AI search is becoming fragmented, outdated, and increasingly cluttered with advertisements.
A year ago, AI search was essentially represented by a single product known as ChatGPT. According to a new report, that period has already come to an end.
Similarweb’s report on the 2026 Generative AI Landscape highlights a market that is thriving and diversifying simultaneously. From June 2025 to May 2026, generative AI websites attracted 9.5 billion visits globally each month, marking a 70% increase from the previous year. Additionally, app downloads reached 4.4 billion, a rise of 58%.
While the growth figures are to be expected, the fragmentation of the market is not.
ChatGPT remains the largest AI website, although its dominance is diminishing. Although it continues to lead as the biggest standalone AI platform, Similarweb indicates that its share of web visits has been consistently declining as Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and DeepSeek capture their own audiences.
The app data reveals who is gaining traction. In terms of year-over-year US monthly active users, Meta AI soared by 435% and Claude by 349%. Grok increased by 117%, Perplexity by 94%, and ChatGPT itself saw an 87% growth. Gemini experienced a 31% rise, while Microsoft’s 365 Copilot and DeepSeek saw decreases of 31% and 23%, respectively.
In response, Google has integrated AI into its search functionality.
Google is actively evolving, with its AI Overviews appearing in a growing percentage of US searches. Visits to its conversational AI Mode continue to increase. Similarweb reports that Overviews are featured in nearly 40% of US searches, enhancing the user experience to be more AI-centric.
This development impacts the open web, with news being the only major online category to decline over the year by 5%, even as AI chatbots surged by 57%. Despite this, Google retains its user base, with 95% of ChatGPT users also utilizing its platform.
AI search is maturing, resulting in some opting out.
The user demographic is evolving. In May 2024, individuals under 35 made up 61% of generative AI users, but by May 2026, that segment had decreased to 50%, with an increase in users aged over 45. The report suggests that stable adoption resembles the act of one’s parents signing up.
However, not everyone is participating. A younger group is consciously opting out and choosing AI-free alternatives. In DuckDuckGo's no-AI search, 33% of users are aged 18 to 24, compared to 16% across the web as a whole.
Now comes the advertising.
A clear indication of a maturing market is the influx of advertisements. In the US, the proportion of ChatGPT interactions featuring an ad increased from 14% in May 2026 to 26% the following month. Two-thirds of these ads appear only after the second prompt, and 65% of users continue chatting even after an ad is introduced.
The click-through rate stands at a modest 0.50%, with early advertisers being less prominent brands like Resume.io, Monday.com, and Framer topping the list in June. Nonetheless, the trend is clearly established.
What this means for brands.
For marketers, the report serves as a cautionary note to act swiftly. Referrals via AI are booming, with an increase of 312% for marketplaces, 278% for news, and 237% for travel on a year-over-year basis. The proportion of ChatGPT responses citing a web source has surged over five times in a year, reaching 6.8%.
Being among the brands recommended by AI is significant; users visit an AI-suggested brand two to four times more frequently than a competitor. However, optimizing for AI search is a distinct challenge: most referrals, at 58.8%, direct users to homepages, while the pages referenced by ChatGPT are usually buried two or three levels deep.
“Discovery is no longer tied to a single destination,” stated Baruch Toledano from Similarweb. A caveat runs through the data: these are Similarweb's estimates derived from web and app traffic, excluding API usage and AI integrated into other applications. Nonetheless, the trend is unmistakable.
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AI search is becoming fragmented, outdated, and increasingly cluttered with advertisements.
A year ago, AI search was essentially a singular product known as ChatGPT. However, a recent report indicates that this phase has already come to an end. Similarweb's 2026 Generative AI Landscape report examines a market that is experiencing both rapid growth and diversification simultaneously. Generative AI we