The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps - 3rd Edition | Andreessen Horowitz

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the trends and insights in the consumer generative AI (gen AI) app landscape, based on an analysis of the top 100 gen AI consumer apps on the web and mobile. It covers key takeaways such as the continued growth of creative tools, the competition in the consumer AI assistant space, the emergence of new categories like aesthetics and dating, and the role of Discord as an indicator for upcoming app trends.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Trends in Consumer Gen AI Apps

1. What are the key trends observed in the consumer gen AI app landscape?

• The creative tools category continues to be a major draw for consumers, with 52% of the top web apps focused on content generation or editing across modalities like image, video, music, and speech.
• Other content generation modalities beyond just image, such as video and music, have seen significant growth and new entrants in the past six months.
• On mobile, content editing for image and video is a common use case, with legacy creative tools pivoting to become generative AI-first.
• The competition in the consumer AI assistant space is heating up, with ChatGPT remaining the top product but facing challenges from competitors like Perplexity and Anthropic's Claude.
• A new category of "aesthetics and dating" apps has emerged, using gen AI to rate user attractiveness and provide dating advice.

2. What role is Discord playing in the consumer gen AI app landscape?

• Discord traffic is often a leading indicator for apps that will climb the web and mobile ranks, especially in the content generation space.
• Some products launch on Discord to test and build a community before launching a standalone website, while others maintain significant Discord usage even after launching a product.
• As of July, 10 AI companies ranked in the top 100 Discord servers by invite traffic, with half of them being new entrants compared to the previous report.

[02] Emerging Competitors and Categories

1. What are some of the new entrants and emerging competitors in the consumer gen AI app space?

• On the web, Perplexity (an AI-powered search engine) and Anthropic's Claude (a direct ChatGPT competitor) have gained significant traction, ranking #3 and #4 respectively.
• On mobile, AI assistant Luzia (with 45 million users primarily in Spanish-speaking markets) and several Bytedance-owned apps (Gauth, Coze, Doubao) have made their debut.
• The "aesthetics and dating" category is a new entrant, with apps like LooksMax AI, Umax, and RIZZ using gen AI to rate user attractiveness and provide dating advice.

2. How is Bytedance (TikTok's parent company) expanding its presence in the consumer gen AI app space?

• Bytedance has launched an R&D division, Flow, focused on generative AI applications and has been debuting new AI-powered apps in the U.S. and abroad under other corporate names since early 2024.
• Across the web and mobile lists, Bytedance has a total of six app entries, including Gauth, Coze, Doubao, Hypic, and Cici, targeting different geographic markets.