Image AI models now drive app growth, beating chatbot upgrades

Appfigures says AI mobile app growth is being driven more by image model launches than by standard chatbot upgrades.

Image releases produce about 6.5x more downloads than traditional model updates, with Gemini and ChatGPT adding tens of millions of installs.

Revenue gains were much less consistent: some apps saw lifts, while others saw little change despite the download surge.

The findings suggest visual AI features are becoming a stronger acquisition tool, but installs do not always turn into paying users.