What we have for you today

• Chatbots vs Search Engines: Is the Era of Google Ending?

• Builder ai raised $450m and once valued $1.2B files for bankruptcy

• UAE give all 11M citizens free ChatGPT Plus

• How the Top 20 AI Apps Make Money

• MindsDB : AI's query engine

Chatbots vs Search Engines: Is the Era of Google Ending?

In 2023, we searched. In 2025, we chat. The way we discover information is undergoing a massive shift and the numbers tell a fascinating story.

According to a new 24-month study by OneLittleWeb:

🧠 AI Chatbot usage skyrocketed 80.92% YoY, reaching 55.2 billion visits by March 2025.

📉 Meanwhile, search engines dipped slightly (–0.51% YoY) but still dominate with 1.86 TRILLION visits—that’s 34x more than chatbots.

📊 Even ChatGPT, the market leader, sees 26x fewer daily users than Google. But here’s the twist: traffic is growing fast—faster than anyone expected.

Link to full report

Builder ai raised $450m and once valued $1.2B files for bankruptcy

Builder.ai, a UK-based AI startup founded in 2016, offered a platform enabling businesses to develop custom applications with minimal coding. The company attracted significant investments from prominent backers, including Microsoft, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), SoftBank's DeepCore, Jungle Ventures, and Insight Partners. In May 2023, Builder.ai secured a $250 million Series D funding round led by QIA, which reportedly increased its valuation by up to 1.8 times, elevating it to unicorn status with a valuation exceeding $1 billion.

Despite its rapid ascent, Builder.ai filed for bankruptcy in May 2025 due to a combination of financial mismanagement, leadership issues, and operational challenges:

Link to full story

UAE give all 11M citizens free ChatGPT Plus

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI to enhance AI accessibility and infrastructure within the country. This collaboration includes the development of "Stargate UAE," a significant AI data center in Abu Dhabi, aiming to position the UAE as a global leader in artificial intelligence.

As part of this initiative, there have been reports suggesting that all UAE residents will receive free access to ChatGPT Plus, OpenAI's premium AI chatbot service. However, it's important to note that while the partnership aims to expand AI tools and services across the nation, OpenAI has not officially confirmed that ChatGPT Plus subscriptions will be provided free of charge to every resident. Some sources indicate that the free version of ChatGPT remains accessible, and any changes to the subscription model have yet to be detailed.

The overarching goal of the UAE-OpenAI partnership is to integrate advanced AI technologies into various sectors, including education, healthcare, and transportation, thereby fostering innovation and economic growth throughout the country.

More information here

How the Top 20 AI Apps Make Money

🧩 Key Insights:

1. 🧾 Pricing Models:

   • Hybrid (60%): Most companies use Hybrid Pricing (Subscription + Usage-based).

   • Subscription Only (30%): Still used, mostly by productivity-focused apps.

   • Outcome-Based (10%): Rare but emerging; used by Decagon and Sierra.

2. 📏 Value Metrics:

   • Predominantly "Per User + Usage"

   • Pure "Per User" metric in more traditional SaaS-style apps.

   • Outcome-Based value measured per resolution or conversation.

3. ⚙️ Usage-Based Metrics:

   • Credits: The dominant metric (used by 8+ apps).

   • Other metrics include files, characters, minutes of video, completions, requests, searches, and storage.

4. 🎁 Packaging:

   • Most companies offer 3–5 pricing tiers.

   • Common structure: Free → Pro → Business → Enterprise (Contact Us)

5. 💸 Price Points:

   • Range: Free to $1100/month

   • Median: ~$30/user/month

   • Highest price: ElevenLabs ($1100)

   • Most affordable: Speak & Notion (start at $0–$15)

6. 🆓 Freemium Approach:

   • 17 out of 20 companies offer a free tier, reflecting a strong Product-Led Growth (PLG) strategy.

MindsDB : AI's query engine

MindsDB is described as AI's query engine. It is a platform for building AI that can answer questions over large scale federated data. It is also referred to as the only MCP Server you'll ever need.

MindsDB is an AI data solution that allows you to query data from 200+ source in natural language and SQL, and get highly accurate answers across disparate data sources and types.

Here are some benefits and features of MindsDB as described in the sources:

• Enables humans, AI, agents, and applications to get highly accurate answers across sprawled and large scale data sources3.

• Allows MCP applications to connect, unify and respond to questions over large-scale federated data spanning databases, data warehouses, and SaaS applications3.

• Provides the ability to chat with your data4.

• Simplifies data access by creating unified views across different sources (no-ETL).

• Offers features for indexing and organizing unstructured data for efficient retrieval5.

• Allows applying AI/ML transformations to gain insights from your data5.

• Enables scheduling synchronization and transformation tasks for real-time processing.

Features:

• MCP server built in3.

• Connects to hundreds of enterprise data sources through integrations, allowing access to data wherever it resides6.

• Has a federated query engine6.

• Allows connected data sources to be queried using a full SQL dialect, treating them as if they were all part of a single database.

Link to repo