To help you understand the trends surrounding AI and other new technologies and what we expect to happen in the future, our highly experienced Kiplinger Letter team will keep you abreast of the latest developments and forecasts. (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or subscribe.) You'll get all the latest news first by subscribing, but we will publish many (but not all) of the forecasts a few days afterward online. Here’s the latest…
What are consumers doing with the most advanced artificial intelligence? Talking to chatbots, creating virtual characters and sprucing up photos, to name a few uses, according to a recent ranking of popular apps and websites by the venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz.
Tweaking a photo or building a virtual friend may seem frivolous, considering the potential for AI to spur scientific and medical breakthroughs, but tracking monthly users and visitors of generative AI apps and websites is key to understanding AI’s rise.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Be a smarter, better informed investor.
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
One major takeaway from the report is that people want general assistants. Popular AI chatbots from OpenAI, Google, xAI and Anthropic are among today’s most popular AI tools.
Top 5 Generative AI Web Products
- ChatGPT
- Gemini
- Deepseek
- Grok
- Character.ai
Top 5 Generative AI Mobile Apps
- ChatGPT
- Gemini
- AI Gallery
- Doubao
- Microsoft Edge
Source: The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps, Andreessen Horowitz
The biggest AI spenders need to make money from consumers to justify a mountain of capital investment. After the launch of OpenAI’s AI chatbot ChatGPT, there was talk of Google falling behind. But Google has swiftly gained ground, with popular AI tools Gemini, Google AI Studio, Google Labs and NotebookLM.
The rankings also show plenty of room for upstarts. Character.ai is among the popular apps for building a virtual companion, highlighting how many people want to create a character for roleplaying. Users can touch up selfies (another popular use) with Hypic and Peachy. Top apps to create and edit art, photos and videos include AI Gallery, Wink, YouCut, PixVerse and BeautyCam.
Then there’s writing assistance, coding assistance, language translation, web search and slideshow creation from tools such as QuillBot, Lovable, Papago, Perplexity and Gamma.
Note that China is gaining ground, with popular tools Quark, Doubao, Kimi and DeepSeek ranking highly. Quark is a general AI assistant owned by Chinese tech giant Alibaba.
Investors will closely watch these trends to see what apps can break through with consumers. And more importantly, which tools can bring in revenue.
This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.
Related Content
- The Explosion of New AI Tools
- 10 Major AI Companies You Should Know
- What Is AI? Artificial Intelligence 101
- The New AI Agents Will Tackle Your To-Do List
-
Don't Waste Your Money on Bad Gifts. Try This Instead.Holiday Happiness These strategies, backed by behavioral finance, can help you find presents that your loved ones will truly enjoy.
-
5 Unique Book-Inspired Trips Across AmericaThere are five great trips to take across America that can immerse you in the culture of your favourite books.
-
Amid Mounting Uncertainty: Five Forecasts About AIThe Kiplinger Letter With the risk of overspending on AI data centers hotly debated, here are some forecasts about AI that we can make with some confidence.
-
Worried About an AI Bubble? Here’s What You Need to KnowThe Kiplinger Letter Though AI is a transformative technology, it’s worth paying attention to the rising economic and financial risks. Here’s some guidance to navigate AI’s future.
-
How to Read a Company's Balance Sheet Like a Stock ProKnowing how to read this financial statement can help you separate strong companies from struggling ones.
-
How to Choose the Best Charities to Donate ToWhile you set your giving strategy, think about your values, and select organizations that will put your contributions to good use.
-
Will AI Videos Disrupt Social Media?The Kiplinger Letter With the introduction of OpenAI’s new AI social media app, Sora, the internet is about to be flooded with startling AI-generated videos.
-
What Services Are Open During the Government Shutdown?The Kiplinger Letter As the shutdown drags on, many basic federal services will increasingly be affected.
-
The Economy on a Knife's EdgeThe Letter GDP is growing, but employers have all but stopped hiring as they watch how the trade war plays out.
-
Banks Are Sounding the Alarm About StablecoinsThe Kiplinger Letter The banking industry says stablecoins could have a negative impact on lending.
