A16z’s Olivia Moore on the state of consumer AI

I wrote this week about the bleak economics of consumer AI – but where some see a crisis, others see an opportunity.

Olivia Moore covers consumer AI as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz – and on Monday, she released a report on the top 100 consumer AI apps. ChatGPT is still the biggest player by a mile, but smaller players like Suno and ElevenLabs are showing real staying power. Even more interesting is what we don’t see, as Moore’s report details half a dozen consumer categories that seem to be completely untouched by AI.

Moore sees a huge opportunity in consumer AI, particularly if the industry can tap into revenue streams beyond just subscriptions and API charges. On a call this week, I talked with her about the unusual economics of consumer AI and why it’s still early days for the category.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

It’s an interesting moment for a report about consumer AI, since we’ve seen OpenAI pivot back to enterprise this year. It’s inspired a lot of pessimism about the overall revenue picture for consumer AI, including from me. But I take it you’re more optimistic?

I agree with you that OpenAI has moved back towards the enterprise. To me, it’s not necessarily a pivot because they’re still launching a lot in consumer. It’s more of an expansion. But I don’t blame them, as much as I love consumer, because almost all of the AI revenue thus far has come from subscriptions and then token usage. And that is much more concentrated on the enterprise and prosumer side.