48 Billion Hours in AI: How Generative Intelligence Is Transforming the Mobile Market and What It Means for Ukraine
Users spent 48 billion hours in AI apps, and mobile spending reached $85 billion — growth that is changing the rules of the game. We explain why this matters for the economy, security, and Ukrainian developers.
By Tetiana Suchkova-Ladik
January 21, 2026 · 2 min read
The Big Picture
In 2025 user spending on mobile apps reached $85 billion, 21% more than in 2024, and surpassed spending on games. The growth is almost entirely linked to the spread of generative AI: users spent 48 billion hours in AI apps — 3.6 times more than the year before. These figures are reported by Sensor Tower.
“Generative capabilities have become the main driver of spending and time spent in the mobile ecosystem.”
— Sensor Tower
Key facts to remember
The most profitable app in the category was ChatGPT — it earned about $3.4 billion over the year. The total number of launches of AI apps exceeded 1 trillion, and launch rates grew faster than downloads themselves. The share of products from Google, Microsoft and X rose from 14% to nearly 30% due to the addition of text, code, image and video generation features.
At the same time, almost half of all downloads went to OpenAI and DeepSeek. In the US, more than 200 million people used AI assistants, of whom 110 million used them on smartphones. Parallel to this, OpenAI announced an age-verification system for accounts, and a new ChatGPT Go plan appeared in Ukraine.
What this means for the market and for Ukraine
This is not just a technical breakthrough — it is a redistribution of value in the digital economy. On one hand, market concentration among large players increases the risk of platform dependence and reduces room for small developers. On the other hand, the wave of demand creates opportunities for Ukrainian companies and specialists: from integrating local data to creating niche services (language, content, security).
For the state, this is a signal to work on three directions simultaneously: support innovation and investment in startups, strengthen rules on digital sovereignty and data protection, and invest in education — to retain and multiply talent in Ukraine.
Risks and imperatives
Rapid growth also brings risks: privacy, content moderation, generation errors (hallucinations) and dependence on external APIs. Therefore it is important to combine market initiative with regulatory standards — otherwise the economic benefits may prove short-lived.
Practical steps analysts propose: stimulate local solutions through grants and tax incentives, require transparency in model operation for critical services, and develop tools for age and content control.
Conclusion
48 billion hours of use and $85 billion in spending are markers that the mobile market is entering a new phase driven by generative AI. For Ukraine this is a chance: we have the engineering workforce and an IT ecosystem to turn growth into sustainability and security. The question is whether the state and industry will manage to convert these opportunities into concrete projects and rules of the game in time.
