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Blog > 45+ NEW Artificial Intelligence Statistics (January 2026)
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This is a list of up-to-date artificial intelligence stats for 2026.
From ChatGPT to autonomous vehicles, AI is one of the most exciting (and controversial) technology trends in the 21st century.
But how big is the AI space? And how quickly is it growing?
In this article, we'll take a closer look at key AI statistics, along with growth projections for the future.
As of the latest available data, the global AI market is worth almost $400 billion.
This is primarily thanks to increasing practical use cases of AI technology, from content creation to self-driving cars.
While the current AI market is sizeable, it's set to grow by nearly 9x over the next few years, to $3.497 trillion.
During this forecast period, the AI market is predicted to increase by a CAGR of 31.5%.
Generative AI is what really catapulted artifical intelligence into the public consciousness. On its own, it is now bigger than the US video gaming industry.
In late 2022, ChatGPT broke records as the AI platform reached 1 million users in less than a week.
By early 2023, ChatGPT had accumulated over 100 million monthly users.
As of December 2025, OpenAI's traffic growth seems to be stagnating.
OpenAI.com traffic shrunk to 573.5 million, a reduction of 38.9% from August 2025.
ChatGPT.com continues to enjoy relatively consistent traffic, with 5.2 billion visits in December 2025 compared to 5.3 billion visits in August 2025.
And traffic from ChatGPT search is projected to overtake traffic from organic search in 2028.
To adjust to these emerging changes in search behavior, brands are moving to platforms such as Semrush Enterprise AIO to improve their visibility in AI search engines.
Check your performance using this free AI visibility checker.
Our original research also found that 84.58% of users have increased their AI usage in the past 12 months.
Almost 8 in 10 organizations have now adopted at least one AI tool. Meanwhile, 90% are either already using AI or plan to introduce it in the future. 
But as much as 66.6% of the companies are in the experimental phase of AI adoption and have yet to scale it across the entire organization.
9 out of 10 workers in the tech industry are already using AI tools at work. That figure stood at just 14% in 2024.
Generating code is a major use case for AI in the tech sector.
The success of products like the Apple Watch and Fitbit is set to boost the global wearable AI market value.
Companies like Omi even claim AI companions worn on the temple will soon be able to interface with the brain.
The wearable AI market was worth $23.56 billion last year, with North America the largest market. It's forecast to clear $300 billion by 2035, at a CAGR of 17.6%.
Some estimates suggest that AI technology could generate $15.7 trillion in revenue by 2030. Boosting the GDP of local economies by an additional 26%.
The latest available data shows that $130 billion was invested into AI last year.
Worldwide private investment in AI jumped by 40.38% in 2024. Although it hasn't quite reached the heights of 2021.
This upward trajectory was forecast to continue year-over-year, increasing by at least 26% each year:
Year
Private investment in AI
2015
$15.26 billion
2016
$19.34 billion
2017
$28.43 billion
2018
$46.51 billion
2019
$61.66 billion
2020
$77.26 billion
2021
$145.4 billion
2022
$104.64 billion
2023
$92.79 billion
2024
$130.26 billion
Private equity did not slow down in 2025. Between January and October, AI startups captured 51% of all venture funding, prompting fears about an AI bubble.
The latest data shows that global AI chip revenue is set to hit $92.74 billion this year. That's a 34.58% increase.
Amid fears of AI taking jobs, the technology is also creating new roles.
Almost 1 in 50 job listings in the US mention skills like natural language processing, neural networks, machine learning, or robotics.
That figure stood at just 0.7% in 2015.
The US AI market is worth an estimated $46.99 billion.
But it's worth noting that Statista's estimate for the size of the overall AI market is lower than the Grandview Research figure we cited earlier.
So this accounts for more than 18% of estimated global AI value, making the US the largest market.
🚀 Trending AI Startups
We’ve covered the numbers, but what about the actual companies driving the AI boom? Here are five AI startups that are trending right now, based on real-time data from the Exploding Topics engine.
Among organizations with at least one AI function, 37.6% have adopted a centralized model. This is most common in risk and compliance (57%) and data governance (46%).
Decentralized and hybrid models are more common when organizations are using AI for tech talent.
Here's a look at current company usage of AI:
AI has taken off in the retail sector. In the UK, 9 in 10 businesses are looking into AI agents.
And 61% have dedicated leadership (e.g. Chief AI Officers) in place.
Data suggests that top companies are betting big on AI, and generative AI specifically. 63% are upping cloud spend for this purpose.
As long ago as 2016, Netflix said that its recommendation algorithm saved as much as $1 billion per year by reducing churn. The streaming platform utilizes AI to personalize recommendations and tailor them to viewers' interests.
In 2025, Netflix says it is "all in" on leveraging AI.
Gemini 3 Pro Preview (high) is the current high-scorer on the benchmark test known as "Humanity's Last Exam", a set of 2,500 questions across a vast array of topics.
But it still only succeeds in answering correctly 37% of the time.
That said, it's a big leap from the highest score last year (26.5%), which belonged to ChatGPT-5.
37.2%
35.4%
34.7%
33.4%
28.4%
26.5%
26.5%
25.1%
24.9%
23.9%
The AI industry has a foothold in various business functions, from cloud computing for datasets to streamlining company decision-making.
Industry verticals utilizing AI technology include tech-related sales, insurance, banking, telecom, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and marketing, to name a few.
$1.5 trillion
$489 billion
$554 billion
$215 billion
$453 billion
$87 billion
$2.76 trillion
$520 billion
$1.06 trillion
$109 billion
$3.42 trillion
$1.15 trillion
$2.26 trillion
$461 billion
$3.72 trillion
$951 billion
$8.4 trillion
$3.78 trillion
$535 billion
$95 billion
$7.47 trillion
$1.85 trillion
$3.99 trillion
$939 billion
$1.08 trillion
$216 billion
$2.13 trillion
$744 billion
$962 billion
$304 billion
$6.18 trillion
$2.23 trillion
The self-driving car market is proving to be more than a novelty niche, potentially grossing $400 billion by 2035.
The prevalence of chatbots is increasing. And so is people's willingness to turn to them – 88% of people have used a chatbot at least once in the past year.
This will be driven by a 2x increase in customer retention rates, a 30% uplift in lead conversion, a 50% productivity boost, and 50% of staff shifting to higher-value roles as middle office tasks are automated.
66% of US physicians report using some form of healthcare AI. That's a 78% increase from 2023.
Every single industry is increasing its use of AI. That includes less obviously exposed sectors like mining and agriculture.
Meanwhile, 59% of customers believe AI will change how they interact with companies within the next two years.
Overall, 42% of marketing and sales departments are "regularly using" generative AI. That figure rises to 55% in the marketing and sales departments of tech companies.
Product/service development departments are the next-biggest AI adopters, at 28% overall.
AI in lead generation can also reduce manual work by 15% or more. AI offers higher ROI and lower CAC.
More than half of email marketers believe AI is more effective than traditional methods. And a further 20% think AI is at least as effective as manual email marketing.
Many people worry that AI will continue to take jobs from human workers, resulting in a job crisis.
And some are even asking whether they should start looking for a new career solution before automation makes their current role obsolete.
Explore competitors’ website traffic stats, discover growth points, and expand your market share.
Some roles are more at risk than others. The World Economic Forum projects that cashiers and ticket clerks will be at the greatest risk over the next 5 years.
Here are some of the most at-risk jobs:
Professional industries are not safe. Accountants and auditors are 7th on the list, with projected job losses of 500,000 or more by 2030.
Despite this, new jobs are likely to arise. The AI market will create 170 million new jobs in the same time frame, for a net job creation of 78 million.
Enterprise sign-ups to AI courses on Coursera have exceeded 200,000, as organizations look to re-skill their workforces.
AI specialists, data warehousing specialists and autonomous vehicle specialists all feature among the 10 roles with the highest projected growth over the next five years. That's per the 2025 Future of Jobs report.
Among those with a household income above $200,000, 55.56% of workers fear that AI could make their role redundant.
AI has made its way into people's homes recently via ChatGPT. But in many cases, it was already present in people's lives, albeit not as obviously.
Tools like smart speakers, light-switches and thermostats are present in almost three-quarters of homes worldwide.
Smart speakers use speech recognition technology to provide weather forecasts, play music, or make emergency phone calls.
AI was involved in developing Covid-19 vaccines. And the technology has only gotten better in the intervening years.
Drugs designed "atom-by-atom" by AI have been shown to kill drug-resistant MRSA in laboratory and animal tests.
The vast majority of these devices are for radiology purposes, where AI can be hugely effective in processing scans.
Wearable tech can aid the healthcare sector's mission to create a healthier world.
As well as tracking more advanced health data than ever, smartwatches use AI to offer training hints and tips, predict blood sugar variations, and provide a portable smart assistant.
45.15% of AI users have turned to the technology for cooking tips. Remarkably, more than a third have also used AI for relationship/personal advice.
Research is the top overall AI use case. More than half of users also enlist AI to create and edit text, while 23.49% use it for therapy/counselling.
Meanwhile, nearly 1.8 billion people have used some kind of AI tool.
Among workers aged 18-34, 24% rated their job loss concern at an 8/10 or higher. 22% are "very concerned" about losing their job to AI within the next 5 years.
Musk believes AI could be smarter than the smartest human as early as next year. And by 2030, he believes it could exceed the combined intelligence of the entire human race.
Original research from Exploding Topics found significant skepticism surrounding Google's AI Overviews feature. Despite that, only 8% of people always follow links to the source material.
Data center cooling is hugely water-intensive. That comes at a time where 25% of the world population lack access to clean water and sanitation.
A ChatGPT request also uses 10x the electricity of a traditional Google search.
The AI market clearly has a promising and profitable future.
While concerns over job loss exist, there is data to indicate that the technology will create more startups and jobs than it destroys.
One way or another, AI is most definitely part of the present. And the future.
For more related content, check out Top AI and Machine Learning Trends, Top AI Conferences for 2025 and 2026, and Trending Machine Learning Startups.
Use real-time topic data to create content that resonates and brings results.
Exploding Topics is owned by Semrush. Our mission is to provide accurate data and expert insights on emerging trends. Unless otherwise noted, this page’s content was written by either an employee or a paid contractor of Semrush Inc.
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Written By
Josh Howarth
Co-Founder & CTO
Josh is the Co-Founder and CTO of Exploding Topics. Josh has led Exploding Topics product development from the first line of co… Read more
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