The adoption of generative AI vastly outpaces both mobile devices in their early years across the timeline. This technology attract over 10x more users by year two compared to smartphones or tablets. This indicates remarkably fast mainstream acceptance and incorporation of AI capabilities. If growth continues at this pace, generative models may become ubiquitous in society more rapidly than any past information technology.
The graph compares the rapid adoption of generative AI to the uptake of smartphones and tablets over the first four years after their launches. In the initial year, generative AI saw a more modest uptake with 7.8 million active monthly users compared to 16.3 million for smartphones in 2007.
However, by the second year, generative AI growth explodes to 77.8 million monthly active users in the US. This represents a nearly 10x increase in users in a single year. In contrast, smartphones in 2008 and tablets in 2011 only roughly doubled their user bases.
By year three, over 100 million people actively use generative AI products every month, crossing an important milestone. Smartphones and tablets both continue growing as well, but at a noticeably slower pace even several years after launch.
The exceptionally strong acceleration of generative AI continues into the fourth year. Nearly 117 million monthly active users now leverage this new technology. Tablets finally crossed the 100 million threshold four years post-release, but smartphones in 2010 still have fewer than 63 million active users.
Source: Insider Intelligence, June 2023.