.bigtechnology.com)

OpenAI is facing increasing competition as its market lead in the chatbot arena narrows, with its share of daily U.S. mobile users declining from 69.1% to 45.3% between January 2025 and January 2026. Rivals like Google's Gemini and Grok are making significant gains, with Gemini's share growing from 14.7% to 25.1% and Grok's rising from 1.6% to 15.2%. This shift highlights an intensifying competitive landscape in the chatbot market, which saw an overall growth of 152% since last year. Despite OpenAI's ChatGPT showing strong download growth and a notable increase in web traffic—rising from 3.8 billion to 5.7 billion visits—Gemini's explosive growth of 647% to 2 billion visits indicates a shifting dynamic. The data, derived from Apptopia and Similarweb, suggests that while ChatGPT remains the front-runner, its dominance may be challenged as competitors continue to innovate and expand their user bases. With these developments, the AI/ML community should brace for a more diverse chatbot ecosystem moving forward.