What's Actually Hot in AI Right Now (June 2025 Reality Check)

So here's what nobody's telling you about AI tools this month: Most of the "trending" lists you're seeing are complete garbage. I spent the last two weeks digging through actual usage data, testing new releases, and tracking what people are really using—not what tech blogs claim they should be using. The results? Some surprising winners, a few overhyped losers, and one partnership that's quietly reshaping how millions of people will interact with AI forever.

You know that feeling when everyone's talking about the same thing, but something feels... off? That's where I found myself scrolling through yet another "Top 50 AI Tools" article last week. Same names, same descriptions, same everything. But the numbers I was seeing in my own research? They told a completely different story.

The Move That Caught Everyone Off Guard

Samsung dropped a bomb that most people missed entirely. They're shipping every Galaxy S26 with Perplexity AI pre-installed. Not as some buried app you'll never find, but right there on the home screen.

I've been in tech long enough to know when something's a big deal, and this is huge. Think about it—when's the last time Samsung took a bet this bold on a relatively new player? They could have gone with Google (obviously), or even ChatGPT. Instead, they picked the scrappy search alternative that most people still haven't heard of.

Here's why this matters more than you think. Every Samsung user who gets frustrated with Google's increasingly ad-heavy search results now has an alternative that actually answers their questions. No blue links, no sponsored content at the top—just straight answers. I've been using Perplexity since the integration went live, and honestly? I'm reaching for it more than Google now.

The ripple effects are already starting. My friend who works at a major phone manufacturer told me they're having "urgent discussions" about their own AI assistant strategy. When Samsung moves this aggressively, everyone else scrambles to catch up.

The New Model Circus (And What Actually Matters)

Let's talk about the elephant in the room—this absolute flood of new AI models that dropped recently. I counted them: o3, Veo 3, Llama 4, Gemma 3, GPT-4.1, o4-mini, Gemma 3n, Grok 3, Imagen 4, DeepSeek R1, plus about eight others I'm probably forgetting.

It's exhausting, frankly. And after spending way too much time testing these, I have some opinions.

Most of these releases feel like marketing moves more than genuine breakthroughs. Sure, they're technically better than their predecessors, but the improvements are incremental. You know what I mean—the kind of upgrade where you squint at the results and think "yeah, maybe it's a little better?"

But a few stood out in ways that actually changed how I work.

Claude 4 finally gets it right. I've been burned by overhyped AI releases before, but this one's different. The reasoning quality jump is real. I threw some complex technical problems at it that stumped previous versions, and it handled them without breaking a sweat. For anyone doing serious analytical work, this isn't just an upgrade—it's like switching from a calculator to a computer.

Midjourney v7 is stupid good. I'm not exaggerating. The image quality leap from v6 is the biggest I've seen since they launched. I generated some product mockups last week that looked so realistic I had to double-check they weren't photos. My designer friends are already complaining about clients asking why their work doesn't look "as good as the AI stuff."

Grok 3 brings the attitude. While everyone else is busy being polite and careful, Grok still tells you what it actually thinks. Sometimes you want an AI that doesn't hedge every statement with "while this is generally true" and "according to most experts." It's refreshingly direct.

The thing is, most people won't interact with these models directly anyway. They'll use them through apps and platforms. Which brings me to the real story...

The Quiet Dominance You're Not Hearing About

While everyone's obsessing over the latest ChatGPT update, Canva is sitting there with 263.5 million monthly visits, probably laughing at all of us.

That number is insane. To put it in perspective, that's more traffic than most major news websites. And here's what Canva figured out that everyone else is missing—people don't want to "use AI." They want to get stuff done, and if AI happens to make that easier, great.

I've watched non-technical friends use Canva, and they have no idea how much AI is running under the hood. The background removal, the design suggestions, the automatic text generation—it all just feels like good software. That's the secret sauce right there.

DeepL's crushing it too with 167 million visits, which honestly surprised me. Google Translate is free and everywhere, but people are still flocking to DeepL in huge numbers. I tested them side-by-side on some technical documents, and the quality difference is immediately obvious. DeepL doesn't just translate words—it translates meaning. That's worth paying for.

ChatGPT's 75 million web visits might seem low given all the hype, but that's misleading. Most ChatGPT usage happens through mobile apps and integrations that don't show up in web traffic stats. Still, seeing it rank below Canva and DeepL tells you something about where the real value is.

The Productivity Arms Race

The productivity space is where things get really interesting. Grammarly's still pulling 37.7 million visits monthly, which tells you everything about where AI writing assistance is headed. People don't want AI to write for them—they want it to make their writing better.

I've been using Writesonic and similar tools for research lately, and here's what I've learned: they're incredible brainstorming partners but terrible final draft writers. The sweet spot is using them to generate ideas and rough outlines, then doing the actual writing yourself. Anyone trying to use them as complete replacement writers is setting themselves up for bland, obvious content.

Synthesia deserves more attention than it's getting. Video creation used to require expensive equipment and serious technical skills. Now I can create training videos for my team in about twenty minutes. The avatars still look slightly artificial, but they're crossing into "good enough for most purposes" territory fast.

What The Numbers Actually Mean

Looking at the traffic data, some patterns emerge that challenge the conventional wisdom.

Design and productivity tools dominate over pure AI assistants. This suggests people value AI that enhances existing workflows rather than replacing them entirely. Canva, DeepL, and Grammarly all integrate AI features into familiar interfaces. You're not learning a new tool—you're using a better version of tools you already know.

Remove.bg's 43.7 million visits prove that solving one specific problem extremely well beats trying to be everything to everyone. It does background removal, period. But it does it so well that it's become indispensable for anyone creating visual content.

Character.ai's presence in the top 10 with 21.4 million visits shows there's genuine demand for AI companionship and entertainment. This isn't just about productivity—people want AI they can have actual conversations with.

The Multimodal Shift That's Already Here

Here's something I've noticed in my daily usage: the best AI tools don't feel like AI tools anymore. They feel like magic.

Take Gemini 2.5 or Claude 4. I can upload an image, ask questions about it, have them generate related visuals, and discuss the whole thing in natural language. It's not "using an AI image tool" followed by "using an AI chat tool"—it's just... working with information in whatever format makes sense.

Last week, I uploaded a photo of a whiteboard from a meeting, asked Claude to extract the key points, turn them into a project timeline, and generate some mockup visuals for the concepts we discussed. The whole thing took maybe five minutes. Six months ago, that would have required three different tools and an hour of my time.

This multimodal capability is quietly revolutionizing how we work with information. Instead of forcing everything into text, we can communicate with AI the same way we communicate with humans—through whatever combination of words, images, and examples gets the point across.

Where This All Goes Next

Based on what I'm seeing, here's where my money is:

The Samsung-Perplexity deal is just the beginning. Expect every major phone manufacturer to start bundling AI assistants as default apps within the next six months. This creates a new battleground that could reshape search entirely.

Specialization will win over generalization. Tools that solve specific problems really well will continue to thrive, while general-purpose AI assistants will struggle to differentiate beyond their underlying models.

The current model release frenzy will slow down. Companies will realize that users care more about reliable improvements than frequent version bumps. Quality releases will replace quantity releases.

Integration everywhere. The standalone AI tool era is ending. Instead, AI capabilities will be built directly into the software we already use. The winners will be the companies that make AI feel invisible while making everything else more powerful.

The Real Story

June 2025's AI landscape isn't about the flashiest demos or the biggest model parameters. It's about tools that solve real problems without forcing you to change everything about how you work.

Perplexity's Samsung partnership, Canva's continued dominance, DeepL's quality focus—these success stories share a common thread. They make AI feel like a natural extension of what you're already doing, not a completely new skill you need to learn.

The best AI tools are the ones you stop noticing. They just make everything else work better, faster, and more effectively. That's the trend worth watching, and it's happening right now whether the tech press is paying attention or not.

Look, AI hype comes and goes, but utility sticks around. The tools that are still thriving six months from now will be the ones solving real problems for real people, not the ones with the flashiest launch announcements. Place your bets accordingly.

Tags: o4-miniGPT-4.1Grok 3Midjourney v7SamsungPerplexity AIAI ToolsAI searchAI integrationDeepLCanvaGemma 3Llama 4AI Tools & UsageAIChatGPTClaude 4