AI moats by market

Security, Healthcare, Data and Finance have the widest moats in AI: their products are costly to leave and hard to copy. Security, Healthcare and Finance are also protected by strict compliance rules. Video, Image, Social and Writing have the weakest, with many products that could be rebuilt on a public model in days. Across all 7,456 live AI products on FalcoScan, 22% have a wide moat and 26% have none.

Data updated 9 October 2026 · every live AI product rated: 7,456 of 8,021 listings · 29 markets

Explore the moat map Check your product’s moat

7,456live AI products rated for moat

29markets compared

22%of rated products have a wide moat

62average moat across AI, out of 100

Every rated product, by moat

Wide 22% (1,614)Narrow 52% (3,880)None 26% (1,962)

Moat by market

Each market’s average moat out of 100, its main moat, and how it rates on five moat sources and two threats against the other AI markets.

Widest moat79, wide moat

Narrowest moat37, no moat

Markets with a wide moat4 of 29Security, Healthcare, Data, Finance

Most common main moat13 marketsHard to copy

29 markets, widest moat first. Select a market to open its profile.

Moat rating, average moat, main moat, each moat source and each threat for every AI market
Market	Moat	Average	Main moat	Strong sources	Moat sources					Threats
Market	Moat	Average	Main moat	Strong sources	Switching	Retention	Hard to copy	Regulation	Ecosystem	Wrapper	Platform
Security	Wide	79	Regulation	Switching, Retention, Hard to copy, Regulation	64, strong	93, strong	88, strong	85, strong	58, moderate	0, low	36, some
Healthcare	Wide	78	Regulation	Switching, Retention, Hard to copy, Regulation	73, strong	76, strong	88, strong	100, strong	42, weak	0, low	35, some
Data	Wide	76	Switching	Switching, Retention, Hard to copy	69, strong	78, strong	86, strong	48, moderate	61, moderate	2, low	36, some
Finance	Wide	76	Regulation	Switching, Retention, Hard to copy, Regulation	67, strong	81, strong	85, strong	100, strong	55, moderate	1, low	32, low
Legal	Narrow	71	Regulation	Retention, Hard to copy, Regulation	55, moderate	75, strong	86, strong	100, strong	40, weak	0, low	26, low
AI Models	Narrow	68	Hard to copy	Hard to copy	43, moderate	69, moderate	89, strong	10, weak	57, moderate	1, low	19, low
Human Resources	Narrow	68	Switching	Switching	66, strong	72, moderate	77, moderate	50, moderate	64, moderate	0, low	34, low
Sales	Narrow	68	Switching	Switching, Ecosystem	73, strong	71, moderate	64, weak	45, moderate	72, strong	28, some	51, high
Automation	Narrow	67	Switching	Switching	64, strong	72, moderate	76, moderate	4, weak	30, weak	0, low	48, some
Ecommerce	Narrow	67	Retention	None strong	59, moderate	74, moderate	74, moderate	4, weak	60, moderate	11, some	61, high
Support	Narrow	66	Switching	Switching, Retention, Ecosystem	68, strong	77, strong	59, weak	45, moderate	72, strong	40, high	52, high
Real Estate	Narrow	65	Hard to copy	Hard to copy	47, moderate	69, moderate	83, strong	50, moderate	48, moderate	0, low	41, some
Agents	Narrow	63	Hard to copy	None strong	42, moderate	71, moderate	77, moderate	0, weak	57, moderate	18, some	32, low
Voice	Narrow	62	Hard to copy	Hard to copy	36, weak	68, moderate	82, strong	1, weak	44, weak	5, low	26, low
Gaming	Narrow	61	Hard to copy	Hard to copy	30, weak	69, moderate	85, strong	1, weak	53, moderate	0, low	26, low
Marketing	Narrow	61	Ecosystem	Retention, Ecosystem	47, moderate	76, strong	66, moderate	0, weak	69, strong	23, some	52, high
3D & AR/VR	Narrow	60	Hard to copy	Hard to copy	32, weak	66, moderate	84, strong	2, weak	61, moderate	0, low	27, low
Coding	Narrow	60	Retention	None strong	40, weak	70, moderate	70, moderate	1, weak	58, moderate	28, some	43, some
Productivity	Narrow	60	Retention	Retention	48, moderate	78, strong	55, weak	2, weak	42, weak	46, high	50, some
Design	Narrow	56	Hard to copy	None strong	34, weak	63, weak	71, moderate	0, weak	31, weak	17, some	33, low
Research	Narrow	56	Hard to copy	None strong	27, weak	68, moderate	78, moderate	3, weak	32, weak	1, low	23, low
Learning	No moat	54	Retention	None strong	27, weak	72, moderate	64, weak	1, weak	15, weak	30, high	40, some
Avatars	No moat	52	Hard to copy	None strong	17, weak	61, weak	79, moderate	0, weak	40, weak	0, low	21, low
Music	No moat	51	Hard to copy	None strong	20, weak	56, weak	78, moderate	1, weak	24, weak	2, low	20, low
Search & SEO	No moat	51	Hard to copy	None strong	29, weak	53, weak	74, moderate	1, weak	39, weak	1, low	54, high
Video	No moat	51	Hard to copy	None strong	22, weak	57, weak	73, moderate	0, weak	29, weak	12, some	25, low
Image	No moat	48	Hard to copy	None strong	16, weak	52, weak	74, moderate	0, weak	33, weak	11, some	22, low
Social	No moat	44	Ecosystem	None strong	26, weak	57, weak	48, weak	0, weak	47, moderate	46, high	65, high
Writing	No moat	37	None	None strong	14, weak	55, weak	39, weak	0, weak	19, weak	65, high	47, some

Moat sources, against other AI markets: Strong Moderate WeakThreats: High Some LowAll values 0 to 100.Open a market for its five moat sources and two threats.

Check your product’s moat

We read your product’s public website and compare it with every rated product in its market. The first answer is free; the full report opens with a free account.

The widest moat in each market

The product with the highest moat score in each market, and the two after it. Ratings are public; exact scores and their inputs are on paid plans.

The AI product with the widest moat in each market
Market	Widest moat	Rating	Strong on
Security	ApiiroAI application risk graphNext: CrowdStrike Charlotte AI, Axonius Cyber	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Regulatory barrier, Ecosystem
Healthcare	Butterfly IQ AI UltrasoundAI-powered handheld ultrasound for point-of-care diagnosticsNext: DeepMind AlphaFold, iRhythm Zio AI	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Regulatory barrier
Data	Cube Metrics LayerUniversal semantic layer for BI and AINext: dbt Semantic Layer, Glean Enterprise	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Ecosystem
Finance	Ramp Finance AIAI-powered corporate card and spend managementNext: Baremetrics, Carta Equity AI	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Regulatory barrier, Ecosystem
Legal	Harvey Legal AIAI legal assistant trained on law for law firmsNext: Ontra Network Agreements, Sievert Legal Compliance	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Regulatory barrier, Ecosystem
AI Models	JAXComposable transformations of Python+NumPy programs: differentiate, vectorize, JIT to GPU/TPU, and moreNext: Preferred Networks, Etched	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy
Human Resources	Rippling AI WorkforceUnified workforce management with AI automationNext: Deel AI Global HR, Eightfold Talent AI	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Ecosystem
Sales	GongRevenue intelligence platform that analyzes every sales interactionNext: Saleo, Attention	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy
Automation	UBTECH Walker SHumanoid robotics AI for industrial deploymentNext: Climeworks, Verity	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Regulatory barrier
Ecommerce	Northbeam AttributionMulti-touch attribution for DTC marketersNext: Gorgias E-commerce, Mercado Libre AI	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Ecosystem
Support	Sierra AI ConversationsConversational AI for customer experienceNext: Gorgias, Mavenoid AI Tech	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Ecosystem
Real Estate	Archistar Property AIAI site analysis and planning feasibility for real estateNext: Restb.ai Property AI, Virtual Staging AI	Wide	Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Ecosystem
Agents	SierraConversational AI agents for customer experienceNext: E2B Cloud Sandbox, E2B Code Sandbox	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy
Voice	Suno StudioCreate full songs with AI in secondsNext: Vapi Voice AI, Deepgram	Wide	Habit and retention, Hard to copy
Gaming	Nvidia DLSS 4 AIAI super resolution and frame generation for game performanceNext: Charisma AI Narrative, Genvid Technologies AI	Wide	Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Ecosystem
Marketing	6senseRevenue AI for B2B marketing and salesNext: Demandbase ABM AI, Rockerbox Attribution	Wide	Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Ecosystem
3D & AR/VR	DJIAI-powered drone platformNext: Tobii, Cognixion XR Accessibility	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Regulatory barrier
Coding	StripeThe developer-first payments infrastructure powering the internetNext: Mendix, Inngest Workflows	Wide	Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Ecosystem
Productivity	DeepLAI-powered translation that rivals humansNext: Glean, Google NotebookLM	Wide	Habit and retention, Hard to copy
Design	Webflow DesignerVisual web design tool for professional designersNext: Rive, Relume Website	Wide	Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Ecosystem
Research	Lila SciencesAutonomous AI scientistNext: NotCo, Open Alex Research API	Wide	Switching costs, Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Regulatory barrier
Learning	ReadwiseResurface your highlights and learn from what you readNext: Scrimba, Ello Reading	Wide	Habit and retention, Hard to copy
Avatars	Inworld AI NPCsAI NPC and character platform for game developersNext: Convai AI Characters, Metahuman Animator UE5	Narrow	Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Ecosystem
Music	Udio AI Song CreatorStudio-quality AI song generation with detailed style controlNext: Suno AI Music Platform, Supertone AI Voice	Narrow	Habit and retention, Hard to copy
Search & SEO	Keyword Insights AIAI keyword clustering and content planning toolNext: ContentKing Real-time SEO, Keyword Insights Cluster	Narrow	Habit and retention, Hard to copy
Video	Descript FullAll-in-one podcast and video editorNext: Veo 2, Descript	Wide	Habit and retention, Hard to copy
Image	Adobe Firefly 4 ProLatest Firefly model with IP-safe generationNext: Runway, Civitai Marketplace	Wide	Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Ecosystem
Social	Traackr Influencer AIData-driven influencer marketing platformNext: Brandwatch Consumer AI, TikTok Creator Studio	Narrow	Habit and retention, Hard to copy, Ecosystem
Writing	AcrolinxEnterprise content governance and AI writing alignmentNext: Roam Research, Wordsmith by Automated Insights	Narrow	Habit and retention, Hard to copy

Markets ranked by moat source

Choose a moat source or threat to re-rank every market on it.

The market’s average product moat, out of 100. Higher is better. The dashed line is the average across markets, 62.

Moat and crowding

Each market’s average moat against its saturation. The dashed lines mark the median market, which splits the markets into four groups.

Protected and open

Wider moats, less crowded than the typical AI market.

Securitymoat 79 · saturation 33
Healthcaremoat 78 · saturation 11
Datamoat 76 · saturation 33
Legalmoat 71 · saturation 11
AI Modelsmoat 68 · saturation 30
Human Resourcesmoat 68 · saturation 19
Automationmoat 67 · saturation 23
Real Estatemoat 65 · saturation 13
Agentsmoat 63 · saturation 31

Protected but crowded

Wider moats, more crowded than the typical market.

Financemoat 76 · saturation 35
Salesmoat 68 · saturation 45
Ecommercemoat 67 · saturation 36
Supportmoat 66 · saturation 40
Voicemoat 62 · saturation 41

Exposed but open

Narrower moats, less crowded than the typical market.

Gamingmoat 61 · saturation 13
3D & AR/VRmoat 60 · saturation 13
Researchmoat 56 · saturation 14
Avatarsmoat 52 · saturation 15
Musicmoat 51 · saturation 19
Search & SEOmoat 51 · saturation 24

Exposed and crowded

Narrower moats, more crowded than the typical market.

Marketingmoat 61 · saturation 49
Codingmoat 60 · saturation 44
Productivitymoat 60 · saturation 47
Designmoat 56 · saturation 41
Learningmoat 54 · saturation 43
Videomoat 51 · saturation 43
Imagemoat 48 · saturation 53
Socialmoat 44 · saturation 56
Writingmoat 37 · saturation 65

How moats are measured

The sources follow the established moat frameworks (Morningstar’s moat sources and Hamilton Helmer’s 7 Powers), limited to what FalcoScan measures on every product. Network effects, proprietary data, scale and brand are not scored yet.

01Switching costs: How much time, data and retraining a customer would lose by moving to a rival.; Moat sourceProduct input: switching cost
02Habit and retention: How deeply the product sits in a daily routine or workflow.; Moat sourceProduct input: stickiness
03Hard to copy: Differentiation from rivals, and how few products are thin layers over a public model.; Moat sourceProduct input: differentiation, with the share of non-wrappers
04Regulatory barrier: Compliance work (health, finance, legal, privacy rules) a new entrant must clear first.; Moat sourceMarket measure only
05Ecosystem: Share of products with a public API and with ten or more integrations.; Moat sourceMarket measure only
06Wrapper exposure: Share of products whose core could be rebuilt on a public model in days.; Threat, counts againstProduct input: wrapper risk
07Platform dependency: How much products rely on another company’s platform (a social network, a store, a search engine) to work.; Threat, counts againstMarket measure only

The moat score

moat score = 0.30 × switching cost + 0.25 × stickiness + 0.25 × differentiation + 0.20 × (100 − wrapper risk)

Switching cost · 30%: How much time, data and retraining a customer would lose by leaving. Scale 0 to 100. Feeds Switching costs.
Stickiness · 25%: How often and how deeply the product is used. Scale 1 to 5, rescaled to 0 to 100. Feeds Habit and retention.
Differentiation · 25%: How different the product is from its rivals. Scale 1 to 5, rescaled to 0 to 100. Feeds Hard to copy.
Wrapper risk · 20%: How likely the product is a thin layer over a public model. Scale 0 to 100, counted inverted. Feeds Wrapper exposure.

Regulatory barrier, ecosystem and platform dependency describe the market and are not part of a product’s score. A market’s rating is the average of its rated products’ scores. Full methodology

Wide moatScore 75 or more22% of rated products

Narrow moatScore 55 to 7452% of rated products

No moatScore below 5526% of rated products

All markets

Each market has its own page with its moat profile, threats and widest-moat products, and any two can be compared side by side. The number is the market’s average moat out of 100.

Questions

Every live AI product on FalcoScan is rated: 7,456 of 8,021 listings. The other 565 are 257 products that shut down or were acquired (no moat left to rate) and 308 AI directories (a market of their own, not AI products). 681 of the rated products carry scores estimated from their market’s peers until the FalcoScan model scores them.

Which AI markets have the strongest moats?

Security, Healthcare, Data and Finance rate a wide moat on FalcoScan. Security has the highest average moat, 79 out of 100, with 294 of its 348 rated products rated wide.

Which AI markets have no moat?

Learning, Avatars, Music, Search & SEO, Video, Image, Social and Writing average below 55 out of 100. Writing is lowest at 37, and 82% of its products have no moat.

Which AI products have the widest moats?

On FalcoScan's moat rating, the widest moat in each market belongs to products such as Apiiro in Security, Butterfly IQ AI Ultrasound in Healthcare, Cube Metrics Layer in Data and Ramp Finance AI in Finance. The leader of every market is listed on this page.

Which AI markets are protected but still open to new products?

Security, Healthcare, Data, Legal, AI Models, Human Resources, Automation, Real Estate and Agents combine a wider moat than the typical AI market with less crowding than the typical market, on FalcoScan's data.

Do AI wrappers have a moat?

Rarely. Wrapper risk counts against the moat score, and the markets where many products are thin layers over a public model (Support, Productivity, Learning, Social and Writing) sit among the narrowest moats.

What is a moat for an AI product?

A moat is what stops a rival or a general AI model from taking a product’s customers. FalcoScan measures five sources: switching costs, habit and retention, how hard the product is to copy, regulatory barriers, and how wired it is into other tools. It also tracks two threats: being a thin wrapper over a public model, and depending on another company’s platform.

Does regulation protect AI products?

In Security, Healthcare, Finance and Legal, most products face high compliance friction, and those markets average among the widest moats. A new entrant has to meet those industries’ rules before it can sell.

How is the FalcoScan moat rating calculated?

Each product’s moat score blends four inputs: switching cost (30%, which feeds the switching costs measure), stickiness (25%, habit and retention), differentiation (25%, hard to copy) and the inverse of wrapper risk (20%, wrapper exposure). A score of 75 or more is a wide moat, 55 to 74 is narrow, and below 55 is none. A market’s rating is the average of its products; regulatory barrier, ecosystem and platform dependency describe the market and are not part of a product’s score.

How do two AI markets compare on moat?

Every pair of the 29 markets has a comparison page with their average moats, moat sources, threats, crowding and widest-moat products side by side, for example Security against Writing.

Why does FalcoScan rate fewer products for moat than it lists?

Can makers show their product’s moat rating?

Yes. A product listed on FalcoScan that rates a wide or narrow moat on the model’s scores can add a free moat badge to its site or README from falcoscan.com/badges. The badge shows the band, never the score, and updates daily with the rating.

How can I check my own product’s moat?

Enter its name, website and market in the moat check on this page. FalcoScan reads a few public pages, compares what it finds with every rated product in that market and returns a moat rating straight away; the full report, with a score out of 100 and the changes worth the most, opens with a free account.

Cite and share

Quote a figure or the methodology, link to the page, or take the market data for your own analysis.

Citation

FalcoScan, “AI Moats: which AI markets are hard to copy”, data updated 9 October 2026. https://falcoscan.com/moats

BibTeX

@misc{falcoscan_moats_2026,
  author = {{FalcoScan}},
  title = {AI Moats: which AI markets are hard to copy},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  howpublished = {\url{https://falcoscan.com/moats}},
  note = {Data updated 9 October 2026}
}

The methodology

FalcoScan, “FalcoScan AI Moat Methodology”, data updated 9 October 2026. https://falcoscan.com/moats#method

Link for your site

<a href="https://falcoscan.com/moats">AI moat ratings by market (FalcoScan)</a>

Market data

Every market’s moat rating, average, sources, threats and saturation, as a CSV or as Markdown with the method and definitions. Free to use with a citation.

Markdown CSV

The figures refresh daily from the FalcoScan catalog. When you quote one, quote the date with it: 9 October 2026.

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