Microsoft appears to be losing ground in the increasingly competitive AI assistant market, according to new data from analytics firm SimilarWeb, highlighted by Windows Latest. The figures show that Copilot currently holds just 1.1 percent of global web-based AI usage, a surprisingly small share given Microsoft’s heavy investment and deep integration of Copilot across Windows, Microsoft 365, and its broader ecosystem.
The market is overwhelmingly led by ChatGPT, which now commands 64.5 percent of total web usage. Google’s Gemini has also seen dramatic growth, climbing to 21.5 percent and firmly establishing itself as the clear second-place contender. This represents a major shift from a year ago, when ChatGPT dominated the space with an 86.7 percent share, while Gemini lagged far behind at just 5.7 percent.
Copilot’s trajectory during the same period has moved in the opposite direction. Instead of growing alongside broader AI adoption, its share has slipped from 1.5 percent last year to 1.1 percent today. That decline suggests Microsoft’s AI assistant is struggling to gain traction with users on the open web, despite being bundled into widely used software platforms.
Even more concerning for Microsoft is that smaller and newer competitors have surged ahead. Elon Musk’s Grok now accounts for 3.4 percent of web usage, while both Claude and Perplexity have reached 2 percent each—nearly double Copilot’s share. These gains highlight how quickly users are gravitating toward alternatives that offer clearer differentiation or stronger perceived performance.
While Microsoft continues to position Copilot as a core pillar of its AI strategy, the latest numbers suggest that visibility and distribution alone are not translating into sustained user engagement. As rivals refine their models and expand capabilities, Copilot may need more than deep integration to remain competitive in an AI market that is rapidly consolidating around a few dominant players.
