AI agents struggle for mainstream adoption despite Silicon Valley's enthusiasm

Despite substantial investment and industry optimism about AI agents as the next frontier, adoption among mainstream consumers remains minimal. OpenAI disclosed that Codex and ChatGPT Work agents have accumulated approximately 10 million weekly users, with Anthropic's Claude Code and Cowork agents registering comparable engagement. These figures pale against chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini, which each serve roughly one billion monthly active users, highlighting the vast adoption gap. CEO Josh Miller of The Browser Company argued that the sector has failed to establish compelling use cases that appeal to non-technical audiences, despite massive capital investment in development.