RESTON, Va.—As media companies continue to grapple with the impact that AI is having on digital audiences and traffic, Comscore has released its first AI Intelligence Report for 2026 with new data that highlighting a number of emerging trends.
The report shows the scale of breakout growth from Anthropic’s Claude platform. Based on Comscore’s panel data, the Q1 report revealed that Claude recorded 1,858% growth in desktop conversations between March 2026 and October 2025. While ChatGPT continues to lead the AI assistant category up 55% year over year, the report shows consumers are expanding their use of a wider range of options.
The report also found that women are emerging as key drivers of mobile AI adoption across major generative AI tools. According to the data, women posted mobile index scores of 113 for ChatGPT in March 2026, 123 for Copilot, and 118 for Gemini, while men across the same platforms in the same period had scores of 87, 77, and 82, respectively. These findings further highlight the influence AI is having on a consumer’s on-the go and day to day behavior.
“Comscore is providing some of the industry’s first visibility into AI-influenced intent behavior, as AI rapidly becomes the prime gateway for consumer awareness, attention, and decision-making,” said Smriti Sharma, executive vice president of analytics and managing director of Custom IQ at Comscore. “For brands and publishers, understanding how AI shapes discovery, which sources it references, and how those interactions translate into measurable business outcomes will be increasingly critical in the evolving digital landscape.”
Other key findings from the Comscore Q1 2026 AI Intelligence include:
- ChatGPT remained the category leader. ChatGPT reached 244 million desktop conversations in March 2026, up 55% year over year.
- When looking at visitation among top AI assistant tools, ChatGPT also led in March 2026 with 87 million desktop visitors, compared with 44 million for Copilot and 30 million for Gemini.
- Claude reached 22 million desktop conversations in March 2026, up 1,858% compared with October 2025, signaling growing consumer interest in alternative AI assistant experiences.
- In Q1 2026, AI assistant tools reached 36% of desktop users and 23% of mobile users.
- AI search is becoming a new discovery layer. U.S. desktop searches reached 76 billion in Q1 2026, up 10% versus Q1 2024, as AI search experiences became more integrated into traditional search behavior.
- AI is influencing high-consideration purchase journeys. In consumer credit cards, AI Overviews appeared alongside 46% of paid search ads in Q4 2025, up from 21% in Q2 2025. Over the past three quarters, approximately 25% of credit card applicants were exposed to AI Overviews, and roughly 5% applied directly from pages where AI Overviews appeared.
- Prompt behavior reveals how consumers refine decisions. In March 2026, users averaged 4.9 prompts per conversation on ChatGPT, 4.6 on Gemini and 7.1 on Copilot, showing that AI interactions are often multi-turn journeys rather than one-off queries.
- Women are driving mobile AI adoption across major tools. The report showed that, women over-indexed on mobile usage across ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini, with index scores of 113 for ChatGPT, 123 for Copilot and 118 for Gemini. Men on mobile across those same tools, had index scores of 87 for ChatGPT, 77 for Copilot and 82 for Gemini.
The full AI Intelligence report for Q1 2026 is available for download https://www.comscore.com/Q1-AI-Report
