Generative AI has gone from an early novelty to an increasingly mature consumer category. The days of quick “ChatGPT wrappers” topping the charts are behind us. To stand out today, consumer-facing founders must combine AI-first thinking with the timeless lessons of mobile and web services: sticky user experiences, compelling value propositions, and durable growth strategies.
a16z’s recent Top 100 GenAI Consumer Apps list offers a snapshot of what’s working in 2025 based on usage (Sensor Tower for mobile apps and SimilarWeb for web services) as you can see below.
Top 50 GenAI mobile apps by monthly active users
and top 50 GenAI web apps by unique monthly visits
So what does it actually take to win? Below are three key best practices for founders in GenAI consumer tech.
1. Build AI-First Products With Clear Value
a16z highlights only AI-native apps, not incumbents that simply bolt on AI features. This is a crucial distinction: the most successful products are built from the ground up with generative intelligence at their core.
Perplexity AI for example, is trying to change consumer habits in search and moving into the browser space with Comet. There are rumours that Apple is looking to acquire the company to plug its AI gap. Google is doing a lot of things right, from the latest success with Nano Banana image model, by far the most advanced in the market, or their success with NotebookLM, Google’s AI-native research assistant, which hit the a16z list because it solves a real pain point rather than just adding AI as a feature. Personally, I use NotebookLM on a regular basis. These apps embody the principle of designing with AI as the starting point, not the afterthought.
For founders, this means picking a consumer problem that AI is uniquely suited to solve. Instead of asking “where can we add AI?”, the better question is “what can AI enable that was never possible before?”
2. Make It Sticky: Gamification, Community, and Milestones
The best consumer products don’t just attract users, they keep them engaged. In GenAI, stickiness often comes from gamification and community-driven motivation.
Duolingo is a perfect case study: it transformed the dull task of language learning into a daily game with streaks, levels, and social comparison. Strava did the same for fitness, turning individual workouts into a social leaderboard. GenAI founders can borrow these principles—whether it’s building streaks around daily creative output, leaderboards for generated art, or challenges that encourage repeated use.
Here’s the gamification playbook that Duolingo used to get to $12 billion in valueWh:
a16z’s data also shows that apps like ChatGPT see usage spikes around milestone feature launches, such as GPT-4o or Advanced Voice Mode. Founders should plan their roadmap around “wow moments” that give users a reason to come back. Pair those launches with gamified mechanics and you’ll extend novelty into habit.
One example of a wow moment is Google’s recent launch of Nano Banana, aka Gemini 2.5 flash, Google’s new native image generation and editing model. Upon launching, people started posting creative uses of the tech on X and Reddit. It ‘broke the Internet’. Cool examples include annotating the real world, merging multiple items into one image, people/character swaps in video, isometric buildings and many more.
3. Win With Distribution: Platforms Have the Edge
“In a startup versus incumbent fight, the startup’s biggest challenge is distribution, while the incumbent’s biggest challenge is innovation. The race comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation”
Alex Rampell, General Partner Andreessen Horowitz
No matter how good the product, distribution is king. That’s why the top 10 slots in a16z’s rankings are dominated by companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Baidu. These players benefit from:
- Massive existing user bases: Google can funnel hundreds of millions into Gemini and NotebookLM with a single Chrome or Android integration.
- Deep platform hooks: Microsoft tied Copilot into Office, Teams, and Windows, making it instantly ubiquitous.
- China’s super apps: Tencent and Baidu can embed AI features into ecosystems that already touch nearly every aspect of daily life.
For startups, the lesson isn’t to despair—it’s to be clever about distribution. A16Z gave a number of ideas for clever distribution here from building in public to creating your own viral moment. That could mean embedding into platforms (e.g. plugins for Slack, Discord, or Roblox), riding viral loops (like Character.AI did), or using network-driven effects (like Runway with video creators). Without a strategy to reach and retain users at scale, even the most innovative AI features will be lost in the noise.
There’s no way to sugar coat this. Another quote I liked, because it shows what experienced founders value:
“First-time founders are obsessed with product. Second-time founders are obsessed with distribution”
Justin Khan, founder of Twitch
If you’re a GenAI consumer tech founder
GenAI consumer tech is moving from hype to hard-earned staying power. Winning products will be AI-native at their core, sticky through gamification and community, and smart about distribution by leveraging existing platforms and ecosystems.
For founders, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. The consumer playbook is being rewritten—but the timeless rules of engagement, delight, and habit still apply.
At Remagine Ventures, we back Israeli startups at pre-seed, including consumer tech. If you’re building something great in this space, we’d love to talk to you. It’s never to early to get feedback.
He is a former General Partner at Google Ventures (GV) in Europe, former head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe, and founding head of Campus London, Google's first startup hub. Eze writes on Israeli tech, venture capital, artificial intelligence, and founder strategy.
He is also the founder of Techbikers, a nonprofit that brings together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read.
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