• by Laurie Sullivan , June 30, 2025

The generative AI (GAI) market should reach $368 billion by 2030 -- up from $66.8 billion this year -- with the technology accounting for 45% of the total AI market, according to data released Monday.

Predictions come from Stocklytics, a platform that provides tools and insights for stock market analysis and investments, as AI makes data processing on the edge of the network critical to the flow of data for advertisers, ad serving, and those creating the ads. 

Data on user growth also rose compared with the earlier forecast. In 2025, nearly 350 million people are expected to use AI apps and solutions -- 78 million more than last year. ChatGPT, Character.ai, DeepL, Quillbot, MidJourney, and CapCut have a significant role in this surge, according to the report.

Data predicts that the annual user growth to 116 million in 2028 and 176 million in 2030. With this pace of growth, the AI sector is expected to reach 952 million users by the end of the decade, or 220 million more than previously thought. Stocklytics estimates.

Emarketer also released a forecast. GAI use will hit a milestone by the end of 2025, with more than 120 million Americans using the technology.

GAI users will reach more than 160 million users by 2029, consisting of more than half of U.S. internet users and 47.4% of the population, according to Emarketer.

Delfina Huergo, forecasting analyst at Emarketer, believes access to GAI has largely been made possible by smartphones from companies like Apple and Samsung. Google, OpenAI and others have, too, although he did not mention the other companies.

GAI is something advertisers will not have the ability to escape using. As Meta Platforms continues to poach employees across the spectrum, OpenAI Chief Research Officer Mark Chen’s memo sent this weekend to staffers promising the company will continue to aggressively respond to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s poaching on a list of GAI superstars.

Gen Z represents the front end of “the list” and Millennials represent the tail end. “The List” are those who typically have Ph.D.s from schools like Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon. They have experience working at OpenAI in San Francisco and Google DeepMind in London, according to The Wall Street Journal.

This year, those 35 to 44 years old make up 51% of internet users — projected to reach 67.2% by 2029 — but their share of the overall GAI user base gradually declines, as Gen Z and Gen Alpha surge ahead demographically and behaviorally, according to Emarketer.

The analyst firm also expects that Gen Alpha — ages up to 12 years of age in 2025, experiences the “steepest growth in adoption over time.

By 2029, when at ages between 5 to 16 years old, more than 40% of Gen Alpha internet users are expected to be GAI users — surpassing Baby Boomer’s GAI internet penetration by 2027 and GAI user share by 2028.