AI adoption appears to be diverging between professional and consumer audiences, according to Rand Fishkin’s new analysis of Datos desktop-panel data and SparkToro audience comparisons.
The data highlights a sharp divide in how people talk about AI use: broader consumer adoption may be slowing, while professional and B2B audiences appear far more likely to use tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini.
Why we care. There’s no one-size-fits-all AI strategy. Your audience may behave very differently from broader AI trends, so you need to understand whether your audience is actually using these tools — and which ones.
ChatGPT desktop growth slowed. Fishkin, SparkToro’s cofounder and CEO, said Datos’ U.S. desktop data showed ChatGPT and OpenAI usage had largely plateaued over the past six to seven months, even as Claude and Gemini continued to grow.
- At its peak, about 37% of U.S. desktop users visited OpenAI or ChatGPT in September 2025, according to the data Fishkin cited. That figure fell to 34% by March.
- Fishkin said the same general pattern appeared in the EU and U.K., though desktop usage there was roughly 10% higher than in the U.S.
Claude gained with professionals. Claude showed the strongest recent momentum in the Datos data, with four straight months of growth from December through March. Fishkin said the trend supports his theory that consumer AI adoption may be plateauing while professional and business use continues to grow.
- To test that idea, Fishkin used SparkToro audience comparisons to analyze business professionals and, separately, a broad consumer audience centered on retail shopping behavior.
- The business-oriented audience showed substantially higher overall AI tool usage. Claude usage overindexed especially strongly among B2B professionals, with SparkToro showing a 373% lift versus the average U.S. population, according to Fishkin’s analysis.
Consumer audiences look different. Fishkin said ChatGPT was 15% less likely to be used by the retail-shopping consumer audience than by the average American. Claude didn’t rank among the top four AI tools for that group.
- This may help explain why AI usage can feel far more dominant in professional online communities like LinkedIn than in broader consumer behavior, according to Fishkin.
The research. Watch Fishkin’s LinkedIn video here.
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