Is the AI workflow automation market growing or shrinking?
Miles FosterOwner and tester, RankDude
The answer▼ Shrinking
- Visits, year on year, without Zapier
- -42%
- Visits, last six months
- -49%
- Name searches vs October 2025
- -46%
Every month I add up the Google visits to the 29 AI workflow automation sites I track (DataForSEO estimates) and how often people in the US search for them by name (Google Ads). In September 2026 they got about 9 million visits. Much of the year’s change is one site, Zapier; without it, visits are down 42% on a year ago.
The total hides very different stories: one site grew 230% in a year while another lost 87% of its visits. See who grew and who shrank, the visits month by month and the name searches, plus what I expect for October 2026.
AI workflow automation market demand: key numbers, September 2026
Four numbers for September 2026. Visits mean visits from Google search to the 29 tracked sites. Tap one for the detail below.
- Visits from Google9.0Mvisits-55% vs a year ago
- Name searches, US345Ksearches-46% vs October 2025
- Top five sites93.5%of visitsfastest grower: Albato
- Expected in October9.2Mvisitslikely 7.1M to 11M
- The AI workflow automation market is shrinking as of September 2026.
- The 29 AI workflow automation sites RankDude tracks got 8,964,286 visits from Google search in September 2026, 55% fewer visits than in September 2025, or 42% fewer without Zapier.
- People in the US searched Google for these sites by name 344,570 times in September 2026, 46% fewer searches than in October 2025.
- The five most-visited AI workflow automation sites get 93.5% of all visits.
- Fastest-growing AI workflow automation site over the year: Albato, +230% (7.6K to 25.1K visits a month).
- Steepest fall over the year: Parabola, -87% (10.1K to 1.3K visits a month).
- Forecast for October 2026: about 9.2M visits, likely between 7.1M and 11M.
Source: DataForSEO visit estimates and Google Ads search data, published 15 October 2026 by RankDude.
1.Are more people visiting AI workflow automation sites than a year ago?
Down 55% on a year ago; down 14% on August 2026
No. The 29 tracked AI workflow automation sites got 8,964,286 visits from Google search in September 2026. That is 55% fewer visits than in September 2025, or 42% fewer without Zapier, and 14% fewer visits than in August 2026.
The highest month of the last two years was October 2025, with 22,957,845 visits; September 2026 is 61% below it. In the US, visits were 2,219,189, up 27% on a year ago.
WorldVisits a month to AI workflow automation sites, worldwide, two years
Source: DataForSEO, Google search visits, all tracked sites.
Worldwide, this month
9.0M
-54.5% on a year ago
United States, this month
2.2M
+27.1% on a year ago
Two-year high
23M
October 2025
US share of visits
24.8%
of worldwide visits
Miles explains
Visits are lower than a year ago. Most of the drop since August 2026 is one site: Zapier went from 7,390,653 to 5,900,712 visits. Without it, the other sites held about level on the month. Name searches fell (-46%), but Google Trends interest in the term rose (+110%). The counted sites are losing ground; that does not mean interest in AI workflow automation sites is falling.
2.Are people searching for AI workflow automation sites by name?
Down 46% on October 2025; 345K name searches a month in the US
Fewer than before. People in the US searched Google for the names of the counted AI workflow automation sites 344,570 times in September 2026, 46% fewer searches than in October 2025. Someone who searches a site’s name already knows it, so this is the clearest sign of people coming back on purpose. The term “ai workflow automation” itself gets about 1,000 US searches a month (Google Ads, 12-month average).
USName searches a month for AI workflow automation sites, US
Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO, to September 2026.
USMost searched AI workflow automation sites by name, searches a month
Zapier110K a month
n8n90.5K a month
Pipedream27.1K a month
Appian22.2K a month
UiPath18.1K a month
Workato14.8K a month
Miles explains
Name searches are down, so fewer people are coming back on purpose. Better Google rankings will not fix that.
3.Which AI workflow automation sites grew, and which shrank?
The five most-visited sites hold 93.5% of all visits; the ten most-visited hold 96.7%
The five most-visited AI workflow automation sites get 93.5% of all visits, so one of them winning or losing a big Google ranking moves the whole total. Fastest grower over the year: Albato, from 7,605 to 25,066 visits (+230%). Steepest fall: Parabola, from 10,121 to 1,274 visits (-87%).
Growing fastest, year on year
Albato25.1K visits+230%
Integrately25.1K visits+29%
Vellum20.2K visits+12%
Falling fastest, year on year
Parabola1.3K visits-87%
Cassidy1.1K visits-87%
Bardeen25.7K visits-81%
Nintex7.8K visits-78%
Pabbly Connect19.8K visits-70%
Source: DataForSEO. Sites with 5,000+ visits a year ago.