OpenAI, Perplexity and xAI Drive Unprecedented Consumer Adoption
AI Video and Business Tools Gain Traction as Hybrid Work and Creative Content Fuel Demand
NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Consumer Edge (“CE” or the “Company”), the leading provider of global consumer data-driven insights, today announced new U.S. data revealing a 116 percent surge in consumer spending on AI tools year-over-year in the first half of 2025.
Leading the AI spending boom is OpenAI, which commands 40 percent of consumer AI purchasing. Its ChatGPT Pro subscription revenue alone grew 1,100 percent year-over-year. Competitors are also seeing strong gains: Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, posted nearly 300 percent growth with high customer retention. Meanwhile, xAI — known for its Grok chatbot integrated with X — is now generating revenue at roughly two-thirds the level of Perplexity.
Additional findings include:
- AI video is breaking out: Runway and Invideo comprise one-third of consumer spending in the growing art and video category, which saw 54 percent year-over-year growth. Consumers are shifting from static to dynamic content creation, using these tools to produce explainer videos, marketing clips and even cinematic scenes once reserved only for professionals.
- Business tools are sticking: Business-oriented AI tools are also gaining traction among individual professionals navigating hybrid work. Otter.ai, the category leader with 40 percent share, grew nearly 30 percent year-over-year, while Fireflies.ai and Read AI both more than doubled. Healthcare-focused Freed AI also doubled revenue, underscoring how AI adoption is extending from personal productivity into professional workflows.
- Engineering tools are surging: Engineering-focused AI has been the fastest-growing category for five consecutive quarters. Anthropic leads with nearly 70 percent of category spend, while challengers such as Codeium and Cursor are seeing explosive momentum, each growing over 8,000 percent and 3,000 percent year-over-year, respectively.
- Text tools remain strong: Voice and transcription platforms continue to drive steady growth. Speechify and ElevenLabs each grew over 70 percent year-over-year, while Heidi Healthcare surged more than 1,000 percent. In contrast, QuillBot showed only single-digit growth, signaling that general-purpose AI writing assistants may be reaching maturity.
“AI is becoming deeply woven into the way people live and work,” said Michael Gunther, Vice President and Head of Insights, Consumer Edge. “Consumers are spending significant amounts of money on AI tools, developing lasting habits across their jobs and creative hobbies. This data demonstrates that AI has moved beyond novelty — it’s becoming a defining driver of the consumer economy.”
Consumer Edge currently tracks more than 130 AI brands across categories including productivity, engineering, art and video, text tools, business and photo editing with coverage continuing to expand.
About Consumer Edge
Consumer Edge (“CE”) is a leading data and insights-as-a-service (IaaS) company specializing in the global consumer, B2B, and healthcare economies. Founded in 2009 by CEO Bill Pecoriello, CE delivers real-time, transaction-based intelligence enriched by deep industry expertise. Its solutions equip corporate and investment leaders with best-in-class tools for strategic decision-making, offering granular insights and benchmarking across products, brands, sub-industries, and industries. CE’s unique capabilities turn complex data into clear, actionable insights that drive smarter, faster decisions.
Media Contacts
Raquel Cona / Michaela Fawcett
KCSA Strategic Communications
rcona@kcsa.com / mfawcett@kcsa.com
SOURCE Consumer Edge