Where AI Users Live: A Data-First Look at Global AI Search

I analysed the search traffic for the top 50 AI companies that startups spending on to understand where and how they are getting organic traffic from and what that says about global AI adoption.

Here's the summary:

• Content Creation is the undisputed use case of AI with 77% of global traffic
• Foundational AI Companies have the strongest brand pull
• US and India drive 75% of the world's AI traffic
• Western markets use AI for productivity and research
• Emerging markets explore creative and consumer use cases first
• Horizontal Applications appear among the top three traffic sources in 11 different countries, showing their broad appeal

Data Prep:

I categorised each company into its functional cluster and used Ahrefs to get the organic traffic and keywords data from all the countries for the month of September 2025 for my analysis.

Insight 1: Content Creation is the undisputed use case of AI

I found that 77% of all organic traffic comes from content creation tools.

It means almost 8 out of every 10 Google searches for AI tools end up landing on Canva, Freepik, CapCut, or Photoroom

All these tools were already popular among a larger audience but with AI it has become much easier to create production-ready designs.

For example, Canva had 89M monthly visits pre-AI but now with AI features traffic drove to 105M.

Insight 2: Foundational AI Companies have the strongest brand pull

The data shows that most searches for OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity are direct and brand-driven.

People aren’t just searching for “AI tools” or “AI chat”; they’re looking specifically for the brands themselves.

Three of the four companies: OpenAI, Anthropic and Adept get their highest organic traffic from the United States.

Perplexity stands out as the exception.

Its largest traffic comes from Indonesia (1.6M visits), followed by South Korea and United States. While India is the 4th traffic source, I'm surprised why India is not in the Top-3 despite Airtel - India's telecom giant, giving out perplexity pro annual subscriptions for free!

Insight 3:Horizontal AI Companies are globally diversified

Horizontal AI companies such as Grammarly, Notion, Otter.ai, and Merlin rank among the top three traffic sources in 11 different countries.

These countries include major markets like the United States, India, Brazil, United Kingdom, Canada and Japan but also smaller regions such as Mexico, Philippines, Estonia, Taiwan and Myanmar.

Insight 4: US and India drive 75% of the world's AI traffic

United States leads the world's AI usage holding 39.43% of global traffic ~ 73.1 million visits followed by India holding 36% at 67.4 million visits.

That puts the two countries far ahead of others, showing that AI discovery and usage are centered in these two massive markets.

• US users focus on Foundational and Horizontal products like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Grammarly.
• Indian users drive most of the traffic for Creative Tools: Canva and Freepik making India a global hub for visual and marketing AI adoption.

Beyond the top two, Brazil and Indonesia show strong interest in Creative AI Tools, particularly Freepik and CapCut.

Brazil is also the world's third-largest user of AI after the United States and India.

The UK stands out for its balanced engagement across all major categories — from developer tools to foundational labs.

These patterns show a clear divide:

• Western markets use AI for productivity and research,
• Emerging markets explore creative and consumer use cases first.

Insight 5: United Kingdom: The AI allrounder

The UK doesn’t lead in traffic but appears across nearly every major category within the top 3 countries by traffic.

It's a mature market engaging with AI across companies from diverse categories: Foundational Labs, Horizontal Apps, Developer Platforms, and Vertical Applications

This pattern suggests that the UK’s AI interest is broad rather than concentrated. Users explore tools across research, productivity, and creative segments instead of clustering around a single type.

Examples from the dataset include:

• Anthropic and Adept under Foundational Labs
• Notion, Motion, and Glean under Horizontal Applications
• Clay and Metaview under Developer and Vertical categories

Insight 6: Vertical AI Tools Grow Through Sales, Not Discovery

Vertical AI companies form the largest group in the dataset (16 out of 50), yet together they contribute only 0.05% of total global traffic.

Unlike Creative or Horizontal tools that scale through online discovery, Vertical AI tools expand through direct sales channels.

The companies focus on B2B use cases such as customer support, HR, legal automation and sell directly to teams rather than relying on search traffic or self-serve users.

In the data, this shows up clearly:

• Almost no keyword visibility compared to other categories
• Minimal country diversification
• High product density but negligible organic traffic

If you remember anything about this post, remember these:

• Creative tools drive most of the world’s AI traffic
• Vertical and foundational AI companies don’t grow through search; they grow through enterprise sales and brand trust.
• Productivity-focused AI tools dominate mature markets, where they’re used widely across teams and functions.