Meta · ChatGPT · Anthropic · TechCrunch AI
In March, the firm flagged that roughly 3% of U.S. consumers paid for AI, up 40% from the previous year
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The problem with the consumer approach has less to do with revenue than with cost.
Key facts
- As of May, 2.2% of consumers were paying for AI, at an average spend of $31 a month
- In March, the firm found that roughly 3% of U.S. consumers paid for AI, up 40% from the previous year
- The enormous performance jump from GPT-5.2 to Astra, for instance, is barely visible on the chart
- And the up-and-coming Instinct assistant reached a $10 billion valuation on the strength of its agentic errand-running, focused on booking travel, making restaurant reservations, or cancelling
Summary
After this week, you could argue that consumer AI is making a comeback. Meta’s personal AI assistant, Muse, and its plush-like mascot Jolly, has been a surprise hit. The bull case is easy to make. If you’re an investor, that looks an awful lot like the ChatGPT launch in 2022, the raw power of AI opening up a product category that was never possible before. But there’s a reason frontier labs have gotten gun-shy about consumer AI, and it’s not because the tech isn’t good enough. If products like Muse and Instinct are bucking that trend, it’s because they’re less concerned with monetization.