AI search is fragmenting, ageing and filling with ads

This article was published on July 31, 2026 A year ago, AI search was effectively one product: ChatGPT. Similarweb’s 2026 Generative AI Landscape report shows that is finished. Generative AI web visits jumped 70% to 9.5 billion a month, but ChatGPT’s share is sliding as Meta AI, Claude, Grok and Perplexity surge. The audience is ageing into the mainstream, a young cohort is opting out, and ChatGPT is quietly filling with ads. A year ago, AI search was basically one product with one name: ChatGPT. A new report says that era is already over. Similarweb’s 2026 Generative AI Landscape report tracks a market that is booming and splintering at once. Generative AI websites drew 9.5 billion visits a month worldwide between June 2025 and May 2026, up 70% on the year. App downloads reached 4.4 billion, up 58%. The growth is not the surprise. The fragmentation is. ChatGPT is still the largest standalone AI website, and it remains enormous. But Similarweb says its share of web visits has fallen steadily as Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and DeepSeek pull in audiences of their own. The app data shows who is climbing. By US monthly active users, year on year, Meta AI grew 435% and Claude 349%. Grok