A new analysis of financial data from over 200,000 startups provides a clear picture of how emerging companies are investing in artificial intelligence. The study, which examined spending patterns from June to August 2025, identified the top 50 AI software companies that startups are paying for, revealing a strong preference for tools that enhance general productivity and creativity across entire organizations.
The findings indicate a significant shift in the workplace, where AI is not just optimizing existing jobs but also distributing specialized skills, like design and coding, to employees in any role. This trend is reshaping team structures and workflows, particularly within the agile environment of early-stage companies.
Key Takeaways
- An analysis of 200,000 startups identified the top 50 most-purchased AI application software.
- General-purpose (horizontal) tools account for 60% of the top companies, while role-specific (vertical) tools make up 40%.
- Creative tools represent the largest single category, indicating AI is making design and content creation a company-wide skill.
- Most AI tools are adopted by individual employees first, a trend known as product-led growth, before being purchased at an enterprise level.
- General AI assistants like OpenAI and Anthropic lead in overall spending, followed by specialized development and creative platforms.
Understanding the Data
The research was conducted in partnership with fintech company Mercury, which analyzed anonymized spending data from its customer base. The study focused specifically on application-layer companies, which provide ready-to-use AI products and services for business workflows.
To ensure a clear focus on how AI is being applied, the analysis intentionally excluded infrastructure providers. This means companies primarily selling cloud computing services, GPUs, or foundational developer tools were not included in the ranking. The resulting list offers a direct signal of which AI applications startups are actively integrating into their daily operations.
Methodology and Limitations
The ranking is based on transaction data from Mercury accounts, including card spending, wire transfers, and ACH payments, between June and August 2025. It does not capture spending from non-Mercury financial sources. The data provides a snapshot of spending priorities among a large, tech-forward segment of the startup ecosystem.
The Rise of Horizontal AI Tools
The data shows a clear preference for what are known as horizontal applications—tools that can be used by anyone in a company to boost general productivity, regardless of their specific role. These companies constituted 60% of the top 50 list.
Unsurprisingly, large language model (LLM) assistants were the most popular. OpenAI ranked number one, followed by Anthropic at number two. Other general assistants like Perplexity (#12) and Merlin AI (#30) also featured prominently, suggesting that while leaders exist, the market has not consolidated around a single winner.
Democratizing Specialized Skills
One of the most significant trends revealed by the spending data is the horizontal adoption of tools that were once considered vertical, or role-specific. Creative and coding tools are prime examples.
- Creative Tools: This was the largest single category on the list, with ten companies represented. Freepik (#4), an all-in-one design suite, and ElevenLabs (#5), a text-to-speech generator, ranked in the top five. Other notable mentions include Canva, Midjourney, and Descript, demonstrating that AI is enabling employees across all departments to produce high-quality creative assets.
- Vibe Coding: Platforms that simplify application development, often called "vibe coding" tools, also showed strong adoption. Replit ranked third overall, highlighting the demand for tools that allow for rapid, AI-assisted software development by both engineers and non-engineers.
Meeting Support Is a Key Spending Area
A significant portion of spending on horizontal tools went toward meeting support and transcription services. Companies like Fyxer (#7), Happyscribe (#36), and Otter AI (#41) were popular choices for automating note-taking and summarizing discussions.
Vertical AI Is Augmenting and Automating Roles
While horizontal tools were more numerous, vertical applications that target specific job functions made up a substantial 40% of the list. The analysis found these tools are being used in two distinct ways: to augment human workers and to automate entire workflows.
The majority of vertical AI companies on the list—12 out of 17—focus on supercharging human employees. These tools handle repetitive tasks, allowing professionals to concentrate on higher-value work. For example, Delve (#11) automates compliance tasks, and Combinely (#29) assists with accounting workflows.
The Emergence of 'AI Employees'
A smaller but growing category consists of tools designed to function as "AI employees," capable of completing complex workflows from end to end. Five such companies made the list:
- Crosby Legal (#27): An agentic law firm.
- Cognition (#34): An AI software engineer.
- 11x (#37): Automated go-to-market employees.
- Serval (#39): An AI IT service desk.
- Alma (#42): An AI-powered immigration law service.
This trend is particularly relevant for startups, which may not be locked into expensive, long-term contracts with traditional service providers like law firms or accounting agencies. Instead, they can "hire AI" to perform these functions more affordably.
Adoption Patterns Favor Individual Choice
The data underscores a powerful trend in modern software adoption: product-led growth. Nearly 70% of the companies on the list offer products that can be adopted by individual employees without requiring a top-down enterprise license. This bottom-up approach allows tools to gain a foothold within an organization before a company-wide purchase is considered.
"Thanks to AI, consumer products are more powerful than ever before while being able to serve enterprise use cases at the same time. Given the urgency around AI adoption to boost employee efficiency, these tools are also getting 'pulled' into enterprise faster than ever before."
This is further evidenced by the fact that 12 companies on this enterprise spending list also appeared on a separate list of the top 100 consumer AI products. Many of these, including Midjourney (#28), began as consumer-focused tools before adding team and enterprise features. This rapid evolution from consumer to enterprise solution is a defining characteristic of the current AI software market.