Beyond the Hype: General AI Surges as Image and Writing Tools Face a 2025 Reality Check

According to Similarweb, the generative AI market continues to expand unevenly toward the end of 2025. Broad, “general-purpose” chat services are gaining ground overall, while image generation and text-focused tools are losing significant traffic. At the same time, voice-based solutions and automation platforms are strengthening their positions. These findings appear in the AI Global (Investor Intelligence Heatmap) report, which analyzes website traffic data current as of December 5, 2025.

At the level of major categories over the past 12 weeks, the General segment grew by 6%. By contrast, Design & Image Generation declined by 22%, Writing & Content fell by 18%, EdTech AI slipped by 2%, and Customer Support & Experience dropped by 1%. While short-term fluctuations show some volatility, the overall picture is clear: demand is shifting away from creative generators toward more universal, task-oriented use cases.

Similarweb clarifies that “general” AI tools are services that, through chat or search interfaces, address a wide spectrum of tasks, with potential impact across search engines, forums, social networks, and educational platforms. An important caveat applies, however: growth is measured by domain-level website visits and does not account for usage via APIs or embedded integrations. Actual adoption may therefore be broader than web traffic alone suggests.

Within the general-purpose segment, Gemini posted the strongest 12-week growth at +65%, followed by Meta’s products at +38%, Claude at +19%, and Perplexity at +13%. OpenAI remains in positive territory over the same period (+6%), though recent data points show mixed movement—consistent with a highly competitive landscape in which user attention rapidly shifts among alternatives.

Developer-focused tools stand out as a separate case. Similarweb notes that many code-completion solutions are deeply embedded in development environments, making web platforms only the “visible surface” of overall engagement. Even so, the contrast is striking: Base44 surged by 172% over 12 weeks, while Cursor declined by 7% and V0 fell sharply by 56%. Taken together, the DevOps & Code Completion category still recorded a net increase of 9% over the period.

Among creative domains, voice technology appears particularly resilient. Voice Generation & Editing grew by a combined 27% over 12 weeks, with ElevenLabs alone rising by 55%. Music generation tools, by contrast, paint a more cautious picture: the category declined by 4% overall, despite some individual services experiencing rapid acceleration.

Demand for low-code and no-code automation is also intensifying. The report highlights a 17% increase in the Automation category over 12 weeks, with n8n climbing by 75% in the same timeframe. Similarweb directly links this momentum to the growing appeal of simplified workflow design, integrations, and business logic construction.

Finally, in the “Disrupted Sectors” section, Similarweb identifies traditional industries that appear increasingly vulnerable amid the AI shift. Digital freelance platforms are down 8% year over year, Traditional EdTech has fallen by 10%, and Traditional Search continues a steady decline of 3%. Meanwhile, AI-driven design services remain firmly in positive territory (+20%), suggesting not a disappearance of demand for design, but a redistribution of attention across tools and modes of work.

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