Reproducibility package for Who On Earth Is Using Generative AI? Global Trends And Shifts In 2025
Overview
Nearly three years after ChatGPT’s launch, the generative AI landscape remains in rapid flux. Using high-frequency website traffic data from Semrush, we track global adoption patterns for the 60 most-visited consumer-facing GenAI tools through mid-2025. Five key findings emerge. First, fierce competition drives continuous innovation: two of 2025’s top five tools—DeepSeek and Grok—are new entrants, while development rapidly diversifies into multimodal capabilities, reasoning, and specialized applications. Second, ChatGPT maintains dominance despite competition, accounting for 77% of traffic to the top 60 tools in April 2025. Third, GenAI usage has exploded since mid-2024: ChatGPT traffic grew 123% year-over-year, driven by 42% user growth and 50% increases in visits per user, with session duration doubling. Fourth, high income countries are pulling decisively ahead, creating stark global divides. While 25% of internet users in HICs use ChatGPT, penetration drops to 5.6% in upper-middle-income countries, 3.6% in lower-middle-income countries and just 0.3% in low-income countries. Regression analysis confirms GDP per capita strongly predicts adoption growth. Fifth, localization shapes competitive advantage: non-U.S. tools concentrate heavily in home markets, with Le Chat drawing 69% of traffic from Europe and several Chinese tools exceeding 90% domestic usage. These patterns reveal an AI landscape characterized by intense innovation, persistent market leadership, accelerating growth, and deepening global inequality, underscoring the needs for inclusive policies as GenAI becomes central to economic participation.
Reproducibility Package
| Repository name | URI |
|---|---|
| Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank) | https://reproducibility.worldbank.org |
Reproducibility
Paper exhibits were reproduced on a computer with the following specifications:
• OS: Windows 11 Enterprise
• Processor: INTEL(R) XEON(R) PLATINUM 8562Y+ 2.80 GHz (4 processors)
• Memory available: 32.0 GB
Run time: 10 minutes
- Secure Access to Data: Access the datasets not included in the package. See subsection Datasets and the README for more details.
- Download and Place Data: Once the data is downloaded, users should place it in the appropriate folder.
- Run the Package: After placing the data in the folder:
- Update the global in line 4 of the do-file "main" to your folder's location and run the do-file
Since all the data is not included, the package includes the results produced by replicators in the Results folder. These files can be used to review the results presented in the paper.
Data
Some data is restricted and has not been included in the reproducibility package. For more details, please refer to the README file.
Description
| Author | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Yan Liu | World Bank | yanliu@worldbank.org |
| Jingyun Huang | World Bank, Rice University | jhuang8@worldbank.org |
| He Wang | World Bank | hwang21@worldbank.org |
2025-09-23
Scope and coverage
| Location | Code |
|---|---|
| World | WLD |
Disclaimer
The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.
Access and rights
| Name | URI |
|---|---|
| Modified BSD3 | https://opensource.org/license/bsd-3-clause/ |
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Yan Liu | World Bank | yanliu@worldbank.org |
| Reproducibility WBG | World Bank | reproducibility@worldbank.org |
Information on metadata
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reproducibility WBG | DECDI | World Bank - Development Impact Department | Verification and preparation of metadata |
2025-09-23
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