News Analysis
The Gist
- Similarweb data reveals ChatGPT growth. ChatGPT has seen a 115.9% year-over-year increase in traffic, reaching 3.7 billion monthly visits globally, with a 17.2% month-over-month growth in October.
- Comparative growth in generative AI tools. Microsoft CoPilot, Perplexity, Claude, and Google Gemini also experienced significant growth, showcasing the rising trend in generative AI usage.
- NotebookLM's impressive gains. NotebookLM traffic rose over 200% month-over-month in October, reflecting growing interest in innovative AI applications.
How many people visited OpenAI's ChatGPT last month? 3.7 billion. And that's a 115.9% year-over-year increase, according to Similarweb data released Nov. 6.
Everyone's favorite generative AI bot also rose 17.2% month-over-month to reach 3.7 billion visits worldwide.
What Does ChatGPT's Growth Mean for Marketing, CX?
What does this mean for customer experience and marketing leaders thinking about content discoverability and generative AI in general? ChatGPT's an increasingly cool place to be if you want customers and prospects to find you — especially in light of the debut this month of ChatGPT Search.
There's just one problem. We don't know how to land our content in ChatGPT, yet. We've talked a lot about AI Visibility Optimization (AIVO) here, potentially framing this as the SEO for AI. But that's not concrete yet, and the AI search bots haven't opened up the magic formulas yet like so many SEO tools and Google have done over the last couple of decades.
Here's what we do know: AI chatbots like answers, just like Google does. The lesson: make your content educational over promotional.
Related Article: Are Marketers Prepared for AI Disruption?
Strong Growth Trajectory for ChatGPT
As for ChatGPT, the generative AI bot has seen "phenomenal growth" since it debuted Nov. 30, 2022, according to Similarweb, which called it one of the largest websites in the world by early 2023.
Important to note: ChatGPT is now a pure play brand in generative AI, operating at its own domain rather than as a subdomain of its parent company, OpenAI. May 2024 saw 2.2 billion in traffic for ChatGPT to now 3.7 billion visits in October. OpenAI also upgraded its core algorithm, added new features to OpenAI, and consolidated other applications like the DALL-E image generator as apps (“GPTs”) accessed from within ChatGPT, according to Similarweb.
ChatGPT actually surpassed Microsoft's Bing search engine for traffic, according to data from SimilarWeb. Long way to go to crack Google's world, but ChatGPT beating Bing tells you something — and could be a precursor of where consumers end up searching for content and answers via the internet.
NotebookLM: 200% MOM Increase in Web Traffic
ChatGPT isn't alone in the AI world as far as astounding visitor growth. Google's NotebookLM, an AI-enhanced note-taking app, saw a more than 200% month-over-month traffic bump in October, reaching 31.5 million visits, according to SimilarWeb. It previously saw triple-digit growth. People are craving AI-powered information; sources be damned.
And have you tried NotebookLM's podcast feature? It's pretty amazing. Put in any output, and voila: you've got a thoughtful podcast with a couple of host providing pretty sharp analysis.
NotebookLM allows users to "compile and query a personal knowledge base, differentiating it from traditional web-based AI models," according to Similarweb. "Its capability to generate podcast-style summaries has captivated users, leading to nearly 300% growth in September and a 201% increase in October."
Microsoft, Perplexity, Claude, Google Gemini All See Growth
Similarweb also reported other growth from our AI bot friends:
- Microsoft’s stand-alone website for CoPilot, one of several ways Microsoft brings AI capabilities to market, experienced traffic growth of 87.6% MoM to 69.4 million visits. Microsoft recently began redirecting Bing chat interactions to the CoPilot site, which accounts for some of that increase.
- Perplexity was up 25.5% MoM and 199.2% YoY to 90.8 million visits
- Claude was up 25.5% MoM and 394.9% YoY to 84.1 million visits.
- Google’s Gemini website attracted 291.6 million visits in October, up 6.2% MoM and 19% YoY (compared with the former bard.google.com address).
Related Article: Can OpenAI's SearchGPT Outdo Google?
Your Customers and Prospects Are All Over Generative AI
Here's the deal: generative AI usage has not slowed since ChatGPT jolted the digital world with its entrant now almost two years ago.
In the report released last month, "Growing Up: Navigating Gen AI’s Early Years" by AI at Wharton and GBK Collective, researchers found:
- Increased Familiarity: Knowledge of Gen AI among business leaders increased by 23 percentage points, with significant rises in marketing and sales familiarity.
- Broad Use Cases: Top Gen AI use includes marketing content creation, customer support and personalized advertising.
- Adoption Growth: 72% of decision-makers report using Gen AI weekly, up sharply from 37% in 2023.
- Investment Boom: Gen AI spending surged, with average budgets growing from $4.5M to $10.3M.
- Top Performers: Gen AI is most effective in data analysis, brainstorming and legal tasks.
- Steady Future: While 72% of firms plan budget increases, future spending will grow at a slower pace.
- IT Leadership: IT/BI sees the highest impact from Gen AI (58% rate it as highly impactful).
- Team Expansions: Many firms are forming or expanding Gen AI-focused teams; 21% have Chief AI Officers.
- Concerns Persist: Accuracy, privacy and integration are the top barriers, though fears have softened.
- Differentiated Leadership: Microsoft and Google are projected leaders, but the market remains dynamic.
Webinar
Sep
25
CMS Briefing: A Live Look at What’s Next in AI-Driven Platforms
Learn how leading organizations are using AI‑driven tools to publish faster, personalize smarter and stay secure.
Register
Webinar
Sep
25
Call Spoofing Trends Financial Institutions Can't Afford to Ignore
Don't let robocalls sabotage your customer relationships. Learn how to secure your voice channel.
Register
Webinar
On demand
Ready or Not: How Data-First Organizations Are Unlocking Agentforce Potential
Learn how to cut through the noise, activate Agentforce and build a Salesforce AI strategy that actually delivers.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
CX Reality Check: What Your Customers Are Really Thinking
Register now and get the insights you need to not just meet rising expectations, but exceed them.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Content Leaders Collective: What a Good CCMS Actually Looks Like
Discover how content leaders transform clunky systems into growth engines — and why your competitors are ahead.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
From Hype to High-Impact CX Strategies That Actually Scale
Turn buzzworthy AI and outsourcing trends into measurable CX wins with fresh 2025 data.
Watch Now
"The biggest impact of Gen AI will be to augment my capabilities," a banking leader whose organization has between $100 million and $250 million annual revenue told Wharton and GBK Collective researchers. "[It will] automate routine tasks and provide 24/7 support to our customers, freeing me up to focus on [customer] empathy and more complex problem-solving."
On the road this year for CMSWire, we've heard lots of tales of reluctance to jump into the AI fray because of security, governance, lack of clear ROI and general uncertainty about innovation.
We now know this: these numbers reported here suggest zero slowdown for generative AI usage. In fact, it's massive growth here. Those are some facts marketers and customer experience leaders need to munch on.
