The Gap is Narrowing on ChatGPT: Consumer Familiarity of the Generative AI Market

Over the past two years, we have been tracking the rapid rise of generative AI as it has evolved from a breakthrough technology into one of the most competitive markets in tech. The battle for AI dominance is no longer confined to research labs; it is playing out publicly, with millions of consumers shaping which platforms they recognize, trust, and use.

Our latest wave of research-on-research provides a two-year update on consumers’ familiarity with leading AI platforms, showing how awareness and recognition have shifted over time and which companies are gaining the strongest foothold. This research examines which AI companies have broken through with consumers, where familiarity is growing fastest, and which newer platforms are beginning to enter the race.

Overall

ChatGPT remains the most familiar generative AI platform among consumers, with 45% reporting they are very familiar with it. However, Gemini is close behind, at 40%, suggesting a narrowing gap between the top two leading platforms. Beyond those leaders, familiarity drops off considerably, with Copilot reaching 31% and Claude, Grok, and Perplexity all clustered near 20%. Duet trails the field at 14%, highlighting the challenges newer or less-visible platforms face in building consumer awareness.

Wave-Over-Wave

Over time, the trend remains positive across all platforms, with awareness still rising waves over waves. However, the most recent data shows that the rapid expansion seen in earlier waves has shifted into more incremental slow growth. Across Waves 1 through 6, consumer familiarity increased steadily for all tracked platforms. However, the pace of growth slows in the most recent wave, 6, suggesting the rapid expansion viewed earlier in waves 1 through 5 may be slowing down.

ChatGPT remains the most familiar to consumers, and it continues to grow, but only in the most recent wave, with a rise of about 1-2 percentage points from wave 5 to 6.

Gemini recorded the largest increase in Wave 6 adding three points. While still the strongest mover in the latest wave, this is notably smaller than the largest jumps in the earlier waves, suggesting the growth is also going to level off.

Gender

Men report higher familiarity with generative AI platforms than women across every company measured.

The gap is most pronounced for Claude and Grok, where men are more than twice as likely as women to report familiarity. Claude stands at 31% among men compared with 14% among women, while Grok is 30% versus 14%.

The same pattern is evident among the most familiar platforms. ChatGPT leads overall at 54% among men and 38% among women, followed by Gemini at 49% and 32%. Copilot also shows a clear difference, at 40% among men compared with 23% among women.

Age

Familiarity of generative AI platforms declines sharply as consumers get older. ChatGPT familiarity is 66% among 18-to-24-year-olds, and declines as age increases, with familiarity of ChatGPT only 13% among those aged 65+. That’s a whooping 53-point drop from 18-to-24-year-olds.

The pattern appears across the other platforms, but with a less severe decline from highest familiarity to lowest. Gemini reaches 54% among 25- to 34-year-olds and drops to only 12% among adults 65 and older. Copilot peaks at 43% among 35- to 44-year-olds and is 10% among the 65+ group. Grok and Claude also show steep age differences, with both at 4% among adults 65 and older.

Income

Familiarity with generative AI shows a clear income gradient, with awareness consistently higher among wealthier respondents across all platforms.

ChatGPT rises from 35% among the lowest-income respondents to 62% among those earning $100,000 or more, while Gemini shows a similar climb from 30% to 54%. In both cases, familiarity increases steadily with income, reinforcing the strength of the pattern.

 ChatGPT rises from 35% among the lowest-income respondents to 62% among those earning $100,000 or more, while Gemini shows a similar climb from 30% to 54%. In both cases, familiarity increases steadily with income, reinforcing the strength of the pattern, with gaps across platforms generally ranging from 19 to 29 percentage points between the lowest- and highest-income groups.

Political Affiliation

Republicans report the highest familiarity with all platforms, while Democrats’ familiarity trails behind between four to seven points on all platforms but Gemini. ChatGPT familiarity is 51% among Republicans, 47% among Democrats, 42% among Independents, and 31% among Other respondents, showing relatively close alignment among the two major parties but a clearer drop-off outside them. Gemini is the only platform where both Republicans and Democrats have an equal familiarity.

 That widening gap is most visible in Copilot, where familiarity ranges from 37% among Republicans to 16% among Independents. A similar pattern appears for Grok and Claude: Republicans report the highest familiarity at 28% for both platforms, while Independents trail at 12% for Grok and 11% for Claude. Across platforms, familiarity tends to be more closely aligned between Republicans and Democrats, while diverging more noticeably when compared with Independents.

Region

When researching the regional differences, the gaps are noticeably narrower than between gender, age and income. The West reports the highest familiarity with every platform measured. ChatGPT reaches 52% in the West, more than 13 points higher than in the Midwest.

Gemini follows a similar pattern, with familiarity highest in the West and the Midwest 13 points lower. The gaps are smaller among Copilot, Grok and Claude across regions, but the pattern of the West has the highest familiarity, and the Midwest has the lowest remains.

Ethnicity

Familiarity with generative AI varies meaningfully by ethnicity, with Asians respondents consistently reporting the highest levels across most platforms, while African American and Hispanics respondents tend to fall in the middle range, and Caucasian respondents generally report lower familiarity overall.

This pattern is clearest for ChatGPT, where familiarity peaks among Asians respondents (61%), compared with African American respondents (54%) and Hispanics respondents (53%), while Caucasian respondents are lower at 42%. Gemini and Copilot show the same trend, with Asians respondents leading, reinforcing their consistently higher familiarity across these tools. For newer platforms like Grok and Claude, the pattern is less pronounced and less uniform. Grok is highest among Hispanics (27%), closely followed by African American respondents (26%), while Claude again peaks among Asians respondents (29%).

Panel

Generative AI platform familiarity varies widely by respondent panel source. Panel results vary widely across the five panels, with Respondents from Panel F consistently reporting the highest familiarity levels while Panel A is the lowest.

The largest gaps appear for ChatGPT and Gemini. ChatGPT ranges from 29% in Panel A to 60% in Panel F, while Gemini spans 23% to 53%, both showing swings of roughly 30 points. Claude shows a similarly widespread, from 9% in Panel A to 38% in Panel F.

The same pattern holds for the remaining platforms. Among the platforms, Panels F and D are normally the most familiar; Claude, however, shows the largest difference between these two panels with a 16-percentage point difference.

Overall, awareness of generative AI continues to grow, but growth is becoming more gradual as the market matures. While ChatGPT remains the leader, competitors such as Gemini and Copilot are steadily narrowing the gap, and demographic patterns reveal clear differences by age, income, gender, and region. Together, these findings suggest a fast-changing market in which early advantages still matter, but are no longer assured. Click the button below to learn how EMI can help you with your next project.