User traffic for Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) artificial intelligence assistant Gemini surged in September due in part to its new AI image generation tools, while OpenAI’s (OPENAI) ChatGPT also continues to post significant gains, according to Bank of America.
“In mid-Sep, viral popularity of Google’s Nano Banana image generation model gave Gemini a boost in adoption, with the app briefly reaching the No. 1 spot on major app stores,” said BofA analysts, led by Justin Post, in a Wednesday investor note. “Given investor sentiment around Alphabet has become somewhat linked to Gemini’s perceived competitiveness versus ChatGPT, we think progress on Gemini adoption is constructive for the stock.”
Gemini’s global average daily web traffic, which includes desktop and mobile, increased 54% month over month, according to BofA, citing data from Similarweb. ChatGPT increased 4%, Google search increased 2%, and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing declined by 4%. In the U.S. alone, Gemini jumped 37%, and ChatGPT climbed 16%. Bing dropped 8%. Year-over-year U.S. data was off the charts for Gemini and ChatGPT, with traffic up 124% and 272%, respectively.
Meanwhile, Sensor Tower data showed AI apps are experiencing dramatic upticks by mobile users. In September, Gemini added 8M global daily average users, ChatGPT added 15M, Perplexity tacked on 1M, and xAI’s (X.AI) Grok increased by 1.8M.