If there was one technology that would dominate 2023, it was artificial intelligence. Chatbots like ChatGPT and AI image generators like Midjourney have brought the concept of AI into the public consciousness like never before. A new report from Data.ai shows that awareness has translated into downloading and using AI-related apps on the smartphones people use every day.
Data.ai’s State of Mobile 2024 report finds that the mobile economy is having a pretty good year, especially compared to a lackluster 2022. App store spending reached $171 billion, an increase of 3% compared to the previous year, while mobile advertising spending exceeded $362 billion. It increased by 8% annually. These figures were also helped by the amount of time users around the world spent on their mobile devices; this averaged five hours per day (6% growth year over year).
However, while the report revealed that new app downloads increased by only 1% year-on-year to 257 billion, the top 20 apps that integrated AI into their feature sets saw an average annual growth of 11%. Microsoft’s Bing search app is the biggest winner, with a 1,500% increase in the app’s downloads in 2023 thanks to its ChatGPT integration.
Banking and investment application Ally ranked second with a 113% increase in downloads. And Microsoft’s Edge browser saw downloads increase by 94% thanks to its AI integrations. Shopify (up 83% year-over-year in downloads), Duolingo (up 39%), Google (up 28%), and Google Maps (up 21%) also saw an increase in downloads above the 2023 average of 1%.
However, there was no increase in the number of downloads of every application that added artificial intelligence features. Major apps like Snapchat and Slack saw a decline in downloads in 2023 (down 15% and 7% respectively).
Yet weekly spending on productive AI applications since April 2023 has been at least $8 million. Considering such recurring expenses, it’s no surprise that developers big and small are looking to get an AI-powered boost. Data.ai found that over the course of the year, more than 4,000 apps added “chatbot” to their app description, and more than 3,500 added “gpt.”