The artificial intelligence (AI) landscape is reportedly undergoing a significant transformation, marked by a notable shift in market dominance. OpenAI's ChatGPT, once the undisputed leader, is showing signs of losing its commanding grip, according to a report by Similarweb, a prominent website traffic tracking platform. Data from this report indicates that competing AI platforms, including Google's Gemini and xAI's Grok, are rapidly gaining traction, reflecting evolving user preferences and intensifying competition within the fast-paced AI market.

Just one year ago, ChatGPT held an overwhelming majority of the market, claiming 87.2% of all website traffic, far outpacing its rivals. At that time, Google's Gemini accounted for a modest 5.4% of the audience, while other companies such as Perplexity, Claud, and Copilot collectively held approximately 5% of the traffic share. However, this narrative began to change by mid-year, as users increasingly explored alternative AI solutions. During this period, ChatGPT's market share dipped below 80% for the first time. Simultaneously, DeepSeek emerged, quickly capturing over 5% of traffic, and Gemini commenced a steady ascent towards double-digit figures.

A pivotal moment occurred in January of the current year when DeepSeek launched a low-cost, open-source AI model. This model, priced at a mere fraction of OpenAI's o1 and other large language models utilized for AI training, sent ripples through the global stock markets, significantly impacting US tech stocks. Notably, chip manufacturer Nvidia experienced a staggering overnight valuation drop of up to $593 billion following this launch. Prior to DeepSeek's impact, xAI introduced Grok in November 2023, presenting it as a new alternative to existing chatbots and further intensifying the competitive landscape.

Today, the industry presents an entirely different picture. While ChatGPT retains its position as the market leader, its traffic share has reportedly fallen below the 70% mark, settling at 68% as of December 5. Google's Gemini now occupies the second position, capturing a substantial 20% share of the audience. Meanwhile, Grok continues its impressive momentum, having nearly tripled its presence in a mere six months, as highlighted by the Similarweb report.

The AI race continues to escalate with new entrants and rapid upgrades from established platforms. Just last month, the Elon Musk-led xAI unveiled its new Grok 4.1 model for all users. xAI claims this advanced model demonstrates exceptional capabilities in creative, emotional, and collaborative interactions, exhibiting greater perceptiveness to nuanced intent, compelling conversational abilities, and a more coherent personality. Concurrently, ChatGPT rolled out its new GPT 5.1 models, introducing two enhanced versions: GPT-5.1 Instant and GPT-5.1 Thinking. According to OpenAI, these models are designed to offer users greater ease in personalizing their ChatGPT experience by allowing adjustments to the AI's tone and style. Furthermore, Gemini showcased its own innovation with the Nano Banana feature, which garnered widespread attention online and quickly became an unexpected viral trend, underscoring the rapid pace of advancement across the leading AI chatbots.